I wanted to review the four animated shows that aired last night : Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and the Simpsons.
Often, what we fear when Sitcoms get towards episode 4 or 5 of any given season, the show loses a bit of its momentum, and so, I wanted to check up on the state of these four animated Sitcoms.
The Simpsons S23 E06 - "The Book Job"
A good episode with, however, a rather weak set-up, and, this happens often with The Simpsons, a weird "deja-vu" feeling. Traditionally structured, this episode offers a spoof of any heist movie, particularly the Ocean's Trilogy since the person Homer & cie want to con is voiced by none other than Andy Garcia. The secondary plot is actually a Counter plot making a rather linear episode.
What was nice was the fact that many of our favorite characters were united in the same scheme and that's always fun. Some very good jokes, some not so much. A little bit too much "montage" for my taste although they did manage well the parody.
Of course, what was really awesome was Neil Gaiman Guest Starring and making fun even of himself. Doesn't do any writing or writing related action in an episode that talks about publishing best-seller books, and I thought that was pretty funny. I spat out my mouthful of coffee when Homer called Gaiman "British Fonzie".
Something else I appreciated : when everyone is reading the book in the end, Debussy's Clair de Lune ("Moonlight") is playing and it was a rather clever piece to use.
So, not the best episode of The Simpsons but definitely not the worst. Maybe a little bit better in my opinion than the others in this season...
Family Guy S10 E06 - "Thanksgiving"
It seems Family Guy wants this season to be the controversial one. This episode was a little bit less problematic than the two before, but it still adressed a few issues about considering a soldier as a man or a tool. Having read the beginning of the description, I thought It was going to be a PTSD episode. I was wrong but the episode was really good nonetheless. I noticed that they had a lot more flashbacks and cutscenes and they seemed more frequent. Compared to the battering episode (S10 E03), they toned down the seriousness and I'm not sure if that was a good idea. The story Kevin tells (the real and the lie) is pretty intense although there are already some funny aspects, but the people around the Thanksgiving table are cracking jokes and setting up cutscenes. See, there was a lot more comic-relief in this episode than in the "Screams of Silence".
Maybe you'll disagree with me, but when Joe and Kevin talk about their "duties", the first time the word "duty" is mentioned Peter says "Duty also means poop." and Quagmire adds "Yes it does.". I thought that for all the other "duty"s in Joe and Kevin's conversation Peter would react. I wasn't disappointed when he didn't, on the contrary, I thought it was pretty well done because Peter's first comment plagued the deep conversation about honor and free-will that Joe and Kevin were having.
That's really the Family Guy spirit : provocation through absurdity to release the dramatic tension of the issue.
For me, it was last night's best episode.
American Dad S7 E05 - "Virtual In-Sanity"
It was an OK episode. Definitely not the best but it was OK. We are told that Stan and Steve never bonded as father and son, but that's not really true. The set-up was really weak, they could have found another way.
The rest of the episode holds on tight to the tension between Steve and Chelsea because as viewers, we're thinking "Come on... They're not going to do it...nah.... come on... that's gross". My question is : What if they had ? What would have changed for the series ? Well, the obvious answer is that it would have lost some of its Sitcom attributes (remember beginning = ending). That's why nothing happened.
The goal was to bring the viewers to the edge of what we'll be able to handle. It is, after all, incest.
I laughed at Stan dancing with the special suit on not only because it was funny but also because I thought it interesting that they wouldn't show that but could suggest an incest scene.
Roger's secondary plot was pretty funny as well. We got to see stupid frat-guys and more important, see them get hit by a limousine driven by an Alien and a fish. I really like Roger, he's one of the best Sitcom character I've seen in a long time.
At the end of the episode, I tried to sum up the moral guidance I expect at each episode and got a bit confused...
The Cleveland Show S03 E04 - "Skip Day"
I have some trouble talking about The Cleveland Show because (sorry fans) I really don't appreciate it as much as the three other animated series. There's something missing in my opinion for that show to be complete but I can't say what...
The episode was a typical Cleveland Show episode, not much to say about that. Lester and Kendra were quite funny and of course Rollo is always entertaining especially when we find out he's a bit more deep than we thought. If I remember well, there were no cutscenes in this episode and in THAT respect The Cleveland Show is usually closer to Family Guy than American Dad is. It seems they're letting go of the idea little by little.
Some jokes were really good, like when Junior comes back from the dead to his father's annoyance (if you haven't seen the episode I understand how that sentence is weird).
Not the best episode but still, it was entertaining.
These series have had excellent episodes and we, at least I, might be expecting too much from them. So keep on watching !
Thank you
See ya !
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TRJ
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