5. The "Family Guy" Movie
"It's good because they drop F bombs without being bleeped!" And that makes sense, why? Now don't get me wrong, "Family Guy" isn't the only series to try and rob its fans blind, but it's been pretty obvious to all who saw the alleged "Family Guy" movie that it was only just a cheap excuse to make some money by taking three disconnected episodes and slapping them together. Separately they're mediocre episodes, together they make for an awful movie that was rather nonsensical and features one of the most drawn out excruciating eighties references in the climax.
4. Stealing From “The Simpsons”
Yet another fact of the series is that Seth McFarlane and crew only present the illusion of originality. Most of the series is nothing but rehashes of concepts and plots from "The Simpsons.” Tom Tucker is such an obvious Kent Brockman wannabe, Peter is a dumber fatter Homer, Stewie is just a toddler Bart Simpson, many key scenes are taken from the more historic Simpsons episodes, and they’ve even fiddling with the opening sequence for comedy. McFarlane may love "The Simpsons," but judging by his propensity for knocking off the series, he REALLY loves it.
3. Musical Numbers
Seth McFarlane loves musicals, and Seth McFarlane can sing well. How do we know that? Well, he's shoved it down our throats since the first episode. McFarlane now looks for every single excuse to sing whenever possible and simultaneously the musical numbers are also incredible crutches for terrible writing. Why else would McFarlane look for every single excuse to include them? To rip off "The Simpsons," who popularized the plot element? Well, that too, but they didn't use it as a crutch. We get it, you can sing, you have a great voice, now shut up and try a well written episode without cutaways, eighties references, and musicals.
2. Cut Away’s = Comedy?
McFarlane's show was allegedly originally supposed to be a series of animated sketches for Mad TV, and boy does it show. The cutaways were always smoother in the start of the series, but inevitably it became such a crutch that "Family Guy" is pretty much just a sketch show with the Griffins acting as a clothesline for the gags. They pop up every ten seconds, are painfully long, have zero relevance to the story, and nine times out of ten aren't even funny. Another reason why I hate the cutaways...
1. They Really Love the 80's
The eighties references! Hey everyone, remember "The Facts of Life"? Remember "The Breakfast Club"? Remember "Mask"? Remember "Never Ending Story"? Do you want to see them spoofed non-stop? Well, you'll get your wish as the crew behind "Family Guy" will pummel you incessantly with endless eighties references that would probably have been hysterical in 1993, and are now nothing but dated attempts at referential humor. The crew at "Family Guy" have become so excited with reminding us of the eighties that there’s even an entire episode where Pete travels in time thanks to the Grim Reaper, which ends as a cheap excuse to set the entire episode in the eighties AND reference "Back to the Future." Attn: Seth McFarlane, the eighties sucked. Stop using nostalgia to bait audiences. Just because you remember it, doesn't make it comedy.
For more film and TV madness from Felix, please visit Cinema Crazed