January 15th, 2012. How many things have happened since January 15th, 2012? For those out there wondering, January 15th, 2012 was the debut date of “The Reichenbach Fall“, the season two finale of the popular BBC show, Sherlock. Boy, was that a finale: Moriarty dead (or not, if you believe the theories) and Sherlock faking his death. There was one question, one question on everyone’s mind at the end of that episode: How? How did Sherlock survive the fall?
Part of the BBC’s marketing campaign. They were having fun with this before the episode even aired.
Fast-forward to January 1st, 2014 and the release of “The Empty Hearse“, the long awaited season three premiere (at least in the United Kingdom anyway) that finally continues the story of everyone’s favorite sociopath. Tonight I had the good fortune, through internet means I would never endorse (incidentally isn’t this an odd website), to watch “The Empty Hearse”. Spoilers? Nah, I won’t ruin the fun. Rest assured, Sherlock is more than aware how long its kept everyone waiting. I’ll instead stick to the basics, starting with the first and foremost question: is it still good?
Yep.
I’ll go into it a bit more than that.
“The Empty Hearse” serves as a joyous reintroduction to the series. Written by none other than Mark Gatiss (Mycroft Holmes to all you fans) who is aware of just how long ago 2012 was in terms of television attention span. To that end, this is not a very plot heavy episode. Indeed, those out there wanting to puzzle along to a gripping mystery will have to wait. Sherlock was dead for two years: it takes time to get breathing again.
Two years have passed in the series timeline as well so a good portion of the episode is spent playing catchup. Kind of like season 4 of Arrested Development except actually funny.
What makes it work is, of course, the actors. Benedict Cumberbatch once again fully inhabits the titular protagonist who gave his career life. Martin Freeman manages to look both fully fed up and happy to be back as John Watson. Perhaps the most surprising performance comes from Louise Brealey, whose original character, Molly Hooper, has transformed from one time comic fodder to the sad manifestation of Sherlock’s detached humanity. There are no weak leaks in the acting chain that hold this series up and, while the story this time is more tongue-and-cheek than we’re used to, this is a show built for powerful drama and moving stories on the human condition.
Amanda Abbington plays Mary Morstan, a new addition to the cast.
I will say, in the interest of perspective and placement, that this is not my favorite episode of the series. Indeed, as far as season premiers go: it may be the worst the series has endured so far. That is not a knock on it, however, when comparison is drawn with “A Study in Pink” and “A Scandal in Belgravia” (my personal favorite episode of the series). The story is fun and the presentation is thoroughly fourth-wall.
Are there any worries going forward? None but this: Sherlock is a series that has set itself a high standard. While nine episodes hardly breaks the bank on the source material, one does wonder if the series will ever again recapture this height of fan excitement. You can only kill Sherlock Holmes so many times before audiences stop caring how he survived the fall.
Season two contained many of the series’ most famous characters. It will be interesting to see what season three comes up with.
Yet for the moment it is a party and a most welcome one at that. The world’s most famous detective is back and audiences will no doubt have nearly as much fun with his return as he did.
Sherlock returns to North America on January 14th… for anyone who is interested in waiting.
I know it’s been a while (health concerns are problematic) but I would like to break back into this website. To that end I was having a conversation not long ago with someone close to me. She remarked that she was out of current shows to watch and was looking into finding something new. I suggest a show called Beast Wars, an old program that I grew up with (1996-1999). I then wondered at the recommendation. Sure, I had loved the show as a kid but how does it hold up now? There are many things I enjoyed back then that I would not recommend to peers today. The question becomes: does Beast Wars hold up? Short answer: yeah. Longer answer:
For those who may not be familiar, Beast Wars (titled Beasties in its native Canada) was a computer-generated sequel to the 1984 show, Transformers. Yes, the same property that Michael Bay has been turning into crappy blockbusters for the past six years. While the first series dealt with the war between Autobots and Decepticons (two machine races who transformed into cars and planes respectively), Beast Wars dealt with a much smaller conflict set in future. This time we got Maximals and Predacons (pretty much Autobots and Decepticons) at war on a strange, Earth-like alien planet. Oh, and this time they turned into animals instead of cars: awesome.
So why am I recommending this show? Not for the animation, I’ll tell you that right now. While Beast Wars was ambitious in its day, the style has not held up (it’s been nearly twenty years). Here is some idea of what I’m talking about:
It’s not horrible but certain things (namely shadows) are lacking. Really the animators should be praised, it’s just old technology at this point.
Luckily the look got better as the show progressed. Seasons two and three show noticeable improvements over season one.
