Title: Family Guy Season 17
Starring: Seth Macfarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green, Mila Kunis
Released: OUT NOW
Run time: 169 minutes
Seth MacFarlane’s masterful FAMILY GUY: SEASON SEVENTEEN on DVD is available now! Starring creator Seth Macfarlane as Peter, Stewie and Brian Griffin, Alex Borstein as Lois, Seth Green as Chris and Mila Kunis as Meg.
Here we have 20 episodes of this long-running TV show in which Peter gets into a sackful of trouble as a mall Santa, Quagmire becomes a gigolo, Stewie and Brian run a bed-and-breakfast brothel and the cast takes a novel approach to re-enacting American literary classics.
It’s sometimes difficult to watch Peter Griffin as he is clearly borderline retarded so I tend to enjoy the Stewie and Brian scenes more. Likewise Chris is a one-note character whereas Lois and Meg are more rounded. Yet this show has throughout its long, and continuing run on TV, always been funny with its theories on life and satire of modern living.
It must say something of the enduring appeal of this show that it’s lasted 17 seasons - without no doubt more to come. Family Guy has been consistently funny over the years and whilst not every joke is a winner - some are gross-out or inappropriate - it still makes audiences laugh. As I’ve mentioned before in reviews of this show Seth MacFarlane does have a tendency to make jokes about sexual assault - which I’ve always found distasteful, however, if he is to be believed (recent news stories refer to his hosting award shows where he has made jokes that speak out against those accused) this is his way of taking a stand against those accused of these heinous acts against women. Sadly those jokes often come off as being wildly misogynistic, or at least misguided. Only MacFarlane will really know his own intent. Perhaps we can hope that Borstein and Kunis would not take part if his intent truly was misogynistic as they have been working with him for a very long time.
Putting that sort of content to one side however Family Guy still amuses with its take on everyday life in a small American town - where no one ages and dogs can talk - it’s often outrageous in its plotting and I have to wonder where these ideas ever come from, but it keeps going, keep entertaining and rarely disappoints its fans.
This season includes heartfelt tributes to actors Carrie Fisher and Adam West who have both played roles in the show and have both recently died. West had been a regular and had appeared in over 100 episodes as the Mayor. His death is a loss to the show and a loss to us all, as is that of Fisher, both dearly loved actors.
Whether his involvement in the writing and direction of The Orville (the new Star Trek parody show only available at the moment in the US) will limit MacFarlane’s time on Family Guy or American Dad is yet to be seen, but I imagine both shows will continue on successfully for some time yet. I look forward to future episodes.
