People are really not being very courteous with Family Guy spoilers, so while I have some thoughts about it... Im going to do this so that the spoiler wont be visible unless you choose to read the whole post... ...if youre a Family Guy fan and dont know what Im talking about yet, I recommend you watch the latest episode (Season 12 Episode 6) before reading this... Right, so Brians dead, for now. And theres a new dog, Vinny, replacing him. Vinnys basically an Italian-American wiseguy (voiced by Tony Sirico from The Sopranos, who is a brilliant actor) and although there are numerous implications from future episode titles and synopses that Brian will be revived somehow, the publicity coming from the producers seems to be suggesting that his death is either permanent or will be a long time coming. And while I dont think Life of Brian was a bad episode (it was more sincere than most Family Guy episodes and it had its funny moments) I do think it was foolish to have Brian killed off, buried and even replaced all within a single half-hour. Of course there was going to be backlash! The response towards Vinny, who didnt have a single comedic moment in his debut, has been initially negative because no matter how different he might be from Brian personality-wise and how talented his actor is hes always going to be received as the replacement. Family Guys even done an episode toying with a new Brian and nobody was disappointed when Stewie killed New Brian and the old one was reinstated. The episode skipped over a month of the Griffins grieving process while we the viewers didnt have that luxury. Brians been on the show for its entire run and was one of the most popular, most developed and most iconic characters. Its easy to forget hes even a dog, because hes as human as Family Guy characters get. Nearly every other character but Brian and Stewie has devolved into a one-joke asshole (and even Brian needed to be reigned back from that a few years ago) and most viewers have come to really love the character. Im used to seeing characters I love die. And when done well, either by necessity (like the recent death of Finn on Glee, or of Chef on South Park) or to serve the narrative (like so many Harry Potter and Game of Thrones characters), it can be extremely powerful. But you need to give the audience some time to get their heads together before you stampede onto the convenient replacement and say hey, you know the status quo weve had for 14 years? Well, this is the status quo now! Stewies over it, you should get over it too! but thats just not how it works. If theyd killed Brian in a season finale and picked up with a new dog four months later, that would have been a better approach. And seriously, Ill be kind of pissed off if they bring Brian back. Theyve made their bed to lie in, theyve upset a lot of fans and theyve given a dismissive fans should know to trust us to do whats best for the show as a statement, but thats not a confidence theyve earned after several years of inconsistent and lazy writing. I dont think Ive ever EVER made a conscious decision to not watch any more of a program because I disliked one episode. But this might be the one. Ill give Vinny the benefit of the doubt for now, but I know theyve lost a lot of loyal fans and I suspect theyve even lost me. Rest in Peace Brian.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 15:40:26 +0000
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