Anyway, the look isn’t why you should watch it, although it does have something to do with it. Let me explain why Beast Wars was made: to sell toys. That’s the honest answer. Same reason the first Transformers series began back in the 1980s. However, Transformers was traditionally animated and there was no budget increase when they wanted to bring in another transformer. The result: there are a lot of robots on that show. A privilege that Beast Wars did not enjoy. Another transformer meant another 3D model and that took a lot of money to animate. So Beast Wars was forced to have a much smaller cast and that turned out wonderful.
Why: because fewer characters meant stronger characters. They only had a few robots to work with so every character on that show was fully flushed out with motivations and traits. Everyone felt different and not because they turned into a different beastie but because they thought differently.
Every form of every Maximal who was in the series. It’s not a huge cast but it is a strong one.
Head writers Bob Forward and Larry G. DiTillio deserve most of the praise. They were given essentially full control of the show and created a tight-knit story with characters and consequences. Beast Wars blessedly has more plot than just Maximal=good and Predacon=bad. There is a complete story told throughout the three season arch that doesn’t leave much in the way of dangling plot threads.
Strong points include characters such as Megatron (the Predacon leader), Tarantulas (the Predacon mad scientist) and Dinobot (Maximal version of Hamlet). The alien plot line also provides an additional level of intrigue as well as a break from the Maximal-Predacon conflict. Episodes to check out: “Code of Hero” (best episode of the series), and “Transmutate”. Personally I’m also a big fan of the bizarre romance between Silverbolt and Blackarachnia.
Yeah they’re both robots. Yeah one is the knight in shining armor while the other is a villainous back-stabbing widow. Yeah they’re on opposite sides. It’s still a better love story than Twilight.
Season one is the weak point of the show. It looks better on re-watching but the consequence hasn’t entered the series yet. What do I mean by consequence: people die in this show. Don’t get used to your favorite character because odds are they are not going to survive the series. For an animated children’s show back in the 1990s, this was a crazy development.
Is it the best show ever made: not even close. Still there is enough in Beast Wars to make it a show worth watching. I recommend it to anyone out there looking for a fun story that doesn’t require a ton of thought. This show isn’t super serious (it’s about robots that turn into animals) but it does have a heart and more importantly, a brain.
In addition, I should mention the sequel series, Beast Machines. I’m not really going to talk about it – it is not nearly as well remembered as its predecessor, and for good reason. Also there are two sequel series that were produced solely in Japan (Beast Wars II and Beast Wars Neo) but approach those at your own risk.
Due to the show’s success, Beast Wars has inspired a wealth of graphic novels and specials that have continued the story. Sadly there has still been no true successor in terms of a television show.
When I was in high school (back when dinosaurs ruled the Earth), I remember one show achieving an incredible cult status. Family Guy was a short-lived comedy series which had aired a couple years before and been subsequently cancelled. This was before the days of the Netflix instant queue so whoever had the DVD sets of the three seasons (Family Guy‘s initial run) was Johnny Cool. There were fifty-one episodes of exceptional quality. The show was like a newer version of The Simpsons in terms of a family-oriented comedy but with a splash of (at the time) refreshing randomness in the humor. It had characters you could care about, stories that were interesting and jokes that made you laugh. In short, everything needed to be a great comedy. And there were 51 episodes so it hardly pulled a Firefly (only 13) before being cancelled.
The holy grail of television comedy between 1999-2004.
Still, what if it came back? That was the hope on everyone’s mind. The first three seasons had been so good, imagine if there was more? Thanks to tremendous DVD sales (very similar to Austin Powers) Fox granted our request and, in 2005, Family Guy returned to television. Since then one hundred and fifty new episodes have appeared and Family Guy is still going strong, ready to begin its twelfth season this fall. But is it any good?
Short answer: no. Blunt answer: it really sucks. Commercial success is no guarantee of quality, simply look at The Simpsons‘ current twenty-four season run to validate that statement. So the question then becomes: what (in my opinion) went wrong? I was a big fan of Family Guy‘s original run, why do I hate the new episodes so much? Happy to elaborate.
In general, this sums up a good portion of my criticism.
Let’s start with the characters. As highlighted above, they did not return to television as they left it. Stewie in particular underwent a drastic change in the style of his humor. Gone were all his inventions, all his over-the-top, nowhere-near-remotely-plausible plans to take over the world. Instead of those jokes, we got gay jokes… which was great since there was no other source of homosexual humor present in Family Guy (besides Jasper, Bruce, Rupert, Herbert, Mr. Weed, etc). Point being, a unique source of jokes was substituted for cruder humor. None of these characters really portray any sophistication either, pretty much every one of them revolves around the concept of “ha ha ha, he likes guys – and he is a guy! That’s so gay and funny!” So why did Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy‘s creator) decide that we needed yet another character dedicated to that style of humor, who knows? Maybe he was too busy with things like American Dad!, The Cleveland Show, and Ted to care.
