Oct 1, 2014

Review: The Simpsons Guy (spoiler-ish)


I watched the Family Guy/The Simpsons crossover episode yesterday, and I'm gonna write down my thoughts on it. Though first what I think about the shows themselves. The Simpsons is my favorite show. It's funny, smart and heartfelt. I have five seasons on DVD and I've listened to all the commentaries on them. I've watched all the episodes up until about season 22. I'm a big Simpsons fan.

As for Family guy. I don't think the show is very good. I don't like the humor which often goes too far and is often pretty insulting. The characters are pretty unlikeable and mostly very mean to each other. That said, I do enjoy watching it every now and then when I'm in that kind of mood. Nothing deep, nothing emotional, just want something to take my mind of other things. I've watched maybe five full seasons of it, and many episodes here and there.














So when I go into this episode I feel a bit cringy. I expect it to be pretty bad. The first scenes feels like filler, everyone is just waiting for the part where they meet the Simpsons. I think the writers were thinking that too, which makes the first five minutes pretty boring.

When they get to Springfield, it feels pretty good. It feels home, when Homer shows up it's pretty funny, though I did question why he would pay for their doughnuts. Seing the families together is pretty surreal, as you would expect, but it's handled pretty well. The meetings are fun, especially Brians meeting with Santa's Little Helper. The dynamic between Stewie and Bart is pretty interesting, while the one between Lisa and Meg doesn't really do anything unexpected. Marge and Louis don't get anything to work with. The big focus is of course on Homer and Peter. It's fun to see how they get along and I find it pretty realistic, I'm buying that they could befriend each other, especially from Homer's side, since he has a habit of making friends (not always the best ones).













The conflict in the episode is basically symbolism for the Simpsons vs. Family guy argument and if Family Guy is copying The Simpsons. It's super obvious and that's how they want to runt it. And for a while, it's pretty funny. I laugh at just how many characters are so alike. The writers knew what to do with the episode, they knew it was just gonna be fanservice.













But then, that fanservice gets too far out, the last ten minutes. A long fight between Peter and Homer. I'm sure this is what most people have wanted to see for a long time, but it doesn't do it for me. It's ridiculous even in normal Family Guy episodes, but when Homer is involved it just feels so weird and wrong.

That's the core problem with this episode. Family Guy goes places where The Simpsons will never go. The Simpsons would never have those kinds of jokes, and although Homer has punched people, he has never gotten into this kind of a fight before. And that's where this episode loses me. The Simpsons are acting out of character, which takes me out of it. I know this isn't really Springfield, I know this isn't the real characters. It all feels fake. The Simpsons will never play on Family Guy's rules. The episode felt Family Guy-run, and it's a shame because if it had been run by The Simpsons it would have worked waay better. But as it is now, I was plesantly surprised, but it could have been so much better.

Images: Fox

2 comments:

  1. Oh, I'd really love to see this episode! Sound's very interesting, and I've been wondering about how the two show-families would interact with one another. I do agree with you about Family Guy sometimes being "to much" and I much rather watch The Simpsons.

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