Family Guy
Why I'm actually in love with the show
and why I will no longer be watching (just maybe)
and why I will no longer be watching (just maybe)
First, let me say that yes, like millions of viewers this is in response to last week's newest episode for those of you who care and have been somehow fortunate enough to dodge spoilers about the big offing of a major character. Yes, Family Guy killed one of their lead characters (for real) and this will apparently be a permanent adjustment until time travel once again inevitably works its magic and this note becomes utterly useless (and the denial of millions of fans can be utterly celebrated with a heaping sigh of relief) but for this one moment; this one certain moment in time where a possible future outcome does not change the course of events from Sunday's episode, let me first and foremost (before anyone gets cynical) clarify that yes, I'm about to get overly dramatic about a cartoon.
That being said, let me do all those who care (and have dodged the spoilers as I stated above) a favor to remind you that I will be addressing my personal beef with the show with SPOILERS.
I will even dub this with a classic "SPOILER ALERT!" so no one can get pissy.
...Everyone else out of the room?
Good.
Now let me beg the (three day old) age old question:
"why the f*ck did they choose to kill Brian!?"
Producers have gone on record (Macfarlane not yet to comment on the matter) to answer some of the questions fans have been absolutely outraged with. I will address these matters as such so I don't come off as an angry jackass who didn't do his research while ranting about a cartoon.
First and foremost, the most obvious question fans who still keep up with the show have initially asked
"Why couldn't it be Meg?"
Well, besides putting Mila Kunis out of a job on FOX (though her character has been scaled down to so little lately; granted they probably aired the "Meg gets in a fight" episode just a couple weeks shy of this big dramatic offing so the show runners could prove she actually has somewhat of a small purpose other than to be Peter's
"But wait, that's BS. Brian was practically a person covered in fur as he was the most intelligent and sophisticated of the bunch yet had some of the biggest flaws like a normal human being" you may retort with.
The reality is, the show has been desperate to take new leaps and bounds over the last few seasons which have been steadily declining in quality since the show's magnificent resurrection more than eight years ago, so if you wanna be realistic, you gotta shake things up to get people talking.
Which brings me to my second (and technically third) point. Producers have said verbatim that they really wanna shake things up (and are apparently having fun in the writer's room coming up with ways to put the Griffins in a post-Brian ringer while us fans are writing angry letters in spite which ultimately amount to nothing but stupid feelings) and what a way to do it than to off one of the show's most beloved characters, but another major obvious occurrence is that it's got people talking.
If there's one thing I realized these last three days it's that a lot more people are still watching Family Guy (I've been wondering where the numbers have been coming from as most people I associate with, even remotely, don't keep up with the once dominant animated vehicle anymore as it is clearly running on fumes) and that's one factor that honestly makes me smile because honestly, amongst all the crap and absolute dreck they can put out, the show every now and again strikes a small point of sheer brilliance through its stupidity making my sides split reminding me that there's still some old juice in what was once a goldmine of animation, humor and the art of the satirical sitcom.
Make no mistake, this last episode is going to be murder for the show's future ratings as I'm not the only one protesting Brian's death but if fans really are going to walk (and they will) then perhaps this is exactly what Seth wanted.
The man himself; the sole brains behind this 14 year-old show has gone on public record to say that even he thinks his baby has run out of gas. By admitting he feels the show has outrun its course (and by obviously wanting to do more with his life than just Family Guy and not be stuck as the next Matt Groening), Macfarlane shows true honesty behind his sick and twisted mind of wondrous and hilarious imagination by stating, "I'm kind of secretly hoping for fans to say we're done with it," and maybe this is his way of waving his white flag and rather than let his show drag on a slow and painful death, he's hoping we can cut the chord the same way they put this old dog down the other night.
I can't help but be reminded of the days of Nickelodeon's Rocko's Modern Life when Ralph Bighead became a star with his breakout sensation "Wacky Deli," a TV sitcom about deli foods that just hangout (not that far off from a common Adult Swim program) and yet when Ralph feels his show has had its run, the producers push for it to go on because it still draws in all the ratings. Eventually Ralph gets pushed to the point where he tries to sabotage his own show with techniques such as exposing the film to light revealing a totally blank episode or filming just a jar of mayonnaise sitting on the counter for 15 minutes (anyone else reminded of Conway Twitty?) and yet somehow, the ratings still come in strong. I find this ironic because this was during the days where 90's kids cartoons ruled the silver screens and Seth was next door working on Johnny Bravo, Two Stupid Dogs (bet you forgot that was a show, eh) and creating snippets of "Oh Yeah! Cartoons!" shorts, Larry and Steve (featuring a bumbling man living with his intelligent talking dog, who would later literally become incarnations of Peter and Brian).
