finally! i’m up to date with family guy!
boy, that was harder than the time i beat the roadrunner in a race around the world!
poorly photoshopped, but i think i made my point.
family guy rocks, it’s like the violent version of the simpsons. everything the simpsons aren’t allowed to do – in family guy it happens. that includes swearing (with an occasional *beep*), vomiting and lots and lots of violence and blood. still, i won’t compare the griffins vs. the simpsons that much – family guy is more after the punchlines, where the simpsons have more storyline and social, political, a.s.o…. criticism.
of course, if you didn’t get my “boy, that was harder…” line, than you probably have never seen family guy before, since this show basically lives on (fictional) flashbacks. whenever anyone says “that’s worse than the time I…” or “this is the best thing that happens to me since….” you can expect a funny flashback.
plus, they have evil baby Stewie who constantly tries to kill his mother Lois – a resemblance to Brain from Pinky & Brain.
plus, they have an alcoholic, speaking dog.
well, there’s a lot of plus and recently the show’s 100th episode aired with a special episode along. if you want to get to know family guy, this special is the right start as it’s a great look back at the aired episodes so far. between the scenes in the special, producer Seth MacFarlance is seen interviewing people on what they think of family guy and what they would tell the producer. the people being interviewed obviously didn’t have a clue who was sitting accross them and they all told him, how the show sucks and should be cancelled right away. (family guy was indeed cancelled – twice! but with record DVD sales, the show was reinstated)
coming back to the “violence” part, there’s this one particular scene that speaks for itself: peter griffin versus the chicken. the chicken is an supermarket employee that once gave peter an invalid coupon, leading to a big epic fight. after that, there were as far as i know 2 other scenes where peter and the chicken met. here’s one:
of course, if you talk about family guy violence, then there should be the Stewie vs. Brian fight scene involved:
that being said, i very much enjoy watching family guy and hope it won’t get cancelled a third time!
small facts:
runtime: 20 mins. (approx.)
The show has been canceled twice, once following the second season, which caused the show to not air a new episode for a year, and the second (and longest) being between the third and fourth seasons, from 2002 to 2005.
these lovely eyes belong to no other than the great actor James Nesbitt starring as Tom Jackman. and starring as Mr. Hyde. tom jackman is a descendant of the original Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson.
jekyll is a 6 episode series by the BBC exploring the world of a modern life Dr. Jekyll. it starts with tom jackman strapping himself to a chair, explaining some basic things to his new assistant (the lovely michelle “bionic woman” ryan) who he hired to better get hold of his two lifes. jekyll jackman and hyde can communicate with each other by talking into a voice recorder.
“Just once, seriously – just bloody once, could you tell me where you parked?”
hyde, being the animal he is, likes to mess around. not only with prostitutes (jackman made him wear condoms) but he’s also very good in ordering the combination of drinks providing the worst hangover possible.
time after time, hyde gets more present, more dangerous, more blood thirsty. and tom has more and more problems controlling his dark passenger. and then there’s a mysterious organisation (there always is!) hunting jekyll and hyde. this leads to tom jackman having to protect his family from hyde and the organisation…. and also stepping up against the organisation – by teaming up with hyde.
now here’s the thing: you really don’t want to piss hyde off. you just don’t.
as it’s a mini-series, jekyll comes to an almost clean end, the story evolves, questions are answered, you’re satisfied. and the acting is just great. awesome i might say.
that’s almost only because of james nesbitt, though the rest of the cast deliveres as well. but nothing beats the performance of nesbitt and the two roles he has to play: jackman, protecting his family, being a bit of a coward at the start, but then evolving and taking the lead. hyde, the animal that is only held back when he wants to be held back, knowing no reason or consequence, just fun, pain and killing and in the end realising who the good guy is, admitting to help tom. not only does nesbitt play the roles by different expressions, but with an overall physical change as well (hair, voice, expressions, everything) as if it were two different actors. creepy, but very enjoying to watch!
there is also a lot of (dark?) humor in the series, mostly provided by hyde himself. hyde should be a stand up comedian and make a whole show about killing people. he’s reminding me of richard from lfgcomics (great comic, thanks to silberkind for the tip).
i highly recommend “jekyll” to any fan of multiple personality disorder flicks, british dialect and people ripping lions appartand singing the “in the jungle” theme from lion king. or either of that, but you can’t beat the combination!
for no particular reason i am going to start my “tv series” sequence with dexter.
dexter is about a man that has such a thirst for blood that even a vampire would be disgusted by him. of course there is a reason for that and within the first season you will get to know dexter and his past and present better. maybe you start to like him, since he is one of the good guys. kind of.
there is a reason why one of the show’s taglines is “Takes life. Seriously.” dexter is working for the police as a blod spatter analyst and since blood is his only real passion he is really good at his work. but, life is hard, sometimes even with good solid police work, the bad guys get their “out of jail” card and stroll around unharmed.
that is, when dexters darker side kicks in. he is hunting the bad guys down, kills them and gets rid of them. but he is very careful and is doing his side job strictly by the code of harry, his foster father who was a cop as well. the code of harry keeps him patient and he always makes sure that he actually is killing a bad guy and not the wrong one.
that alone would be a nice storyline, but there is more to come. while hunting the bad people during the day and hunting the bad people during the night, dexter also gets hunted by a fellow serial killer.
no, that’s still not all. to lead a normal life, dexter has to fit in with the rest and adapt to society. that’s why he got himself a nice girlfriend with two kids and a long story of her own.
although there is a lot going on here, dexter is easy to follow and comes very clean with almost everything, no big questions left. opposed to other series, this one is very straight-forward and doesn’t try to open every goddamn door so there are other possible ways on how the story evolves as for example in lost.
acting is great, Michael C. Hall does a very good job in being a cold blooded killer and a creepy but good guy at the same time and the rest of the cast is also doing well.
season one was great and season two is starting very promising. since i didn’t want to wait for the second season to start, i got myself the second book and read it. the book was really good and i’m curious about if anything will make it into the tv version or if they are going another way.
a little tip though: knowing spanish could help since the spanish parts are not translated and there are a few parts every once in a while. but i don’t think i missed anything.
as it’s a mini-series, jekyll comes to an almost clean end, the story evolves, questions are answered, you’re satisfied. and the acting is just great. awesome i might say.