Family Guy is one of those shows people always say used to be great but declined over time; similar to The Simpsons or (sometimes) South Park. Personally, I’ve seen clips of it online but never really watched full episodes. I figured I’d start from Season 1 and see if it really has declined or if people are just being overly nostalgic; either way, S1 was a great start to the series. The setup is pretty simple, Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Stewie and Brian Griffin all live together and get into various shenanigans as they go about their daily lives. It’s pretty different from some of the other shows I’ve reviewed in that it doesn’t really have a serialized storyline; every episode is a self-contained plot that resets at the conclusion. Reviewing all the EPs individually is way too much for me though, so I’ll be speaking in general terms unless a particular episode is exceptionally good or bad.
This first season is only 7 episodes for some reason, idk maybe the networks weren’t very confident in the show. It makes up for a lack of quantity with quality though, as they’re all really solid. My personal favorite was “Brian: Portrait of a Dog” as it managed to combine the humor and drama very seamlessly, whereas the others tended to lean more towards one or the other. Peter and Lois got a ton of focus, with most of the plotlines centering on them and Meg / Chris / Stewie / Brian mainly being in the background. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it felt kinda weird for there to be so little focus on Stewie when I imagined he’d be the main B plot of every episode. The video that gave me the final push to give the show a chance mentioned how the main focus of S1 was family, which I definitely agree with. Most of the episodes centered on the family dynamics of the Griffin household, with Peter doing dumb crap but redeeming himself before the end of each episode. Apparently this changes drastically in later seasons, but we’ll see how things progress. In general, I don’t have too much to say about this first season; it’s just a really solid, hilarious animated sitcom with great writing and funny cutaway gags. I hope the series can keep up this momentum into Season 2!