In a way, yes I'm literally saying Macfarlane is Bighead here but I'm also saying that by dating all the way back to Larry and Steve and what would ultimately inspire the Family Guy pilot and the fight to resurrect the show from its grave after FOX canceled it in 2003, evidence goes to show that Macfarlane, deep down, truly, honestly couldn't have actually wanted to kill-off Brian.
The character was literally his mouthpiece, for better and worse. In his incarnation, Brian was just a laid back alcoholic who made witty, sassy remarks. Then, naturally as the show developed and the characters were forced to change so people would stay interested, he spoke up. Since that time, Brian has exposed himself as a pure cynical, atheist, liberal, pretentious douchebag who worked himself up to be an absolutely pitiful author who never got lucky with women and fathered a child who somewhere grew up to be a heartless teenage bastard. So why defend the character?
Because he had character. One of Family Guy's biggest disappointments over the years is that everyone else with the exception of Stewie, have become lazy caricatures of who they originally were with twists that prove they're all a little too bonkers. Peter still wins the most laughs for me but Peter also used to be the lovable oaf who had some form of empathy and judgment, even if he was a fool. But over the years, by literally revealing that the character is mentally handicapped, Peter has become a running gag of just pure stupidity with almost no remains of a personality (I said he makes me laugh so I'm not really slamming him), where Lois while still the seemingly caring house-wife has become a nasty, raging bitch. Meg has become the show's punching bag with maybe two or three episodes about her a season that recycle her high school problems while Chris has become almost as useless as Meg becoming just more of an oaf and even less funny than he was to begin with.
It's literally only been Stewie and Brian (the baby and the dog no less) who have become the most evolved characters over the show's course, and let's call a spade a spade here. They are the highlight of the show. They're the reason people come back for more. Every time there's a time travel episode or "Road To," fans instantly know they're in for an episode that actually took the extra step to keep us in our seats, and that's a huge chunk of why it's so hard to see Brian go.
Granted, Stewie can be funny on his own, his evolved personality of being evil, gay or not gay, and being a brilliant mastermind have always been thwarted by Brian and vise versa. The two have insane chemistry that it's hard to believe they're animated sometimes. I've even gone on to say that those two have better chemistry than most live-action TV characters. And unfortunately, without Brian, Stewie's just not as much fun.
I'm not gonna write a eulogy here. Brian was literally the most well rounded and most fine developed character on the show. He balanced out not just Stewie or the rest of the family but the cartoonish personality the show reflects in general. He was the only voice of reason or logic in the end (even if you didn't agree with his views). And what makes the Griffins so great is that they're awful. They're terrible human beings but we relate to them because they're America's classic dysfunctional family. The characters were literally written as mockups to characters in old TV land-style sitcoms. And just like a offing a good character on those sitcoms stings, it hurts just as bad here. Because losing a character like Brian would be like losing J.J. on Good Times. You can't write off a major chunk of the central heart of the show. Granted Good Times wrote off James, the father, and while the show was never the same since, it still limped to the finish line with new, forced dynamics of change and moving on from something as big as death.
And I think it all comes back to the traditional sitcom. They were Seth's biggest inspiration. He's been using themes, characters and plot lines as parody from shows dating back to Mary Tyler Moore and The Brady Bunch. And where Archie Bunker lost his Edith (the original Peter and Lois), Family Guy loses Brian... And it's just not cool. Because though Brian was more human than most of the humans on the show, he was still the family pet and he got offed like a family pet... In the end, it's worse to see Brian go by merely getting hit by a car (in a truly traumatically graphic and violent death) rather than in some grand, crazy scheme because it hits so close to home. People lose pets that way everyday, and even though, "it's just a cartoon," it would be like The Flintstones losing Dino, The Jetsons losing Astro, or hell, just kill off Scooby Doo while you're at it, because he's just the family pet and he's just a cartoon, right..?
