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DVD Review


DVD cover

Family Guy
Season 8

 

Starring (voice): Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Seth Green and Mila Kunis
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
RRP: £27.99
4109201004
Certificate: 15
Available 02 November 2009


Peter and Lois Griffin have three kids: angst-ridden 16-year-old Meg, who only really wants to be noticed; 13-year-old Chris, a sweet-natured slacker; and one-year-old Stewie, a diabolically clever baby who's already bent on world domination. Last but not least, there's Brian, the family's talking dog, who likes his Martinis as dry as his dog food. In Season 8 the Griffin family get into twisted trouble when Peter is injected with a ‘gay gene’ and is subsequently sent to ‘Straight Camp,’ Lois lands a job at Fox News, Stewie builds a time machine, and Brian travels back to WW2 Poland and is caught up in the Nazi invasion...

As I've mentioned in previous reviews of Family Guy the UK DVD releases, while labelled "Season" box sets, don't actually correspond to the original season broadcasts. This box set contains episodes from the show's sixth and seventh seasons (thankfully in order of their original broadcast). This box set contains 12 episode spread across three discs (the third disc only includes two episodes but does house the main extras).

Highlights include:

Back to the Woods: Peter loses his wallet while at a Barry Manilow concert. He only realises it's missing when Lois checks his bank statement and notices that someone is spending a lot of money on his credit card. Peter soon discovers that it's James Wood. Wood commits identity theft and claims the right to Peter's family and possessions. To get his own back Peter decides to become James Wood and ruin his good name.

I Dream of Jesus: Peter is given a record of his favourite song, 'Surfin' Bird' and drives his family crazy by playing it over and over again. At the end of their tether, Stewie and Brian steal the record and destroy it. On the search for another copy, Peter wanders into a second hand record shop and thinks that the guy behind the counter looks like Jesus. When Peter finds out that it actually is Jesus, he sets about preparing him to take his second coming public. While the A-plot is a little dull, it's the inclusion of the '60s 'Surfin' Bird' song and Peter's obsession with it that makes this episode memorable.

Road to Germany: Mort accidentally steps into Stewie's time machine, thinking it's a spare bathroom, and ends up doing back in time to 01 September, 1939 - the start of World War II. Brian and Stewie, realising what has happened, go after Mort. This episode is the fourth in the Brian and Stewie styled road adventures. While not an overly funny episode, there are a few very obvious movie references (all of which use the original music from those films). These include Back to the Future and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

The Man With Two Brians: After Brian gets injured during Peter's own homemade Jackass video, Peter decides to get a new family dog. Everyone instantly falls in love with New Brian, apart from Stewie, who thinks he's just too happy.

Family Gay: In order to pay off his debts, Peter signs up with a medical company in which he becomes a guinea pig for various research projects. One such project sees Peter injected with the gay gene which results in him leaving his family and moving in with his new boyfriend.

Extras include audio commentaries on all episodes; Deleted Scenes (11 min, 38 sec without music or sound effects); Animatic Episodes (Love, Blactually; Long John Peter; and The Man With Two Brians - all with optional commentaries); Take Me Out to pLace Tonight (12 min, 02 sec look behind the episode Tales of a Third Grade Nothing); Family Guy Cribz (23 min, 16 sec tour of the Family Guy studios); Comic-Com 2008 (23 min, 16 sec Q&A. The Cleveland Show is also briefly discussed); and Family Guy Art Show (4 min, 53 sec featurette which looks at the Family Guy staff's regular art shows in which they must all offer up some original art they've created themselves in order for it to be auctioned by the rest of the staff, with the proceeds going to charity).

Another enjoyable collection of episodes which is well worth adding to your collection.

8

Darren Rea

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