Family Guy: Volume Seven

I love Family Guy but I am not a fanatic; I could not list every occurrence where modern father figure, Peter Griffin, loses his train of thought because someone has casually said words like "meat" or "rack." (Imagine the potential if Peter were to walk into a butcher shop.) I had not seen too much of the sixth season on television and expected an evening of riotous laughter to ensue with the new DVD. What I got instead was sporadic laughter and mild disappointment. It was probably after the third cutaway to a Back to the Future reference that things started to feel much more lazy than inspired. I shouldn't suggest that the 13-episode season is a complete waste. In "I Dream of Jesus," Peter discovers Jesus working in a record store and decides the world is ready for the second coming. Unfortunately, Jesus was not ready for our fame-obsessed society and it isn't long before he's being photographed without underwear getting out of a limo. And in "Family Gay," Peter is injected with the gay gene as part of an experiment he has to take part in to earn money to repair the damages his mentally challenged horse caused at the track and before long, he is making muffins and enjoying an all-male orgy for his birthday. The three-disc set also contains commentary with creator, Seth MacFarlane, plenty of funny deleted scenes, three animatic episodes and other assorted throwaway features. With The Cleveland Show debuting this fall and American Dad still growing, Family Guy talent will be spread even thinner moving forward. Here's a tip. Playing an entire Conway Twitty song as a distraction is not an old joke pushed to the extreme; it is just a way to avoid writing any material whatsoever for something like three whole minutes of screen time.