THE PLOT THUS FAR
There’s a killer amongst us as the citizens of Quahog gather at James Woods’ mansion for a night of intrigue and murder! Will Peter solve the mystery…or will he just make it worse, as usual? Join all your Family Guy favorites for this classic whodunit, plus 13 other hilarious episodes, including the show’s milestone 150th episode, the controversial “Extra Large Medium,” and more!
WHAT WE THOUGHT
The ninth volume of “Family Guy” is really the eighth season. But, you have to account for the weird DVD release pattern and the fact that the show was off the air for a few years. Plus, you’ve got episodes aired out of order and episodes that didn’t even make it to the television screen. There’s a healthy mix episodes on here, but given the saturation of the show on FOX, TBS and Adult Swim, you’re probably on your twentieth viewing of each episode. To put into perspective, “We Love Conrad” has finally made it to DVD. “The Simpsons” have an excuse since they’re looking at twenty plus years. Hell, FOX is lucky to get a full season order out of these guys in a year.
In the sense of the bigger picture, Family Guy is the prime example of the declining value of comedy in today’s society. We have lowered our expectations, and so we get this. Comedy used to be about a good punchline and careful observation. Now it almost brings a tear to my eye to see what has happened. Look at those Comedy Central roasts they do. This season and the last is not the first time it happened. Mainly because Family Guy doesn’t really have an ending, so when they have enough episodes to create a ‘volume’ they will create one so they can get it to fans asap. This can be good or bad. It’s good for people like me who await each volume each year so I can continue my collection but it is bad for people just coming into the series. I for one have seen all the episodes on this Vol. 9 so I don’t really care when they split or whatever.
The DVD comes with commentary, comic book style deleted scenes, regular deleted scenes, animatics and a bonus episode of The Cleveland Show. The A/V Quality is OK for standard definition. The big boon is actually having the show uncensored and presented the way it was shot. A lot of the jokes actually work better now without network mandated trimmings. The DD 5.1 track is really strong, however I’m a little annoyed that the last three episodes on this set weren’t saved for a Blu-Ray release. You make the jump to HD for a reason and it’s not to have it relegated to DVD. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase to fans.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
