For a number of years now, I’ve been consuming the output of Fox’s ‘Animation Domination’
programming block using the various wonders of the internet. Every week it’s
been a steady diet of Family Guy, Simpsons, American Dad, Cleveland Show and,
recently, Bob’s Burgers. I’m a massive fan of American animation, and that most
of my studies revolved around live action programming meant that
watching these shows gave me a nice break.
For a long time I’ve wanted to write a combined review of
these series, since despite them all basically featuring the same set up in
terms of setting and cast (and often sharing the same writers) the individual
programmes really vary in subject matter; as well as quality. Each week I’ll
review each show separately and choose a winner out of the four that are shown
(Family Guy and Simpsons are always on, but the other three rotate – there was
no Cleveland Show this week for example). As I go on, I hope to better compare
the programmes to one another, but for now I’ll just be reviewing them separately.
I’ll eventually put together rankings
table to show how each show is faring against the other.
I’ll also include mini reviews on other currently airing
adult series, such as South Park. These won’t be part of the main articles, as
I feel their target audience and ways of storytelling are so different, it’s
unfair to compare them to the other shows. But it is important to take note of
them, since their influence often impacts the five Fox Shows.
So without further hoo-hah, let’s get down to it, with the
reviews for 30/09/2012.
The Simpsons – s24e509 ‘Moonshine River’
The 24th season gets off to a shaky start, with
effectively a straight remake of an earlier, far more memorable episode. Bart,
desperate to reunite with one of his (apparently) many ex-girlfriends,
encourages the family to take a trip back to New York City (“But you love New
York, now that your least favorite buildings have been obliterated... old Penn
Station and Shea Stadium!”). Zooey Deschanel plays the object of his affection,
one of many of Cletus’s the Slack-Jawed-Yokel's brood, who has up-sticks to have
a go at being a Breakfast at Tiffany’s parody.
Together, they take part in some Big Apple style adventures, whilst Marge and
Lisa go in search of ‘high culture’.
The main problem with this episode is that it commits the
two cardinal sins of the more unsuccessful Simpson's episodes; a tendency to treat Bart and Lisa as teenagers and jokes
mainly consisting of call backs to earlier episodes. That most of this
reminiscing is referring to very average episodes (such as the Sarah Silverman
starring ‘Stealing First Base’) is not a good thing. (In fact, multiple guest
stars play returning parts in this episode; Natalie Portman, Sarah Michelle
Gellar, Anne Hathaway... why on earth weren’t they used properly?)
The rest of Springfield’s cast is sidelined apart from the
opening acts ‘First Springfield Grand Prix’ (running simultaneously with the
‘Tour de Springfield’ and major road works), but most just turn up to bleat the
odd line then move on. Normally in a ‘Simpsons visit’ episode this would be ok,
but sadly the New York jokes fall flat on their face. Marge and Lisa’s culture
tour goes nowhere, and there’s none of Homer’s hatred of the city is properly portrayed.
The whole episode is a complete waste of time and talent,
from the amazing guest cast, to the iconic location... even a Charlie Sheen
cameo! I only hope this is just the producers cutting all the rot from the
Season 24 apple before it starts proper.
3/10
Best Bit: Apart from Bart’s line above, the couch gag was cute, as was Homer’s belief he’s descended from Fievel from An American Tale
Worst Bit: The Shakespeare in the park scene above all. Is Shakespeare really a set piece that represents New York City?
Family Guy – S11E189 ‘Into Fat Air’
Another dull effort comes from this week’s Family Guy. Of
course, unlike with The Simpsons, this is something we’ve come to expect, and it’s
therefore not quite the disaster that Bart’s adventure was. But it still feels like another disastrous waste of talent.
This week the Griffin clan make another one of their
trademark leaps in storytelling and decide to climb Mount Everest, thanks to
being ridiculed by a snooty family. Peter's misadventures never really
work as well when transposed to another setting. Whilst the Simpsons usually
get a lot of material from Homer’s ‘Americanisms’ when introduced to a new
environment, Family Guy sticks to the same style of jokes no matter where they
are. Case in point is when they arrive at the village; they don’t parody the
actual culture, rather make a few (smile-worthy) sight gags involving Donkeys.
