DVD Review: Family Guy Season 13

 

The big "event" of Season 13 of Family Guy was the crossover with The Simpsons in which the Griffons find themselves in Springfield. All of the major Simpsons characters appeared, and there were inside jokes and callbacks to things from the past of both shows. From there, the season pretty much played out as it always has, basically having a storyline or two of the week in a given episode, but not really any kind of story arc extending through the season.

For those who get the DVD, the episodes are uncensored (they drop f-bombs quite frequently) and, because the show is still popular, you do get some extras. These include a making-of feature on The Simpsons episode, deleted scenes, an animatic version of the episode where Brian and Stewie take Chris through time to teach him history, and commentary tracks on select episodes. My only complaint is that the commentary tracks are not accessible through the extras menu. You have to go into the menu for each individual episode to see if there is one available for that particular episode. So, if you use the "play all" feature to watch the episodes, then go into the extras menu, you have no way of knowing which episodes have commentary tracks and which do not. Aside from that, you get a good amount of material if you like going through the bonus features.

By now, anyone who is considering getting this knows what the show is and what it is not. The jokes can be very offensive and almost no topic is off-limits. While I still think that the original run of episodes from before FOX canceled it after the second or third season was the best, it is still a strong series (if you like adult (sometimes very adult) humor). If however, you have never been a big fan of the show, nothing about season 13 is likely to change your mind.