The fatted calf looks worried, for I, the Prodigal, have returned! For a bit anyway...
The fatted calf looks worried, for I, the Prodigal, have returned! For a bit anyway...
Member since:29.11.2002
Reviews:29
Members who trust:9
My friends and I have had many pop-culture debates over the past year. Are Bert and Ernie actually gay, or just good friends who happen to share a bath sometimes? Was the original movie of the Ring better than the Hollywood remake? Is 24 a heart-stopping adrenaline-pumping drama or a string of improbable clichés wrapped up in an all-American flag?
But none of these provokes as much heated round-the-pub-table discussion as the casual question: "So which is better - Family Guy or The Simpsons?"
For my money, I think I've worked it out. The Simpsons was an excellent, innovative programme. It was funny in a way we hadn't seen before, and it worked on many levels, and did pretty darn cleverly on every one. But it's passed its prime these days, and they only ever seem to repeat the ones you've seen a thousand times already. This gets boring. And of course, should you care to buy the videos, they come with something like four episodes to a tape. That's a bit extortionate in my reckoning.
Enter Peter, Lois, and the rest of the Griffin brood. They are definitely, inescapably modelled on - indebted to - the Simpson clan. Peter is a lovable oaf, Lois is his long-suffering wife. They have a daughter called Meg, a son called Chris, a baby, a dog, a house in suburbia, and they succumb to all kinds of 'ker-razy' adventures which inevitably begin with some mundane family situation. Sound familiar? Yeah - that's 'cos so far, it's the Simpsons with new names.
But Family Guy goes that little further down the road of the un-PC, libellous, satirical and just generally insanely random than its founding father, or indeed any of its contemporaries - shows like King of the Hill, for instance. Largely due to the fact that it contains two characters the Simpsons don't have any equivalent for - namely a sardonic, alcoholic housepet and a Machiavellian infant with the quintessentially villainous English accent - it is able to go that extra mile and push the boundaries of the whole 'suspend your disbelief' thing a little bit more - which, as far as I'm concerned, has given a fantastic result.
It contains asides that last a few seconds but are so unexpected and ridiculous that they can actually make you cry laughing - parodies of manga cartoons, cheesy advertisements and bland american domestic sitcoms that also serve as a gauge for how families have generally been represented on US TV through the years. It possesses the ability to be sick without being in bad taste, to be edgy without being offensive or zany for the sake of being zany, and to be side-achingly funny without simply resorting to the same old format as the Simpsons with a few extra swear words to make the ten year olds snigger.
I bought this DVD for a FriendwhohasEVERYTHING(TM) and who had never really seen the show before; we sat down to watch the first episode and before we realised, we were onto the second disc. It is worryingly easy to watch these all in one go - my only quibble being that the stupid person who programmed the DVD didn't think to add a 'Play All' facility and each episode takes you back to the main menu, a little irritatingly.
Luckily - because it IS addictive - the two-set DVD contains all the first season episodes, and is not unreasonably priced (about £25 on the high street, though if you're a canny shopper you can get it sheaper online). This, of course, is another aspect of Family Guy that kind of beats The Simpsons, with their wide range of overpriced videos that surely no one can be bothered to collect entirely.
Think of it as the Simpsons' cousins from out of town - you don't see them around as much, you knew and loved the Simpsons first; but you can't get enough of them when they do come round because they're just a little funnier, fresher and more free-spirited than the nieghbours you see every day.
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Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott
Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst
Comedy - Director: Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Carol Cleveland, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones
Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson
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Postage & Packaging: free Super Saver Delivery Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
The most hilarious animated sit-com since 'The Simpsons' 'Family Guy' revolves around the ... more
Griffin family and their madcap adventures. The Griffin household includes two teenagers a cynical dog who is smarter than everyone else and a megalomaniacal m...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Family Guyshouldn't work at all. Even by the witless standards of modern television, it is ... more
breathtakingly derivative: does an animated series about the travails of a boorish, suburban yob with a saintly wife, a hopeless son, a clever daughter and a bab...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
![Family Guy - Season 1 [1999] [DVD]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78534219.jpg "Family Guy - Season 1 [1999] [DVD]")
Jul 28th, 2003
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