You’d imagine the mountain climb itself would be perfect fodder for Peter’s
antics, but they have relatively little trouble, and it’s just business as
usual.
Like all story driven Family Guy’s, the plot is weak and the
characterisation worse. The whole impetus for climbing the mountain is simply
to get back at the snooty family rather than to achieve anything of real significance. Twists
in the narrative, like going back to rescue their rivals, only transpire when the
show needs more running time; not because they’ve learned a lesson or bonded as
a family. The potentially major turning point where, they
find and consume the corpse of their rival's frozen child, is almost immediately
forgotten. It’s just a cheap attempt at shock humour.
I know Family Guy has never really been a programme to
involve rich storytelling, and really its episodes work best when the plot is
just used to hang some inspired jokes on. This doesn’t really happen here,
although there are some funny moments. Brian being treated and acting like a
dog is always hilarious, and there’s an excellent cutaway featuring Stewie’s
disastrous trip to Las Vegas. But these are the only real gems in the mud. Yet
again, Family Guy has failed to tell a decent story-driven tale, or
successfully hide it inadequacies with good humour. On reflection, it should
really be scoring less than the Simpson episode; except I can only be
disappointed so many times. I’ll give it the extra point for the Las Vegas
scene, and resume hoping for another week this shell of a programme can one day
replicate its past successes.
4/10
Best Bit: The Vegas Sequence. The Donkey and the Weed-Wacker also got a smile.
Worst Bit: It was all pretty dull, but the cannibal scene stands out as particularly unfulfilling.
Bob’s Burgers S3E23 ‘Ear-sy Rider’
Ok this is more like it. Before we begin, it’s fair to say
I’m totally in love with Bob’s Burgers. I devoured the first two seasons about
a week ago, and I was hungry for more when this episode came on. So maybe I was
a little bit more relaxed in my criticisms then I was with Simpsons/Family Guy.
But then again, Bob’s Burgers is a complete breath of fresh air compared to
these other programmes, and its humour so unlike its stable-mates.
The story begins well with a horde of bikers
arriving at the restaurant to mourn their departed leader. Bob’s Burgers always
does well with introducing new characters, as they're always central to the plot,
rather than showing up for a one shot joke. The destructive yet well meaning Chapter
Leader and his gang are no exception, and have quite a heart behind their rough exterior. Meanwhile, Louise has her trademark bunny
ears stolen by a local teenager, and goes into meltdown. The kids are certainly the most programmes most consistent characters in terms of big
laughs, so it’s always great when one of them takes centre stage. Occasionally, this
can sometimes limit the input of the other two, but this week Tina and Gene are still firmly in the action. Louise begins a
campaign to get her hat back, which escalates into the town parents blaming one
another for ‘the neighbourhood going to crap’. It eventually comes down to a
faceoff between the bikers and concerned parents in the middle of the restaurant.
It nice to see the A and B plot’s of the episode intertwine
so well, with the teenagers father helping a biker give birth. It’s a case of a
well written story being placed above the need to tell quick fire jokes. The
best banter comes at the end, where Louise boos her father’s heart warming
speech. Indeed, Bob isn’t in this episode much, but that’s OK. Unlike in all
the other animation domination shows, he’s the only dad that acts as the
‘straight man’ rather than the genesis for comedy. This totally works to the shows advantage; I love when Linda announces free beer for everyone,with the cheers muffling out Bob's disappointment at the lack of business.
This episode highlights everything that’s great about Bob’
Burgers; strong storytelling, great characters and amusing little witticisms
spread throughout. However, now the programme seems to be getting its formula
down, I’m looking forward to seeing it getting a little more
ambitious. I wouldn’t want the small town feel to get away for the programme,
but I think it can allow itself a few more outlandish affairs, such as the
excellent ‘Burger Boss’ episode. It is of course important to note that this
‘Third Season’ is actually the next half of Season 2, since Fox only showed 9
episodes last year. With its recently confirmed full order for an entire new
season after these episodes, I’m looking forward to seeing how Bob’s Burgers
capitalises on its successes and continues to push the quality of storytelling
in Animation Domination.
