With television critics lining up to say Family Guy and The Simpsons ain't as good as they used to be, it would have been easy for 'an event'.
A big gimmick, persay, where the two mediums could have attracted attention back upon themselves to bring in the ratings and insist they still had something to say. Family Guy has already tried that, with last year seeing the unnecessary killing of Brian Griffin.
When it was first announced Fox's two animated titans were going to fuse together for one comedy event, it was easy to sneer at it. Many say The Simpsons has not been of high quality since the turn of the century, while Family Guy has failed to reach its earlier heights since Seth MacFarlane's movie career has taken off. Granted, both still have the moments, but we are a long time after the show's respective heydays.
Yet after months of anticipation, engineered controversy, trails, deliberation of its merits and all that other stuff, the return of the two shows sees us presented with this for our amusement.
To understand The Simpsons Guy is to understand two things. Firstly, this is a Family Guy episode with Simpsons voice actors and characters guest starring. Secondly, this spends a lot of time riffing on imitation, which is an accusation Family Guy has frequently been guilty of, and which was once done by The Simpsons themselves in 1996's The Day The Violence Died.
That episode was a smartly done riff that evolved from the Itchy & Scratchy cartoons. This, by contrast, is an attempt to make a TV event.
It starts in fairly standard style. Peter Griffin becomes a newspaper cartoonist who very quickly offends the town's women, so after threats and brick throwing, the Griffins decide to skedaddle, which ultimately sees them get their car stolen from a petrol station on the outskirts of a town filled with yellow people.
This is duly the Griffins in Springfield moment, and the animation together is a very good blending together of the styles to make the Griffin family look like they could actually be there. As the two shows are animated and coloured differently - and not just in the yellow skin - there was enough to make it a challenge to make them look like they could exist alongside on screen, so the animators do get commendation for their part.
The bits in Springfield are largely centred on two pairings - Homer/Peter and Bart/Stewie. The Lisa/Meg pairing only gets two scenes, Marge/Lois are background characters, and there is one scene involving Chris and Brian walking/losing Santa's Little Helper, but the first two get priority, with the first one the main plot.
One criticism of the recent weaker series of Family Guy is the stupidly high number of Peter-centric episodes, which are easy enough to write and create plots for, but harder to make memorable jokes out of.
Its tricky to know if there's a standout gag that would stand up to the heavy duty repetition this will undoubtedly get on repeat channels, but there's enough amusing gags littered throughout. The Bart/Stewie stuff is perhaps the better of it, and may have made a more compelling piece harking back to the Simpson's roots.
After all, it is easy to forget that The Simpsons was, for its first few years, a show centered on Bart, while Family Guy's best episodes are usually focused around Stewie, and there was lots of amusing stuff dotted in the difference between Bart's pranks and Stewie's psychopathic tendencies.
Most of the episode is focused on Homer and Peter, and their pairing is really ramped up the further into the hour we progress. This leads to the big imitation set-piece, with the respective beers - Pawtucket Patriot Ale and Duff Beer - accused of imitation and lacking old quality, which leads to a trial and even a gag of Fred Flintstone as a judge.
This duly spawns that most used of Family Guy gags in the form of the Giant Chicken fight, which sees Homer and Peter spend a whopping eight minutes punching and walloping one another through Springfield. A multitude of characters and Simpsons references spin and out of the fight, including Otto, Ralph Wiggum, Kang and Kodos, Roger from American Dad, and the infamous Springfield Gorge tumble.
The overlong fight is the finalish gag of the whole show, and its an interesting composition when you analyse it as a whole.
There is certainly nothing to dispute such a crossover having taken place, and there are plenty of amusing gags. Certainly, its is absolutely the case that this is much better than anything in the last series of Family Guy, which was a stale regurgitation of much of the stuff that has been in its comic repertoire since the turn of the decade.
It would have been a bit more to see some Simpsons writers given more input. There is certainly some superficial involvement, but this is mainly a Family Guy episode that just happens to be in Springfield. A heavily advised episode that was signed off by Simpsons production staff and had some input from Matt Groening and co, but a Family Guy episode nevertheless.
