October 22nd, 2009 8:30 pm

‘Family Guy’ Season Eight

As controversial as the material is, it’s hard to find faults with a show that speaks so honestly about our society’s flaws.

Seth McFarland’s hilarious animated satire returns with ‘Family Guy’ Season Eight.

The 3-disc set brings 13 more episodes to DVD, following the outrageous Griffin family (Peter, Lois, Chris, Meg, Stewie and Brian) as they take poke fun at even more pop cultural references.

Part of what makes ‘Family Guy’ so successful, is its ability to find humour in our society and culture.

It draws heavily from the truth — exploiting our most transparent absurdities.

From our society’s attitude towards religion, corporate structure and homosexuality, ‘Family Guy’ exploits it all.

The show even looks back at war torn Poland in 1939, during the rise of Nazi Germany.

As controversial as the material is, it’s hard to find faults with a show that speaks so honestly about our society’s flaws.

Having said that, its not without its own flaws. Generally, a lack of direction in the overall storyline sense, though common with most animated series.

As far as bonus features go, ‘Family Guy’ Season Eight is packed. Like previous season releases, every episode comes with an audio commentary from the show’s cast and crew. With such controversial subject matter, it’s great to get an insight into the mind of the makers and their individual opinions on these topics.

There are also several deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes featurettes, giving fans even more insight into the hit series.

For those not fortunate enough to visit Comic-Con in San Francisco, like me, the DVD set also includes the entire panel session from the 2008 convention.

The biggest problem with this DVD set is the way Twentieth Century Fox have decided to structure their ‘Family Guy’ releases. In the US, Fox began to distribute the show in half volumes, splitting seasons into multiple releases.

This not only becomes confusing for watchers, but local distributors have seemingly also become confused. This “season eight” release is actually the last 4 episodes of season six and the first 9 episodes of season seven.

Apart from the inherent cataloguing problems, ‘Family Guy’ Season Eight makes a given addition to any ‘Family Guy’ DVD collection.

The only question is: when can I get Season Nine (aka Season Seven Part 2)?