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Category:    Home > Reviews > Animation > Comedy > TV > Family Guy – Volume Four

Family Guy – Volume Four

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B     Extras: B+     Episodes: B

 

 

Family Guy – Volume Four is funnier than that time that Mime got lit on fire….what no clip?  Anyway, here we have the fourth volume of Family Guy, with all the same great humor and insanity as all previous volumes.  Family Guy hit the airwaves over seven years ago in 1999, and the animation world has not been the same since.  Family Guy manages to infuse today’s current events, pop-culture, nostalgia, gratuitous sex and violence, and tons more into a mere half hour time slot.  It has become a growing trend for the Fox Network to cancel top rate shows, Fox attributing this to poor ratings and not to the fact that they move these series around from time slot to time slot.

 

Arrested Development, Futurama, and Family Guy, to name a few, have all fallen victim to this time slot sabotage, but thankfully due to other Networks (such as Cartoon Network) picking up these orphaned series in syndication, and in turn gaining groundbreaking ratings, Fox has reanalyzed certain series and brought them back from the dead.  It is not only syndication which has saved this series but also the fact that its first two Volumes are amongst the highest selling DVD Box Sets of all time.  Family Guy’s prime target audience is young adults, generally 15-25 years of age, and this is just fine with series creator Seth MacFarlane who not only writes and directs but also voices many of the series’ characters.  The creative powerhouse that is Family Guy holds its ground when compared to such classics as The Simpsons and the now ten year old South Park.

 

To this reviewer it remains simply amazing that a series like Family Guy manages to entertain viewing after viewing, throwing onlookers into fits of laughing hysteria.  This sweet set contains some of the best Family Guy episodes to date, including PTV, The Father, The Son and The Holy Fonz, and much more.  Many other series have managed to infuse themselves into our culture, such as Seinfeld (“NO SOUP FOR YOU!”), and Family Guy is no different not a day going by since the series has aired that this reviewer has not heard something along the lines of “For every pickle I find…I shall kill you!”  The fact remains that Family Guy is some of the best, purely entertaining TV today and at this rate the series is only getting better.

 

The voice cast of the series is as special and essential to the show as the creative writing.  Many great voice actors overtake the series such as Alex Borstein (Mad TV), Seth Green (Robot Chicken), Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld), Mila Kunis (That 70’s Show), Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy Creator), and many more.  The dedication that the voice cast has to the series is completely evident, especially when interviews are seen explaining their ecstatic reactions to the series being picked-up again by Fox.  Overall, this Volume (4) as well as the other three volumes of the series are a must have for any DVD collection, and this reviewer personally can’t wait to see what this crazy crew does next.

 

Here is a full list of Family Guy – Volume Four’s 14 gut busting episodes:

 

PTV

Brian Goes Back to College

The Courtship of Stewie’s Father

The Fat Guy Strangler

The Father, The Son and The Holy Fonz

Brian Sings and Swings

Patriot Games

I Take Thee Quagmire

Sibling Rivalry

Deep Throats

Peterotica

You May Now Kiss the…Uh…Guy Who Receives

Petergeist

The Griffin Family History

 

 

This DVD set is very well presented in picture, sound, and especially extras.  This TV on DVD set’s picture is presented in a sufficient 1.33:1 full frame format, with adequate clarity and DVD transfer that is quite good for animation.  The sound quality of this DVD set is quite good in its Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound format, the quality being well distributed and clear.  The extras compliment the set very well.  Not only is there a plethora of extras but the audience will want to watch them again and again just like the episodes.  The extras range from Commentaries on every episode, 40 deleted scenes, 3 featurettes, and many more special features. In the end, a very well put together set.

 

A great television series such as Family Guy could not have been subdued for long, hence its reemergence in movie form and its prime time television comeback.  Other shows such as Futurama who experienced the same fate as Family Guy will soon see the light of day once again, soon to reappear on TV and straight to DVD movies.  Family Guy – Volume Four is a collection essential that will make you laugh from morning to night.

 

 

-   Michael P. Dougherty II


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