In truth, it could've used the sleight of hand on the Simpsons side. Family Guy's writing is not as up to scratch as its MacFarlane stable mate and now former channel-mates at American Dad, and there are times when the fusing of writers could have pitched in some better material than standard rape and race material that Family Guy is beating into the ground.
By the time the credits go past, it is certain that there is no problem with the show's existence. There are amusing moments, it looks good and the whole thing does just about seem to work. But it could have provided some more full-on laughs, and maybe in the shows respective heydays it could have done, but here, it could've used some more full on laughs.
Maybe The Simpsons/Futurama crossover in November will provide some.
3.5/5
Monday, 29 September 2014
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Frank Turner at Cambridge Corn Exchange - Live Review
Where do you go after the biggest highs of your career? Small(ish) venues and new stuff, naturally.
Earlier this year, Frank Turner truly crashed into the pop/rock bigtime. Headline concerts at caverns like the O2 Arena in London and the Phones 4 U Arena in Manchester, bill-topping slots at several small regional festivals, even a win on Celebrity Mastermind - this has a huge year for the singer.
It could have been easy after that to take some time off, compose some new ditties and then head to the studios. But instead, a new material road-test has been commissioned, making stop overs in a wide variety of regional towns and cities.
This is Turner's first performance in Cambridge for 3 years - the last of which being at a church in 2011 - and the locals are in the mood for a good time from the off. They dance to opening duo Try This At Home and If Ever I Stray as if to make up for last time, while Turner belts his couplets from the stage.
In truth, the opening numbers are slightly hindered by sonic problems which will be an issue throughout the evening, but they get the standing crowd moshing and what is audible is certainly effective at getting the crowd off and running.
Four songs in comes our first gasp at new material, in the form of the sprightly uptempo Out of Breath - a song that could promise to be a big tune when the expected new record lands next year. Certainly, its the strongest of the five new ones premiered here.
Naturally, its the hits that the crowd are in town for. The Road and Reasons Not To Be An Idiot inspiring early dancing, while a combination of I Am Disappeared and The Way I Tend To Be inspires the biggest singalong of the opening of the concert.
In amongst this is a new track called Glorious You, which is one of many that is a work in progress, and is one of two to receive full live debuts at this show. The other full debutant is the first of Turner's 3 song acoustic set, and is entitled Silent Key, which is a tribute to a schoolteacher that was killed in the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986.
The other acoustics are social media request - one of which from a couple in the audience who played it at their wedding - before some big guns. Wessex Boy inspires some singing to its gentile groove, before Photosynthesis gets the biggest sing-a-long of the entire night and even some joining in from a largely sedate balcony.
As the evening progresses, the sonic problems are beginning to come worse, with both electric and bass guitars having audio problems. This is biggest on the new song Josephine, which despite having the bones of a good track, is heavily reliant on a bass riff that the speakers don't seem to broadcast.
Not that the crowd are determined to let that stop them a good time. Recovery sees the band's sound technician lead the crowd through frenzied jumping, before Long Live the Queen - despite guitarist Ben Lloyd's lead riff being mute and Frank Turner's guitar stopping working - inspires a fine singalong to close the main set.
Naturally, the first end is not the end, and the band duly returned for another quartet of tunes. An acoustic song entitled The Angel Islington - which Turner described as a sequel to the downbeat Broken Piano on Tape Deck Heart - opens up the encore nicely.
A final trio closes off, culminating in a rampant singalong for I Still Believe and exhausted but delightful dancing for Four Simple Words to pull the certain down on Turner's 1,613th concert.
It wasn't the best show of Turner's career, with poor acoustics hindering the night's quality. But the new material is certainly hinting at promise to come, with recording expected of the new album after the band's tour is wrapped up in Cambridge's university rivals Oxford at the end of the month.
Alongside that, the crowd were loving all the immaculately crafted old stuff that has elevated Turner into bigger rooms than this one, and helped the enjoyment of the show beyond the limited sonic scape.