I applaud Seth for taking the leap. He's done the most shocking thing on his beloved cartoon than he's done in all the 14 years since it aired. And for the haters, I totally get why bringing in Vinny as the new family dog was done at all in the same episode. Like Macfarlane attempted for his 150th, "Brian and Stewie" (where the two are literally locked in a vault for 30 minutes with no other characters, cutaways or music; an episode I've grown to truly love), here he attempts another stab at our hearts. By not just killing Brian (for good it seems) but by bringing in Vinny and his story of losing his old man, in an attempt to comfort a broken-hearted Stewie, Macfarlane once again tries to bring a moral out of his beloved cartoon that once only relied on gimmicks and old familiar shticks to bring out a laugh. He's truly trying to put not just the Griffins, but his first breakout hit show and his audience through a new ringer: dealing with death. And aside from the usual lame jokes in between, it was handled with care. But my point ultimately comes down to taking it too far. Some people have gone on to say that this is Family Guy officially jumping its shark. What they're really trying to say is they don't want to see Peter Griffin learn a valuable lesson about life and death (hasn't he had enough adventures with Death as is?), though Peter's final words about Brian were truly moving and surprisingly (and respectfully) not involving any jokes. What fans are saying is that this has officially become a different show than the one we once knew so well. At least that's how it is for me and that's why I'm writing so. damn. much...
Because in the end, to me, Family Guy has struck my funny bone in ways no other produced product has. I became a fan exactly ten years ago, fresh out of middle school during a time where even though so many jokes were flying over my head, I knew what I was getting into was sheer brilliance. From the first episode I ever saw, "Ready, Willing and Disabled," (still one of the funniest episodes the show has ever put out IMO) I remember exploding with pure joy and laughter. Granted, I laugh at most things, nothing; literally nothing could do it for me the way Family Guy could. If you were to ask anyone I went to high school with they'd tell you I was obsessed and I was. Before the show was even in talks to be resurrected, I watched those first two volumes on DVD daily, had all 50 episodes memorized and had begun spewing out what has ultimately today become my own "what if" cutaway gags. I solely and wholeheartedly blame Seth Macfarlane for making me want to originally be a cartoonist and dream of having my own TV cartoon comedy all those years ago. Since then, I've studied film but have not lost the dream or the funny bone. Family Guy has damaged my brain in the best way possible. The outrageously offensive, off color and non PC humor made me burst out laughing in the guiltiest way possible and it has literally put a stamp on my humor because nothing has ever resonated with me and my funny bones the way this show has. I've literally never been able to find another thing possible that translates my sense of humor down to the very T. Family Guy (in its prime) is my exact sense of humor. It rubs me exactly the right way and I've always found brilliance in nearly all its stupidity.
But as inevitable as it is, everything must succumb to change. And over the years Family Guy has found ways to change drastically, leaving most viewers to the dust with their outrageously offensive antics but also by having a lot of jokes that fall flat. The show has truly been through its own ringer because it's becoming clear that writers are looking for ways to really do something different and this week, they have. By trying to push the show into a more surreal setting with serious issues and real world dynamics the show has definitely evolved for better or worse. Peter and Lois have had to find new ways to keep their marriage fresh so they don't fall apart, Meg called out the family (and essentially the writers) for becoming terrible people and Brian admitted to Stewie that he's suicidal. That's why in the end it comes back to the true family dynamics which keep this family of a cartoon still kicking after 14 years. It's because the Griffins are so flawed and still so funny that we keep coming back for more. They are the reason we loyal fans have stuck around this long and in the bitter end, Brian was the family's glue.
And so, by bidding Brian goodbye, I must bid the show goodbye which is stupidly a lot harder than one might think. I guess I'm still in denial because I'm convinced this is just a test to see how audiences will respond until they inevitably bring the character back but if they don't, I'm truly traumatized and in a state of shock because to me, this is losing more than just an animated dog and I'm admitting I'm making a bigger deal about it than it deserves any right being. But I guess what I realized for the first time in ten years is that this show can actually make me feel. I guess I do care enough about all these idiots from the mind of Macfarlane, because the other night it made me feel real, raw emotion that I'm too embarrassed to admit because in the end, it really is only a cartoon. I've just clearly let it leave a much bigger impression than that.
I've almost walked out on the show so many times but whether it was "Road to the Multiverse," "Back to the Pilot"or "ylimaF yuG" (all Stewie/Brian episodes nevertheless) it always managed to pull me back in. But this is too much. This is actually my final straw. Unless they bring the character back, I literally can't do it. And I won't. I'm stubborn enough to admit I don't like change but even the changes the show has made until this point I've been able to get on board with. Not this one.
I love the character too much. I love the show too much. And while it matters to no one, this week, the show loses one of its most faithful viewers.
But thank you Seth, for showing me that an adult cartoon which has slowly become almost unwatchable can still make me feel something other than laughter... And that's worth the entire watch all the way until now.
Tune in next week, when Stewie finds a way to go back in time, undo this whole thing, I eat my words and none of this ever happened!
