My wife often accuses me of getting movies on Blu-Ray/DVD, and watching them once and then leaving them on a shelf to collect dust. In an effort to prove her wrong and to also at the same time annoy her, I’ve decided to watch every episode of Family Guy I own. And I own all of them on DVD. All 16 seasons. Plus the Stewie movie and the Star Wars Parodies. I will also review watch episode and share my thoughts here. Each article will most likely be a different length due to not knowing how many I will watch at any given time. I will be watching them in order as well so this should be really fun for me, not my wife.
Season 1, Episode 1 “Death Has A Shadow
The first episode of Family Guy does a really great job introducing the Griffins to the world. In the premiere episode we meet Peter Griffin, the stupid, funny father and husband. Lois, the patient and annoyed wife. Meg, the plain Jane daughter who wants collagen injected lips. Chris, the slow and innocent son. Stewie the attempted matricidal infant. Stewie also speaks with an English accent but it is not known or clear if the other characters can understand him. And Brian, the dog who can speak to the family with no explanation why. Quagmire makes an appearance, and so too does Cleveland but they aren’t the supporting characters we know just yet. More of background friends of Peter.
The first episode finds Peter fired from his job at the toy factory after he stays up all night drinking at a stag party. Instead of telling Lois that he is unemployed he defrauds the government after the send him an unemployment check for $150,000, a week. Soon Peter is buying things he doesn’t need like a moat and renting the statue of David.
The animation in the first episode is a little crude and the voices aren’t quite there yet. The comedy is spot on however, with the series patented cut away gags and over the top stories. Meg is also voiced by Lacey Chabert, who would be replaced by Mila Kunis in season 2.
Overall a pretty good, not quite great introduction to the world of the Griffins.
Grade: B
Season 1, Episode 2 “I Never Met the Dead Man
Peter gives Meg some bad driving advice, making her fail her driver’s exam to obtain her license. On the way home Peter crashes his car into the cable TV system in Quahog. Peter decides to make his life into a TV show by making a TV screen cutout and putting it around his head. Stewie also has a plan to rid the world of broccoli by any means necessary.
The animation looks way better in “I Never Met the Dead Man” than it did in the pilot. Brighter colors and more consistency makes Family Guy look sharper. The show slowly starts to gain its style in both look and comedy in this episode.
Grade: B