Does anyone actually watch The New Kids on the Block Christmas Special every year? Lots of shows have Christmas episodes, but it’s clear which ones have risen to the top and incorporated themselves into our yearly viewing habits. It seems easy enough just gather your cast, give them a holiday dilemma and wrap up with a heartwarming message about how the season has caused them to reassess their priorities. Even when we get other animals that talk, it's more like were being let into their little world for a while (squirrels, birds, etc), not that Stan can just walk up to them and have a conversation.A time-honored tradition among many great shows is to have holiday-centric episodes designed to pull at our heartstrings. This gives the world a slightly surreal feel, as opposed to just, oh yeah the animals can talk. For example, even the talking animals in the AD world…in most cases they're given explanations for why they can take, namely CIA technology. That said, the plots, and one-off gags within that reality are really what make AD a surreal show. Since American Dad doesn't really have these random moments, where Stan can be thrown into any scene doing absolutely anything on a moments notice, the show as a whole has always been more grounded in reality. I think though the presence of the cutaways (which are often fantasy based, i.e Peter as that chicks eye), and the elastic nature of the show, it's more accepted that they can do what they want. Now what's strange is that, although I'd classify American Dad is a more surreal show than FG, FG is the one with most of these reality-breaking gags (as seen in the pictures above). Both it and American Dad are both decent character based comedy shows (talking about FG 1-3, obviously) but at the same time aren't afraid to sacrifice that for the sake of a funny gag, which is IMO how it should be with these shows. Wow, "Freakin Christmas" was down 6 to 0, but made a raging comeback.Īs for continuity, it's tough to decide where to draw the line in Family Guy, so sometimes it's better off to just ignore it. No Modern Family Guy beats an episode with those gems. Someone who cares enough about physical comedy to put his whole family at risk you know it's just easier to call you stupidīrian: Me? Who the hell buys a novelty fire extinguisher? Peter: Ahh crap, since when did they change the meaning of for to from?īrian: I think they had a meeting about it last night.īrian: They sent you a card but it said for Peter on it, so you must have thought it was from you so you didn't uh. To me it will always be the best FG Christmas ep. The first one is pretty darn quotable though, and we get Joe's backstory, Peter not being able to drink (which leads to great stuff), KISS Saves Santa, the fun mall scene, etc. "Road To The North Pole" is surprisingly strong for latter-day Family Guy, but if I were to choose it it would be for the story and the songs, certainly not the humor, which - while slightly better than normal FG fare - is still pretty hit or miss. Guess I'm alone here, in that I enjoy "Freaking Christmas" the most out of all of these, and would probably call it the best. I predict this will be a toss-up between the first two Christmas episodes but I threw in the other two to be fair. Stewie: Brian, why does the North Pole have black teenagers? "Nobody vomits at the North Pole, except for Santa's wife, because she has an eating disorder!" "No, sweetheart, you're not dying, 'cause we're gonna see Santa, and he's gonna give you a new brain." "Anyway, Seth came out of my penis, and then he made this." The last couple minutes or so are almost a little too schmaltzy and serious but it gets saved by Ron MacFarlane's burp. I do love Stewie and Brian's struggles with being Santa during that scene, like forgetting the presents on the sleigh, getting locked out and throwing a rock through a window. I think the worst part of it is the little girl's anguished screaming and that's still a little horrifying to me, but eh, whatever. I used to be horrified by the home invasion scene but after the initial shock wore off it became watchable. Road to the North Pole's two songs are excellent, the art is very nice and the slower pacing of the episode works in its favor because it gives it more of a movie feel than a Family Guy episode feel. Yeah, the first Christmas episode is classic, but Road to the North Pole is different in that it really feels like a Christmas special rather than a normal episode with a Christmas plot.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |