In today's column, I review "The Cleveland Show," talk about my feelings for "Family Guy," and ask whether the universe really needs three Seth MacFarlane shows at once - particularly if one of them is about Cleveland.
Friday, September 25, 2009
'The Cleveland Show' review - Sepinwall on TV
In today's column, I review "The Cleveland Show," talk about my feelings for "Family Guy," and ask whether the universe really needs three Seth MacFarlane shows at once - particularly if one of them is about Cleveland.
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15 comments:
Alan,
Is the Cleveland show essentially a vehicle for McFarlane to tell his redneck jokes in the same way that American Dad is to Republican jokes? I know in family guy every time McFarlane tries to tackle the south every joke is as played out as can be and lack originality.
So, is FOX going to run all three shows on Sunday nights? Overkill.
Your points about FG are EXACTLY how I feel, but I can never bring myself to tune in, even for Brian and Stewie.
I wish someone would make a Venn Diagram concerning people that will watch and talk endlessly about The Cleveland Show and Dane Cook fans.
Huh. So Arianna Huffington's voice is now married to a cartoon bear.
Good to know.
Alan, I'm curious:
Have you watched any American Dad since the first few episodes? While that show started out kind of awkward and uninteresting, its become pretty biting satire without the cutaway jokes that you say you hate about Family Guy.
Its often GREAT commentary on the far right, and their pop culture satire is far more dead on. In fact, the "Lincoln Lover" episode about the log cabin republicans was actually screened at their convention...and the writers cleared everything with gay rights groups in advance. In short, while they still come up with some outrageous, violent, mean spirited plots...the writers seem to make more of an effort to write real STORIES, even if they are far fetched. More than I can say for Family Guy which I'll admit to liking, though I think FG's current format is FAR more of an acquired taste.
Is the Cleveland show essentially a vehicle for McFarlane to tell his redneck jokes in the same way that American Dad is to Republican jokes?
There are some redneck jokes, and the buddy Kevin Michael Richardson plays is definitely a redneck, but there's not a lot of them. It's more black-themed humor, and/or the usual pop culture stuff.
Have you watched any American Dad since the first few episodes?
I've watched a few here and there, including the new season premiere. Show does nothing for me.
Alan, I'm curious...have you ever watched The Boondocks? If so, what are your thoughts? And did you ever read the original comic strip?
When it first came on, I didn't care for American Dad, but at some point the concept clicked for me, and I personally find it far funnier and more entertaining than Family Guy. The characters have distinctive voices, and while the plots are random, they're also coherent, and the writers seem to have an good sense of exactly how much wackiness will work in any given situation. Ultimately, it might be a matter of watching enough episodes to really get a feel for the characters' rhythms, but watching something you don't enjoy on the off-chance that watching enough of it will turn you around is a tough row to hoe.
I don't care for American Dad, but my problems with the show have nothing to do with the Republican angles or bizarre stories. I just can't stand either the Stan Smith or Alien Roger characters; they're annoying and obvious much more often than they are funny. It's not a coincidence that Family Guy became a better show when they nailed down the writing for Peter Griffin and Stewie (Peter became more oblivious and less pleased about it, Stewie went from being a neo-Nazi to a deeply confused control freak). I wrote before and stand by the belief that FG is uneven but generally very funny, and that the show works when it has a strong central storyline so that the cutaways function as a sort of amorphous B plot.
I agree with those who say American Dad is much better than Family Guy.
There seems a lot more character based humor as opposed to only pop culture reference/put down humor.
But neither does much for me either.
If this was called "Tyler Perry presents The Cleveland Show," it would get 25m+ viewers.
I personally think that Cleveland is one of the more annoying characters on Family Guy, along with Meg and Chris. I dont really get the point of a spin-off show with a character that is so blah. The show wont last very long.
They showed half the premiere at Comic-Con and it was awful. Tim the Bear was funny, but he's not enough to get me to watch this.
It is the one of the most annoying characters from the Family Guy, I personally think that American Dad is far better than Cleveland and instead watch HoldMeFilms on youtube which will make you die laughing such as "A Parody of Eminem gets caught masturbating".........hilarious Ha Ha Ha
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