I've been an avid fan of Family Guy for 15 years or so and for a long while there, I thought it was one of the best animated shows on television. I would get annoyed here and there when they would inject the episodes with McFarlane's own political interests but for the most part they pick on all sides and don't make any episodes too preachy. I've been cool with that.
I kind of like the way that they have a show that is all about cutaways that wouldn't make sense or really even be possible in most other series, animated or otherwise. Some have complained about this in the past, but to me that is what makes the show unique.
I've followed the show for 15 years and for the most part feel as though they are wonderfully done outside of the early years where the animation wasn't really that great but lately, it seems as though they are perhaps throwing in the proverbial towel as far as even trying to have exceptional content is concerned. This is best exhibited in the most recent episodes (or most recent that became available to me anyway) that were in season 22, episodes 14 and 15.
This episode was about Hollywood coming to town to film a movie about Chris Christie - who is a conservative politician from New Jersey. When the topic was first stated in the episode I thought it was going to be a hit piece on politics but thankfully they shied away from that. Instead it was about the outrage that Peter and Brian felt about a hunky guy being cast in the role of a fat guy.
The idea here was to make fun of inclusivity in television and film without coming right out and saying it, which is something that they are quite capable of doing on this show since Brian (the dog) is ultra-liberal and Stewie is conservative while the others are either idiots (Meg and Chris) or don't seem to care (Peter and Lois.)
It kind of irritated me that the actor was meant to be Brad Pitt, but not only was it not voiced by Brad Pitt but it was voiced by someone who doesn't even sound remotely like Pitt. The story goes like you would expect with Peter taking on the role in the film and being terrible at it but the main point of the episode was a montage about how difficult it is to film movies and TV and how it isn't as glamorous as people think.
That's all fine and dandy but the jokes just didn't land with me and I think I only chuckled once the entire time. It simply wasn't funny.
The latest episode called "Faith No More" is about how Brian and Stewie go back in time to eliminate religion from existence by finding Jesus and convincing him to pursue another path in life. Brian's motivations for this is because the woman he is dating is Evangelical and will not sleep with him before marriage.
They eventually succeed and return to the present time to find out that Judaism is now the predominant religion which they are originally ok with, but quickly tire of and then go back in time to eliminate that and succeed. Now there is no religion in the modern times but God gets upset about this and punishes them both.
That's basically the jist of it but this one falls flat for other reasons and this one is more of a writing-on-the-wall sort of thing to me than the previous one where they were making fun of Hollywood and actors. Religion is something that Family Guy has poked fun at so often in the past that it is just really common now and honestly, I don't think there is very much more they can say that isn't simply a rehash of something they have already done.
It's stale is what I am saying.
Going 22 years in the same series is something that is pretty amazing but let's think for a second: When is the last time you went out of your way to watch The Simpsons or SouthPark? For me, this is almost never so perhaps viewer fatigue has already kicked in for most people and all of these are going to soon disappear as they get worse. SouthPark occasionally appeals to me but for the most part I don't bother to watch those either unless some major event happens in the world that I know they are going to pick up on. The Panderverse episode of SouthPark was amazing, but all the surrounding episodes just passed me by.
I think at the end of the day there are really only so many scenarios that you can possibly put characters in, even if it is a show like Family Guy that doesn't have a cohesive story that goes from one episode to the next.
Maybe it is time for them to hang it up. It's not like they haven't made enough money on this thing already. It is estimated that the existing episodes have a worth of around $2 billion, so if Seth and the other producers just wanted to call it quits, they wouldn't be in the poorhouse anytime soon. Then Seth could focus on making mostly terrible movies instead.