8/10
Best Bit: Louise booing the traditional heart warming speech.
Worst Bit: Her attempts to simply grab the hat back drag on a little.
American Dad S8E134 ‘Love, AD Style’
American Dad starts off playing things safe with a
traditional ‘Roger’ centric episode. I enjoyed this storyline, because it
combined two of my favourite parts of the series; Roger’s increasingly large
attic-based bar, and the character of Hailey. Hailey and her husband Jeff are
my favourite characters on American Dad, possibly in all of the 'McFarlane-verse'. Every other female in his work is often completely sidelined to make way
for the trio of male characters that lead the cast of each series (I don’t
think Meg has had a line in weeks; I don’t think Roberta’s has actually been
seen in years).
Once Hailey broke the cliché of ‘environmentally conscious
rebellious teen’ she quickly gained a variety of strong storylines, leading up
to her marrying Jeff (who’s hilarious and really should be used more; he's sadly missing from most of this week). Since
then, they’ve taken a backseat in the series for more Stan-Steve-Roger
shenanigans, so when they get to appear proper it’s a treat. This episode starts with Hailey taking a job as a singer
in Roger’s bar, and Rachel
McFarlane’s singing voice is incredible in these scenes; she’s as every bit
talented as her brother.
Of course, this is properly a Roger centric episode, and it's not long before the story quickly shifts into him pining after Hailey's affections. It’s interesting to watch his antics provide the A-plot this week, as he was often used in backup stories last season. This extra time is given over to more of his
usual psychopathic tendencies, as he desperately tries to get Hailey out of his
system. He perhaps spends a little too long attempting to woo her and
the episode drags a little here, but when he finally takes action, it’s spectacular. He flat
out shoots Hailey in the chest, and then proceeds to keep her prisoner Misery style. It ends in one of the most
violent images the series has ever produced, which would be wrong to spoil
here; but it’s brilliant.
However, as funny as
it was, the show is getting a little samey; at several times in the episode I
predicted the jokes before they happened. Sometimes this was only for little
moments, like the fate of the honeymooning rats; but chiefly it was for the
entire B-Plot. Here Stan attempts to sell his SUV for the exact price of
$15,000, and predictably gets out of hand. It’s still very funny, but his increasingly eccentric plots are something we've seen multiple times before. I’ll chalk this up to a one episode thing though; this series
has always given us amazing twists in the past, so it can have a week off.
Indeed, I really liked some of the less noticeable things this episode did, such as using Steve as a side character; proof
that he can still be funny even when not the centre of attention. Maybe they
should do it more with Roger to avoid his shtick getting stale.
It’s another strong debut for American Dad. Not a classic,
and a little too similar in places, but still strong and full of life.
8/10
Best Bit: Rachel McFarlane’s singing voice. But joke wise, the ending’s pretty strong, if messed up.
Worst Bit: Roger’s pining goes on a bit... but is mostly hilarious throughout.
So this week we have a tie for first place score wise. It’s
tough to choose an overall winner, because both Bob’s Burgers and American Dad
had their quality moments. But overall, I think I’ll give it to American Dad;
Bob’s is still on the rise, and I feel confident that it’s only going to get
better. American Dad meanwhile deserves praise for keeping its quality up into its
eighth season; something that at this point, Family Guy and Simpsons can only
dream of.
Bonus Reviews:
South Park – S16ep231 ‘Sarcastaball’
South Park resumes its 16th season this week with
an episode starring two of its most popular characters; Randy Marsh and
Butters. It’s been a difficult time to be a South Park fan recently, with Trey and
Matt’s recent creative crisis in the aftermath of the ‘201’ ruckus (and
portrayed in the heart breaking 'You’re
Getting Old'). Luckily, the triumph of The
Book of Mormon on Broadway seems to have rejuvenated them, and I’ve been hoping this season
would see South Park back on form. But while this episode was hilarious, it stands
as one of the very few South Parks I feel may have gone a bit too far across
the line of decency.