In all, it was a success, and more with any luck, further decent shows will follow when he returns with his new record next year.
3.5/5
Opening for Turner and his band were Minnesota duo Koo Koo Kanga Roo, who had previously opened for Turner in the United States. The duo are certainly different, having been described as "Beastie Boys meets Sesame Street", and providing merrily nonsensical tunes that began to work a charm on the Cambridge crowd as the evening progressed.
Things then progressed even more when the duo went into the crowd, creating a pit in the middle of the venue while they danced, and even ending the show by bringing out a kid's parachute over the crowd during the final tune. Its certainly a world away from conventional acts of almost every genre, but it worked in getting the crowd pumped up for the concert.
Earlier this year, Frank Turner truly crashed into the pop/rock bigtime. Headline concerts at caverns like the O2 Arena in London and the Phones 4 U Arena in Manchester, bill-topping slots at several small regional festivals, even a win on Celebrity Mastermind - this has a huge year for the singer.
It could have been easy after that to take some time off, compose some new ditties and then head to the studios. But instead, a new material road-test has been commissioned, making stop overs in a wide variety of regional towns and cities.
This is Turner's first performance in Cambridge for 3 years - the last of which being at a church in 2011 - and the locals are in the mood for a good time from the off. They dance to opening duo Try This At Home and If Ever I Stray as if to make up for last time, while Turner belts his couplets from the stage.
In truth, the opening numbers are slightly hindered by sonic problems which will be an issue throughout the evening, but they get the standing crowd moshing and what is audible is certainly effective at getting the crowd off and running.
Four songs in comes our first gasp at new material, in the form of the sprightly uptempo Out of Breath - a song that could promise to be a big tune when the expected new record lands next year. Certainly, its the strongest of the five new ones premiered here.
Naturally, its the hits that the crowd are in town for. The Road and Reasons Not To Be An Idiot inspiring early dancing, while a combination of I Am Disappeared and The Way I Tend To Be inspires the biggest singalong of the opening of the concert.
In amongst this is a new track called Glorious You, which is one of many that is a work in progress, and is one of two to receive full live debuts at this show. The other full debutant is the first of Turner's 3 song acoustic set, and is entitled Silent Key, which is a tribute to a schoolteacher that was killed in the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986.
The other acoustics are social media request - one of which from a couple in the audience who played it at their wedding - before some big guns. Wessex Boy inspires some singing to its gentile groove, before Photosynthesis gets the biggest sing-a-long of the entire night and even some joining in from a largely sedate balcony.
As the evening progresses, the sonic problems are beginning to come worse, with both electric and bass guitars having audio problems. This is biggest on the new song Josephine, which despite having the bones of a good track, is heavily reliant on a bass riff that the speakers don't seem to broadcast.
Not that the crowd are determined to let that stop them a good time. Recovery sees the band's sound technician lead the crowd through frenzied jumping, before Long Live the Queen - despite guitarist Ben Lloyd's lead riff being mute and Frank Turner's guitar stopping working - inspires a fine singalong to close the main set.
Naturally, the first end is not the end, and the band duly returned for another quartet of tunes. An acoustic song entitled The Angel Islington - which Turner described as a sequel to the downbeat Broken Piano on Tape Deck Heart - opens up the encore nicely.
A final trio closes off, culminating in a rampant singalong for I Still Believe and exhausted but delightful dancing for Four Simple Words to pull the certain down on Turner's 1,613th concert.
It wasn't the best show of Turner's career, with poor acoustics hindering the night's quality. But the new material is certainly hinting at promise to come, with recording expected of the new album after the band's tour is wrapped up in Cambridge's university rivals Oxford at the end of the month.
Alongside that, the crowd were loving all the immaculately crafted old stuff that has elevated Turner into bigger rooms than this one, and helped the enjoyment of the show beyond the limited sonic scape.
In all, it was a success, and more with any luck, further decent shows will follow when he returns with his new record next year.