This persona inspired nearly all the quotes that made Stewie Griffin a famous persona among teenagers. Still it was quickly changed when Family Guy returned.
But more about MacFarlane’s role (or lack thereof) in a moment. Remember those side characters I named. Just a list of five names, did you know all of them? I believe side characters to be an essential tool to increase longevity, especially in the case of comedies. When solid side characters (with depth and personality) are developed, it allows for a few episodes to shift their focus away from the main family, thus helping to prolong the freshness of the main cast. Let me use shows like the Simpsons and South Park for examples. Both developed their town ensembles ridiculously well. In this way, say South Park can devote an entire episode to Mr. Garrison while giving the boys only a cameo appearance. The episode is still funny since Mr. Garrison is more than a cut-out character.
This episode from The Simpsons, entitled “The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase”, made fun of the idea of spin-offs while at the same time devoting an entire episode to some of their stronger side characters.
In my opinion, Family Guy never had the wealth of side comedy enjoyed by the other two shows. Aside from Peter’s immediate neighbors and in-laws, there isn’t much personality to be found in the town of Quahog. And when there is enough personality to salvage maybe an episode or two away from the Griffins, MacFarlane and company decided to take this route instead:
The Cleveland Show (2009-2013) was a poor decision on the part of Fox to further divide MacFarlane’s jokes and comical talent. These characters should migrate back into Family Guy.
When side character strength is a problem, don’t move the stronger ones out of town. This ties into another point: MacFarlane is a funny guy. Love him or hate him, it’s hard to argue with the amount of success he’s had… or didn’t have then suddenly had. Thanks to Family Guy‘s cult success in the DVD market, Seth MacFarlane went from obscurity to household name in a very short time. However I don’t think this success has been properly employed. Rather than simply putting Family Guy back on the air, Fox decided to do that in addition to giving another previously failed MacFarlane pilot the green light: American Dad!. Let the record show that, of the current MacFarlane comedy creations, American Dad! is my favorite. However, it’s creation would further the decay of Family Guy by removing writing talent from its staff. Watch American Dad! and Family Guy close together while remembering that formula I talked about back at the beginning of this article. Characters + story + random jokes = good Family Guy. American Dad! now has the stronger characters and story, leaving Family Guy to survive solely from its bouts of randomness.
Matt Weitzman and Mike Barker were two of Family Guy‘s more prominent creative staff who left to work on American Dad!. Their absence was quickly felt.
But here is the real question: given how lucky Seth MacFarlane’s success was, did he really deserve so many venues for his comedy? Family Guy was not successful the first time it aired, the only reason the series survived to rebirth was because of the DVD sales. That isn’t roaring success by a long shot. Yet Fox was willing to give him multiple shows. Sure, you could argue and say that Fox did the same thing with Matt Groening (The Simpsons‘ creator) by giving him Futurama (we’ll talk more about this show later) but Futurama aired in 1999, the same year as season 11 of The Simpsons: the point where many people feel that The Simpsons began to drop dramatically in quality. Coincidence, I think not.
Imagine a show that combined all these characters and all these stories into one setting. That would be a dynamite comedy on the level of the original Family Guy.
With Seth MacFarlane’s success now branching off into movies (I personally wasn’t a huge fan of Ted – thought it was okay), it is a real question as to how involved he still is with the show that made him famous. Sure, he may voice half the cast but that isn’t the same level of commitment as writing or helping to create characters. I don’t think his heart is in it anymore. But hey, don’t take my words for it – here’s his: “Part of me thinks that Family Guy should have already ended. I think seven seasons is about the right lifespan for a TV series. I talk to the fans and in a way I’m kind of secretly hoping for them to say we’re done with it. There are plenty of people who say the show is kind of over the hill … but still the vast majority go pale in the face when I mention the possibility.”
So there you have it, Family Guy was a short-lived gem that was resurrected into a bloated brand name used to sell evenings on Fox. I don’t think the show has many years left. It will always be remembered as the show that made Seth MacFarlane famous and (for me personally) a highlight during high school in the early 2000s. Yet this was clearly one case where everyone should have left well enough alone and Family Guy should have simply been allowed to rest in peace. Oh well, at least American Dad! is still okay.
Thoughts? Comments? Am I full of it or onto something? Let me know now in the feedback section of this article.
Colin McMahon 