Blood on TV

I was watching the Sunday night cartoons tonight. You know the ones... Simpson, Family Guy, American Dad... Well anyways did y'all watch them tonight? They were so violent gorey! Like exceptionally so! I mean normally there is a bit of violent humour in all three, that is really nothing new, but all three seemed to be exceptionally gruesome tonight.

On Simpsons Homer was taking Bart to a camp for bad boys called "Upward Bound". On the way there Homer manages to almost drive the car over a cliff, it is hanging over the cliff, two wheels on, two wheels off and Bart (who is not in the car as he was hitchhiking) comes to help Homer. Homer asks him to push on the bumper so he can drive backwards... As Bart does so Homer starts ranting death threats at Bart, how he is going to kill him, bury him in a shallow grave, dig him up and kill him again.. And so forth. This is not the normal violent-banter between Bart & Homer. This is was quite murderous and troubling. By the end of the episode Marge has gotten arrested for selling Homer's old prescription meds to the neighbourhood teens, Homer is in jail for something in Nevada and is obviously drunk and Bart is missing somewhere in Nevada. Lisa walks in, listens to the two phone messages with this news and says to Maggie "somehow I always figured it would en up being you and me. I'll start to look for a job in the morning" and that's the end of the episode.

Family Guy saw Brian take up a bet on a pro-celebrity boxing match with Stewie. Upon losing the bet Stewie give Brian 24 hours to come up with the money. When he fails to do so Stewie smashes a glass cup over his head and beats him with his fists, feet and a towel rod in the bathroom where Brian was showering. Brian is all bloodied up by the end, bruised and limping, He then has a broken arm in the next frame and tells the family he fell down the stairs. When Brian does not get Stewie the money promptly Stewie comes after him with a golf club, beats him with until he's bloodied and pushes him down the stairs. They continue to wrestle in the living room and Stewie pulls a gun and shoots Brian in both his knee caps, which then bleed profusely. Stewie them pulls a flame thrower and starts Brian on fire. I mean really! That's a bit too far!

On American Dad Steve thinks he's a werewolf after being mauled by one in the woods. His friends, to help him sleep through the night without killing, tie his hands, gag him with a ball gag and put him in a kimono when asks why Barry says it's what his mum does to his dad. In the night Francine comes in and unties Steve and removes the ball-gag and goes to bed. A real wolf, that Roger was keeping in the attic escapes through Steve's open window mauls and murders a dog, which is shown bloody and trying to escape and then jumps back through the window and splatters blood on Steve and his room. Upon waking Steve is covered in blood and thinks he's attacked and killed the dog. Later in the episode Steve asks his friends to kill him with a silver bullet. He says before they do so his only regret is never being able to touch a boob so Barry offers that he can feel him up, which Steve does... Very disturbing.

So I don't know.. I get that violence sells, but that was a bit much. I mean I totally get shock factor and all but even I think that perhaps Fox is taking it to far with their shows and the content. Family Guy was funny in the first season with minimal swearing and violence... Now it's a just an all-out gong show every episode and I really don't approve of the direction Simpsons is going. It's as though they are trying to be shocking like the other Fox shows to get equal ratings, but the problem is that the Simpsons isn't supposed to be shocking like that. It's not what the fan-base wants.

While I'm ranting about the Simpson I'd also like to note I really haven't enjoyed the direction the show has been taking for about two seasons now, if not more. I hate how every time something significant happens in an episode it has no bearing on the rest of the episodes. For example Maggie & Lisa are left all alone tonight but by next week the family will be re-united and for the most part the incident will never be spoken of again unless Marge uses it against Homer in a rage. It used to be that the only episodes that couldn't be counted towards the whole were the Treehouse of Horror episodes and now it seems that every episode is its own entity and not part of the bigger whole and I really, really dislike that.