3.5/5
Opening for Turner and his band were Minnesota duo Koo Koo Kanga Roo, who had previously opened for Turner in the United States. The duo are certainly different, having been described as "Beastie Boys meets Sesame Street", and providing merrily nonsensical tunes that began to work a charm on the Cambridge crowd as the evening progressed.
Things then progressed even more when the duo went into the crowd, creating a pit in the middle of the venue while they danced, and even ending the show by bringing out a kid's parachute over the crowd during the final tune. Its certainly a world away from conventional acts of almost every genre, but it worked in getting the crowd pumped up for the concert.
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
New Season, Different Cast, Same Problem
Newcastle fans are at the best of times an easy bunch to rile up.
For many years since the arrival of Mike Ashley, there have been plenty of moments to rile fans - almost in the manner of a bull being waved a red (and blue) flag. Be it renaming the stadium after his own firm twice, the sacking of Chris Hughton, selling Andy Carroll 45 minutes before the transfer deadline in January 2011, underselling Yohan Cabaye, appointing Joe Kinnear twice, investing the bare minimum or presiding over relegation, the owner is clearly a problem issue.
His lapdog manager and cheap coaching staff is hardly a help either. Alan Pardew is in debt to the owner after his mind-bogglingly stupid headbutt at Hull in March - along with his alleged gambling debts - and as a result remains in charge, while a cheaply assembled coaching staff who clearly need a refresher in certain aspects toil beneath him.
Therein lies the issue of how a supposedly impressive summer has fallen flat in practice. It looked as though for once, things may have actually gone right. Nine new players went into St. James' Park, including World Cup players and other internationals.
But when you think about it further, the £39million spent on players is essentially the same money received for Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy, who left for these combined fees to PSG and Arsenal respectively, with a little petty cash on top.
This means that for 2014, the club has a net spend of £5million, despite receiving over £80million for a top-half finish last season. Naturally, some of this will be going towards the club's wage bill, but there is no reason at all why this shouldn't have included a fee for another player, be it in attack or in defence - both areas the club looked light in coming to transfer deadline day.
We could have and should have bought in the new centre-half early, and its not as if some weren't available. But it appears Pardew wanted to maintain a centre back pairing of Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson - a pairing which was so successful for opposition strikers during our depressing cycle of maulings at the end of last season.
Rather than strengthen this department, the board have inexplicably made it weaker. While Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa had difficult spells in black and white, his more technical defensive strategy would have made him a good long term replacement for Roma. Yet somehow, the limited Williamson and the embarrassing Steven Taylor are ahead of him.
We needed that new centre-half, but the only signing made there - Jamaal Lascelles - was immediately loaned back to Nottingham Forest, meaning any injury to one of our defenders and youngsters like Curtis Good and Remie Streete are being thrown in at the deep end. Maybe they will come good but its a bold gamble to take.
The lack of signing a new goalscorer is painstakingly problematic. Loic Remy was never going to stay on Tyneside, but the almost willful blindness is baffling. It puts a lot on players new to the country - so far, Emmanuel Riviere has led the line but has never once looked like scoring, Ayoze Perez shows promise but is only used sparingly and Facundo Ferreyra appears to have gone missing since his unveiling at the start of August.
It appears as though the club are expecting Papiss Cisse to immediately turn good again after he returns from injury in November - a bold anticipation given he has been dreadful for most of the last two seasons.
As if that wasn't enough, we then move onto the fans' biggest bone with the whole sorry shenanigans. That is Hatem Ben Arfa, who was sent out on loan to Hull City on deadline day.
The terms of the Premier League loan moves means that Ben Arfa won't be playing for the Tigers at St. James' Park and showing up what can only be described as a shaky defensive regiment. But for all his flaws, he is still a good player, and if he leads Hull to performances that keep them above the Toon for the 2014/15 campaign, then the calls of Pardew's incompetence will grow louder.
Ben Arfa has only joined the Tigers because of the fact that he fell out with Pardew, which also explains the unnecessary and perhaps even more damaging departure of Yanga-Mbiwa.
