So either they really killed off Brian or this is just a cheap stunt to gain attention and then they bring him back for Christmas.
It's not the first time they've done really stupid things with Brian's character (like making him friends with Rush Limbaugh, for example) but honestly, Seth of all people knows that Brian Griffin *is* Family Guy-- he is an essential character to the show no matter how much some people don't like him.
There's a strong dynamic between Brian and so many other main characters in the show. Brian-Quagmire (arch nemesis), Brian-Peter (loyal friend), Brian-Lois (Brian loves Lois), Brian-Stewie (best friends)--the show simply isn't Family Guy without him. By contrast there's nothing special about, say, Chris's interactions with any of the other characters. He's just someone for Seth Green to voice, and the show wouldn't change a whit if he disappeared. Whereas killing Brian is a bit like killing Scooby Doo--and no matter how many ways the creators of that cartoon classic kept messing it up by adding annoying unnecessary characters, they managed to avoid killing off the star of the show.
Anyway like a number of recent episodes the whole show feels contrived so as to set up a situation (like the one where Brian sleeps with Quagmire's father), and it's not particularly funny. This is the "we kill off Brian" episode and it shows, since clearly not much thought was given to anything else about the episode.
Who knows what the creators are thinking, but whatever, they knew this would anger fans and they did it anyway. My guess--cheap stunt and Brian will be back, and that's really unimpressive.
It's not the first time they've done really stupid things with Brian's character (like making him friends with Rush Limbaugh, for example) but honestly, Seth of all people knows that Brian Griffin *is* Family Guy-- he is an essential character to the show no matter how much some people don't like him.
There's a strong dynamic between Brian and so many other main characters in the show. Brian-Quagmire (arch nemesis), Brian-Peter (loyal friend), Brian-Lois (Brian loves Lois), Brian-Stewie (best friends)--the show simply isn't Family Guy without him. By contrast there's nothing special about, say, Chris's interactions with any of the other characters. He's just someone for Seth Green to voice, and the show wouldn't change a whit if he disappeared. Whereas killing Brian is a bit like killing Scooby Doo--and no matter how many ways the creators of that cartoon classic kept messing it up by adding annoying unnecessary characters, they managed to avoid killing off the star of the show.
Anyway like a number of recent episodes the whole show feels contrived so as to set up a situation (like the one where Brian sleeps with Quagmire's father), and it's not particularly funny. This is the "we kill off Brian" episode and it shows, since clearly not much thought was given to anything else about the episode.
Who knows what the creators are thinking, but whatever, they knew this would anger fans and they did it anyway. My guess--cheap stunt and Brian will be back, and that's really unimpressive.