Daily Archives: Tuesday, 14th November 2006
Family Guy Season 5 DVD
It’s only six months since I reviewed series 4 of Family Guy, but here we are with another fourteen episodes of the outrageously irreverent, delightfully rude and above all supremely funny cartoon series that makes the Simpsons look quite sensible and respectable.
It looks like the producers have given up trying to get any major channels to show Family Guy in the UK, so the latest episodes have gone direct to DVD. To be honest, this is probably for the best. This way, we can appreciate the show in all its filthy glory, without beeps or edits. And it’s easier to pause, step back and play bits again when you get those “did he really say that???” moments.
Some scenes have been showing up on YouTube for a while, but it’s all so much better in context.
The first episode, PTV, opens with a quite spectacular Police Squad spoof, which features Osama bin Laden fluffing his lines when recording his latest video[1] only to be beaten up by Stewie, who does a bit of Yoda-style fighting[2] before tripping and falling down a cliff in classic Frank Drebin style. And in case you missed the reference, the usual title sequence is replaced by Stewie riding his trike in the manner of the police car in the Police Squad intro. this ends with him running down Homer Simpson.
And after that, it gets funnier and sillier. Totally bonkers musical numbers, Peter founding his own religion (worshipping Fonzie, of course), Brian signing with Frank Sinatra Jr, and far too much more to mention.
Extra features are commentaries on each episode, which I’ll get round to listening to some time, and a load of deleted scenes, which are good fun.
[1] Look, if you want tasteful, this is not the show for you…
[2] With a rubber chicken, naturally
Still at it…
Today’s fun and games involved managing to leave for work a bit early to give myself time to take some pictures on the way in. I wanted to capture Gateshead’s old Town Hall which is currently hiding behind scaffolding while it’s being converted to the temporary home of the Tyneside Cinema. Well, I got that, and also some other interesting things, which I’ll be putting on show later[1].
At lunchtime, I had a nice wander around with my camera – it was well past time I got some more pictures of Westgate House, which is looking a lot smaller now, and I also got some more pictures, at least one of which I’m happy with…
I had to work late, which might have made me decide to get the bus home, but I didn’t succumb to the temptation, and walked as normal. Well, not quite as normal – I took a few pictures on the way. This was my first attempt at night photography with the Canon, and the results are, err, mixed. One or two might be OK after some Photoshop work, but the others are a sign that I really need to take a tripod if I’m going to do that sort of thing.
And after that, I managed to do the usual 10km on the exercise bike, with a peak heart rate of 147.
[1] Probably tomorrow by the time I get round to tweaking and uploading.