Not for the first time, Pardew blamed the fans for a bad result - this time, he blamed them for the concession of a 95th minute goal to draw against Crystal Palace. But against Palace its doubtful we deserved a win anyway.
Until the introduction of youngster Rolando Aarons, our attack was plodding and looked like it would never break through a six man defence Palace turned up with. Yohan Gouffran looked disinterested, Moussa Sissoko ran without product and the new trio of Remy Cabella, Siem de Jong and Riviere never looked in the game at all. Indeed, all our defensive and attacking running in midfield seemed to be left to Jack Colback, and while he may have been dubbed the Ginger Pirlo by fans after his England call-up this week, that is a lot of responsibility on one player's shoulders.
The failure in coaching in attack is becoming an epidemic. We have only scored in eight league games in 2014, and rarely look like scoring to boot. Some fans argue we send too many forward but its not the numbers as the pace. The team's ponderous attack wastes opportunities with ponderous slow-motion play, and the set-pieces remain by and large as woeful as ever.
The problem for this, conspiring to make a thin squad even thinner and selling players for disagreeing with him rests with Pardew, who resembles a spent force on Tyneside. Some fans drew similarities between Saturday's 3-3 draw with Palace and a 3-3 draw with Wimbledon FC at the start of the 1999-00 season, which put huge pressure on then-manager Ruud Gullit, who was duly dismissed from the job after defeat in the Tyne-Wear Derby later that week that left the club marooned in the bottom 2
While Ashley's continual bare minimum spending approach continues to damage the squad, the situation is exacerbated by a man woefully inept at controlling and coaching his playing squad, and the sooner he goes, the better.
Sadly, Pardew is only two years into the albatross that is that eight year deal, and it would take an almost biblical lack of form to see the back of him. Unluckily for him, such a run is looming - Newcastle lost all four equivalent fixtures of their next four, and against all four opponents, displayed awful performances. A similar run here would leave the Toon bottom of the Premiership in the October international break, which would encourage even further fan dissent and then what?
This fatalism is perhaps the only way Pardew would be removed from office, but until then, we're going to have to hope for him to actually recall the tactics and harmony of the famous 5th place campaign rather than his plodding, stodgy, dreary anti-football adopted since.
This situation cannot continue as is and at some point, something is going to have to give.
For many years since the arrival of Mike Ashley, there have been plenty of moments to rile fans - almost in the manner of a bull being waved a red (and blue) flag. Be it renaming the stadium after his own firm twice, the sacking of Chris Hughton, selling Andy Carroll 45 minutes before the transfer deadline in January 2011, underselling Yohan Cabaye, appointing Joe Kinnear twice, investing the bare minimum or presiding over relegation, the owner is clearly a problem issue.
His lapdog manager and cheap coaching staff is hardly a help either. Alan Pardew is in debt to the owner after his mind-bogglingly stupid headbutt at Hull in March - along with his alleged gambling debts - and as a result remains in charge, while a cheaply assembled coaching staff who clearly need a refresher in certain aspects toil beneath him.
Therein lies the issue of how a supposedly impressive summer has fallen flat in practice. It looked as though for once, things may have actually gone right. Nine new players went into St. James' Park, including World Cup players and other internationals.
But when you think about it further, the £39million spent on players is essentially the same money received for Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy, who left for these combined fees to PSG and Arsenal respectively, with a little petty cash on top.
This means that for 2014, the club has a net spend of £5million, despite receiving over £80million for a top-half finish last season. Naturally, some of this will be going towards the club's wage bill, but there is no reason at all why this shouldn't have included a fee for another player, be it in attack or in defence - both areas the club looked light in coming to transfer deadline day.
We could have and should have bought in the new centre-half early, and its not as if some weren't available. But it appears Pardew wanted to maintain a centre back pairing of Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson - a pairing which was so successful for opposition strikers during our depressing cycle of maulings at the end of last season.
