| Why American Dad is better than Family Guy |
[Sep. 27th, 2005|03:02 pm] |
American Dad, at this point and time (a large caveat I know) is a better television show, a better animated sitcom, a better just about anything than Family Guy. I hope this is not a controversial statement, but I'm sure there still exist people who find Family Guy's quirks at this point still funnier than American Dad's general goodness.
Well, it isn't.
There was a point where the little diversions, the flashbacks, the "This reminds me of the time..." moments were genuinely funny. They were typically out of left field, sparse enough to warrant actual attention and the jokes contained with were both unpredictable and shocking. Unfortunately, 4 seasons in it's no longer good enough to continue the status quo when the status quo itself has become unbearably trite. The most recent new episode of Family Guy could not go longer than a minute without resorting to another unnecessary aside. I believe at one point there were three straight such events where every other line of dialogue from Peter was "This reminds me of the time..." To make matters worse, no longer do these flashbacks generate anything new or exciting, how many times have we seen Stewie do something homosexual at this point to get the idea that yes, he probably is gay? Or how many times do we need to see Peter being bad at one of his flashback jobs?
What Family Guy seems to have forgotten compared to American Dad is even though the plot of most sitcoms tend to be fairly simplistic, it's still important to have some sort of story hidden underneath the layers of pop culture references and jokes. In fact, it's usually much better to have jokes derived from the story and situations rather than complete non sequiters (after all, this is why we call it a situational comedy and not a sketch show). A great example would be the American Dad episode with Hayley dating Stan's boss. Outside of the murder dream sequence, just about all the jokes were integrated into the actual plot (Bullock and Stan's awkward conversation, the "Maybe he'll hit me... but only because he loves me" discussion between Hayley and her mom, Hayley's boyfriend running off with the SUV during the hunt).
Not only does this provide an actual pace to the show (you know, plot events moving on, things occurring between characters), but also its better at actually creating characters that are by themselves worthwhile. What is Meg in Family Guy at this point other than a character everyone loves to hate on? American Dad still has ways to go in terms of characterization, but at this point just about every character has become somewhat meaningful (even Klaus, the German goldfish has evolved into a character with his own little world).
Maybe this is just a rut in the current run of Family Guy that they can get out of. Maybe American Dad can't keep up this nice little string of tight little plots. But at this point, I'm not turning Fox to watch Family Guy. American Dad is better and who would of thought that a few months ago? |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 21st, 2005|12:40 am] |
I suppose I've finally given into this thing. By this thing, I mean not only LiveJournal, but the very idea of personal blogging. Up until now, I have been a rebel of sorts, resisting the urge to spill the random, unimaginative, uninteresting facts of my life upon the unsuspecting public. And for good reason, I still think far too much of this community and the internet in general is about writing first and thinking second. And what would be LiveJournal without your requisite angsty teens, the inconsequential single-sentence entries, the long rambling posts about nothing...
But ultimately, me thinks I am too harsh. So much like my friend here I intend to use this as a scratchpad for things that don't belong in my more professional blog. Sometimes writing little thoughts and mementos for the future can be a revitalizing, cleansing process.
Part of what really irks me right now is my lack of self-discipline to really buckle down and work on things. For example, right now I have an assignment for my poorly-taught A.I. class due in about an hour and instead I'm spending my time writing an entry here. But in general, ever since this college semester has started I've been more lazy than usual, my procrastination reaching new heights every passing week. Which wouldn't be a problem if I didn't feel so bad about all the happenings going on in the game world right now. Other people are innovating, creating, doing something productive while I sit here in my room browsing forums and wasting time away. It's beyond frustrating, it's at the point where I wonder if my short-term plans may be in jeopardy. I have classes, then research, then my own personal forays into game design, a blog to maintain, random errands to run in real-life, etc. Yet I'm not really that busy, thousands of people have many more important tasks than me, yet they're able to always keep on going, always keep on task, always do something productive.
Perhaps tomorrow will be a new day. Perhaps I can finally get up, do that work, read that paper, finish that presentation, go run those errands, do those crunches in the morning, all in a reasonable time with no distractions so I can free up my night for hobbies, entertainment, and whatever else I may want.
But first, I guess I should really finish this homework assignment. |
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