Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... so that explains that fucked up opening sequence. I was wondering what was going on, but didn't make the connected between the billboard with "Banksy" spray painted on it, and that royally dark 'couch gag' ... I thought the two things were totally separate, but I was like "what the fuck kind of opening is that ... how did they even get away with that?!"
Although isn't The Simpson's all done on computer now, so there's no cell painting anymore ... still though, plenty of cheap merchandise and dvds to produce. 
I thought the last season of American Dad was quite good actually, it was the best of the three animated shows. Family Guy was up and down - some excellent episodes, but an equal number of utter stinkers and bore-fests. The Simpson's is likewise very up-and-down. Sometimes it can be a real sharp episode with some biting satire in there, or just a ruddy good story told well with some great gags ... but then at the same time there are some really dull episodes.
I think American Dad is the most interesting of all the shows ... for example the newest one with Steve getting cloned. Last season had quite a lot of good episodes, like the one where Steve goes all 'Nam flashback' at a re-enactment thing on a golf course, and that John Carpenter-esque episode about the end of the world - those were two superb episodes. Sometimes they're a bit shit, but I think AD is the best of the four animated shows that Fox pimp out on Sunday nights.
The Cleveland Show is decidedly unfunny 99% of the time. Occasionally they can make a good episode, or put a good gag in here or there, but goddamn it's just dull most of the time. Family Guy is a real mixed bag - it can be properly funny, or eye-rollingly blunt about politics, or just dreadfully unfunny. The Simpson's is a mixed bag also - sometimes they can put out a real corker, but generally they come out "meh", and sometimes they're just utterly rubbish. American Dad is the only one of the four - for me - that is more likely to hit than miss ... but like all these shows, it can miss ... and when it does, it's a stinker.
If only they didn't crank out 22 episodes per season. If they did a limited season of say 13 episodes then I'm sure they'd be able to really ramp up the quality-to-crap ratio in a positive direction.
Speaking of all these animated shows - we now have Futurama back in our lives. There have been a couple of dud episodes, but most of them have at least been consistently entertaining, if not properly witty - and what's more, very intelligent in how it takes a scientific or mathematical or whatever theory and runs with it to make a real mind-bender of an episode. The four movies they did were diminishing returns. The first was brilliant, the second was pretty good, the third was mostly unfunny, and the fourth was really quite naff ... plus the 'hammer you over the head' approach to anything to do with the environment just comes off as preachy and, at worst, fascistic. Thankfully though Futurama is a consistent deliverer of quality funnies, with only the odd stinker here and there.
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Originally Posted by MinionZombie
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