I don’t think there’s any series out there that I’ve been watching for as long as I’ve been watching Family Guy. I generally tend to stick with most shows I watch until the end, but usually those shows naturally end around 8-10 seasons max. That’s why it’s crazy that Family Guy has been on for 20 years, which is the vast majority of my life. Granted, I didn’t start watching the show until I was close to being a teenager, but I’ve seen every single episode of this show, and it’s crazy to me that it’s still going. Sure, it’s not as long as The Simpsons, but I still grew up with this show, and it’s crazy to me how distant I’ve become from it. I used to have so much to praise the show for and talk about, but now here in my season 17 review, I just don’t really have much to say.

The thing is that there just isn’t really many standout episodes in season 17, for better or worse. I didn’t feel like there were any truly special episodes, but there also wasn’t really any that I hated. I enjoyed all 20 of them to a degree, but there aren’t many worth talking about. The ones I should mention are a two-parter season opener where Brian marries a girl that has cancer, but then is trapped in a marriage he doesn’t want to be in once she recovers. This is interesting, but to be honest I completely forgot about it until I looked up the episodes in this season for the review. There’s another Stewie/Brian adventure episode “Big Trouble in Little Quahog,” which I always find to be the most entertaining episodes. There are some episodes like “Trump Guy” and “Trans-Fat” that exist to try to “push the envelope” by taking shots at Trump and transgender people respectively. I don’t get offended at these episodes like a lot of people do, and I do tend to laugh at some of the jokes in them, but I also think they’re a little low-brow and are just trying to be outrageous just for the sake of it. There was a fun idea for an episode with “You Can’t Handle the Booth,” which features the Griffins giving a DVD commentary for an episode of the show. For some reason this became the most hated episode of the season, but I thought it was a pretty neat idea. Then, finally, the season ends with “Adam West High,” which is the show’s memorial episode for the late Adam West, who has been a fun character on the show for years.

In the end, I can acknowledge that I’m probably one of the only people who still watch this show. And yes, I can definitely concede with the people that say this show isn’t as good as it used to be. I definitely don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. However, I still do like it, and while it might not be as hilarious as it used to be, it still tends to at least get a few laughs out of me every episode. For me, the show stopped being special a long time ago, but I still enjoy watching it because it’s always nice to come back to something familiar every year. I can always count on Family Guy to give me a half hour of a welcome distraction from day-to-day life, and while it’s far from being the funniest show on TV, it still does provide me with the entertainment I look for from it. I don’t really “recommend” this show to anyone anymore, but if there’s anyone out there like me that still watches it, hopefully you continue to enjoy it like I do.

3.5/5

Best Episode: “Big Trouble in Little Quahog” – Stewie invents a shrinking machine, and he and Brian get shrunk down to microscopic size. Very entertaining.

Worst Episode: “Trump Guy” – Peter becomes the new Press Secretary for President Donald Trump. The obligatory “let’s make cheap shots at Trump” episode that isn’t particularly clever.