Rather than strengthen this department, the board have inexplicably made it weaker. While Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa had difficult spells in black and white, his more technical defensive strategy would have made him a good long term replacement for Roma. Yet somehow, the limited Williamson and the embarrassing Steven Taylor are ahead of him.
We needed that new centre-half, but the only signing made there - Jamaal Lascelles - was immediately loaned back to Nottingham Forest, meaning any injury to one of our defenders and youngsters like Curtis Good and Remie Streete are being thrown in at the deep end. Maybe they will come good but its a bold gamble to take.
The lack of signing a new goalscorer is painstakingly problematic. Loic Remy was never going to stay on Tyneside, but the almost willful blindness is baffling. It puts a lot on players new to the country - so far, Emmanuel Riviere has led the line but has never once looked like scoring, Ayoze Perez shows promise but is only used sparingly and Facundo Ferreyra appears to have gone missing since his unveiling at the start of August.
It appears as though the club are expecting Papiss Cisse to immediately turn good again after he returns from injury in November - a bold anticipation given he has been dreadful for most of the last two seasons.
As if that wasn't enough, we then move onto the fans' biggest bone with the whole sorry shenanigans. That is Hatem Ben Arfa, who was sent out on loan to Hull City on deadline day.
The terms of the Premier League loan moves means that Ben Arfa won't be playing for the Tigers at St. James' Park and showing up what can only be described as a shaky defensive regiment. But for all his flaws, he is still a good player, and if he leads Hull to performances that keep them above the Toon for the 2014/15 campaign, then the calls of Pardew's incompetence will grow louder.
Ben Arfa has only joined the Tigers because of the fact that he fell out with Pardew, which also explains the unnecessary and perhaps even more damaging departure of Yanga-Mbiwa.
Not for the first time, Pardew blamed the fans for a bad result - this time, he blamed them for the concession of a 95th minute goal to draw against Crystal Palace. But against Palace its doubtful we deserved a win anyway.
Until the introduction of youngster Rolando Aarons, our attack was plodding and looked like it would never break through a six man defence Palace turned up with. Yohan Gouffran looked disinterested, Moussa Sissoko ran without product and the new trio of Remy Cabella, Siem de Jong and Riviere never looked in the game at all. Indeed, all our defensive and attacking running in midfield seemed to be left to Jack Colback, and while he may have been dubbed the Ginger Pirlo by fans after his England call-up this week, that is a lot of responsibility on one player's shoulders.
The failure in coaching in attack is becoming an epidemic. We have only scored in eight league games in 2014, and rarely look like scoring to boot. Some fans argue we send too many forward but its not the numbers as the pace. The team's ponderous attack wastes opportunities with ponderous slow-motion play, and the set-pieces remain by and large as woeful as ever.
The problem for this, conspiring to make a thin squad even thinner and selling players for disagreeing with him rests with Pardew, who resembles a spent force on Tyneside. Some fans drew similarities between Saturday's 3-3 draw with Palace and a 3-3 draw with Wimbledon FC at the start of the 1999-00 season, which put huge pressure on then-manager Ruud Gullit, who was duly dismissed from the job after defeat in the Tyne-Wear Derby later that week that left the club marooned in the bottom 2
While Ashley's continual bare minimum spending approach continues to damage the squad, the situation is exacerbated by a man woefully inept at controlling and coaching his playing squad, and the sooner he goes, the better.
Sadly, Pardew is only two years into the albatross that is that eight year deal, and it would take an almost biblical lack of form to see the back of him. Unluckily for him, such a run is looming - Newcastle lost all four equivalent fixtures of their next four, and against all four opponents, displayed awful performances. A similar run here would leave the Toon bottom of the Premiership in the October international break, which would encourage even further fan dissent and then what?
This fatalism is perhaps the only way Pardew would be removed from office, but until then, we're going to have to hope for him to actually recall the tactics and harmony of the famous 5th place campaign rather than his plodding, stodgy, dreary anti-football adopted since.
This situation cannot continue as is and at some point, something is going to have to give.
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