Most of this episode appears to be parodying the NFL, and as a
born and bred Englishmen, this means relatively little to me. The main storyline was still quite funny; Randy sarcastically suggests American Football is made
more safe, and accidentally turns the whole sport into a game of being nice to
one another. There’s a
lot of good banter in this episode (I loved Cel Lo Green’s cameo; “I’m a big
fan of all your hit song!”), and whilst it’s not the most outrageous Randy’s ever been,
but makes for a fine episode which I’m sure is even funnier if you follow
American football. But Randy misadventures aren’t the problem here. The problem is his star
player...
For years, Butters Stotch has been the butt of some of South
Park cruellest jokes. Often he’s just a brilliantly written pathetic little kid who we all feel sorry for. But this episode finally gives him the chance to do something
right, as his happy personality makes him the perfect sarcastaball player. And
when his teammates start to flag, he offers them the secret of his success; the
special warm goo that comes out of him when he’s having happy dreams...
So yeah, this episode basically turns into children and
sport’s stars everywhere drinking a 9 year-olds semen. Yeah...
Ok, so South Park has done stuff like this before, but that doesn’t
make it less gross. It takes a lot for me to feel uncomfortable (the only South
Park I’ve turned off during was Eat,
Prey, Queef) but this almost had me stop watching. I’m glad I didn’t,
because the joke was then repeated and ramped up to the point where it became
funny again, but it still wasn’t great watching. I think it was more that it
was Butter’s... samples being used that made it so cringe worthy. What’s more,
the fact he has no idea what he’s doing because his Dad doesn’t want to explain
puberty to him is also nasty. Sometimes the Stotch’s exaggerated abuse of their
son can be funny, but here it fell flat. I just felt mortified for the kid.
So this wasn’t exactly my favourite South Park episode. But
what it did show was this program hasn’t lost its knack for sick twisted
humour, and finding new ways to offend people. It was still a solid episode,
and it makes me look forward to watching the rest of the season (with next week
promising a full roasting of the monstrous Honey Boo Boo...)
7/10
Best Bit: Randy’s blink and you miss it manslaughter. Fantastic.
Worst Bit: “Save that... for later...”
Robot Chicken – S6EX5 ‘DC Comics Special’, 101 ‘Executed By the State’, 102 ‘Crushed by a Steamroller on my 53rd Birthday’, 103 ‘Punctured Jugular’
Robot Chicken is also back on Adult Swim, and has already done
a lot of good work in improving on the painfully unfunny fifth season. The
opener, a ‘DC Comics Special’ ala the previous Star Wars episode was sadly a bit
of a disappointment. Probably due to Warner Bros influence, it’s not quite as
biting as it could be, and certain jokes seem pretty forced. Sequence such as the
Zoo Crew’s funeral, or the Legion of Evil’s boring meetings, never truly sizzle
as they should. Neither do the constant ‘Aquaman sucks jokes’, which feel like a wet
fish to the face. Hopefully they may do a second set to have a go at getting it
right.
However, the series proper has just gone from strength to
strength. With a snazzy new title sequence, they’ve mercilessly parodied everything,
from Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Starbucks logo and Mary Poppins (who’s being
accused of drugging children). Almost all the episodes have hit their
punchlines right out of the park. I particularly love the G.I. Joe sketches,
which feature C.O.B.R.A being taken down by Seal Team Six. Robot Chicken is
back to being the perfect time filler show, and all praise to its creators for
getting it back on track!
Scores: 5/10 (DC Comics Special), 8/10 (Executed By the State) 10/10 (Crushed by a Steamroller on my 53rd Birthday/Punctured Jugular)
Next week more of the same, plus the return of Adventure Time and Regular Show...*
(*Ok, so their not really adult animation... but what do you care, your reading about cartoons!)
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