Family Guy - Season 8

With its eighth season, not only has Family Guy aired double the amount of episodes it aired before it was initially canceled, but it also reached it's 150th episode. I noticed that quite a few animated shows that I watch reached some kind of milestone episode this year: South Park reached 200, Simpsons reached 450, Aqua Teen made it to 100, and now this show has 150 under its belt. At this point the show has gone full on insane, trying everything in its power to show that there's still life in this show and that they haven't run out of ideas. This tactic actually works as this may be the strongest season since the 4th, when the show originally returned to television. They finally reduced their reliance on cutaway jokes and started to focus more on telling weird stories.

The season started off really strong with their traditional "Road To" episode that had involved traveling through a bunch of parallel universes. Its may well be the best episode of the show in years. The episodes only get more bizarre from there and I really liked that started to get the other characters more involved in the plotlines as opposed to using them solely for a quick joke. The 150th episode is one of the more notable episodes as its a completely character driven show that has Brian and Stewie trapped in a bank vault, and mostly focused on their unique relationship. It was surprisingly dramatic and while not entirely entertaining, I'd say it was one of the better efforts the show has ever put out. I don't know how much longer the show is gonna gone on, though Seth MacFarlane had stated that he has expressed ending the show after at least 2 more seasons, but we'll see if the promise of more money doesn't change that.

The Cleveland Show - Season 1

This show confuses me. For one thing, does Seth MacFarlane really need an hour and a half of television every Sunday night? I mean, I could see this show appearing if Family Guy or American Dad were finished, but to have three series in production at the same time seems to be overkill. Second, I can understand why Cleveland was chosen to have a spin-off, he's was (depending on who you ask) the most developed of Peter Griffin's entourage and would have the most to gain from having his own show...but why has his personality become so negative? They basically completely changed his personality to make him having his own show work and that may be one of the bigger faults for the show. He was the sanest member of Peter's group and was a likable supporting character, but here they keep trying to play up the idea that he's a horrible person and it just doesn't feel right. This personality swap became more apparent when in an latter Family Guy episode, Peter and the gang pop up at Cleveland's house and Cleveland acts more like his old likable self.

The best thing I can say about The Cleveland Show is that its at least better than what the promos made it out to be. The show is decent but while Family Guy and American Dad specialize in bizarre story lines, Cleveland is just a straight up sitcom with harsh jokes thrown around every couple of seconds. The only real standout moment from the season was a rap battle between Cleveland Jr. and a rapper played by Kanye West. Sure, there were funny jokes here and there, but nothing I can remember off the top of my head. There's room for improvement and I assume that the show did as well as the other Seth MacFarlane-produced shows. I guess I'll see what they can do with their second season.