I’m going to be making multiple of these, but right now I’m starting with Peter Griffin. If you think otherwise, I don’t care. I don’t mean that in a malicious way, I mean I don’t care if you think otherwise because it’s what you think of the show. I don’t mind. This is just what I think.
Peter Griffin was introduced as a loving father who generally isn’t that suited to be one. He was dangerously stupid but he had mind in the right place and his references of TV shows and movies in his back pocket. The family guy who would love his wife and children and wouldn’t frequently make it this uncomfortable relationship, and instead be a dimwit father who had a generally good heart, and if not to all the people that lived in Quahog, it was especially to his family. That doesn’t mean he was amazing to his family, no. He would definitely make mistakes that would be usually for comedic purposes like his obsessions or spikes of overexcitement. Some examples off the top of my head are shooting Lois with a tank, nearly exploding her, avoiding saying “I love you.” to Meg despite it being said earlier in the show, making Meg a “fart smeller”, attempting to do red neck stuff to Meg, believing a horrible reason to love his daughter more, beating up a 15 year old boy, etc that is obviously existent but I cannot name.
The thing is that, despite his radical approach to comedy that isn’t necessarily seen in other adult comedies, he still kept the recognizable sense of morality that made him such a dumb but well-intentioned figure to the audience. He had more moments where you could see that he knows he is a father, a husband, and a friend. He would learn from his mistakes and was willing to change if it meant being better at something big or small. This is something specifically that I find extremely relatable in a interesting way. Lessons were learned, and that there wasn’t only a mirror held up to society saying “You’re ugly and we know it too.” but also a man(or dog, baby, mom, or daughter) who learned something that episode. Not every episode, but that time. Some examples are Pete settling down on his alcohol consumption, making his wife happy anytime she is sad, saving his wife from the Mafia and was willing to sacrifice himself in her place, or even going out to beat a celebrity for the sake of his daughter.
But, the longer we go, the further we notice that Peter Griffin changes, a lot. The father figure and loving husband that we once knew was well intentioned just turned into a dangerous man on the spectrum. Peter Griffin nowadays is completely comfortable with saying he hates his family, and doesn’t care much for their safety, and has the audacity to make excuses for almost getting them killed instead of apologizing. Along with the funny writers without the hit or misses, current Peter has lost all of his feel so hard, it’s almost hard to describe, or at least mention all at once, but let’s start here.
He is a horrible person now. He traded ALL of his development and even the morals and values he had since the pilot for hit or miss jokes targeted to teenagers. Their excuse? Adults don’t watch the show anymore. All the 40%(at that time) of the audience are teenagers, let’s avoid 100’s of the good movies we watched and move on to social media and what teenagers are into and ruin our main characters. Sorry, just had to vent, don’t worry that will be another discussion.
Anyway he’s a horrible person. Some examples? Destroying Brian’s face over a dog toy rope, crushing a kids head in for a jetski to move 6 feet, teleporting out of his own car to move to another car just to watch TV, completely abandoning and endangering his family, shooting Meg, saying he hates his own family just through a few interactions, etc which I cannot name(but trust me, there’s more). He is willing to put everyone in danger for shenanigans or not. The worst part? HE LEARNS NOTHING, BARELY ANYTHING MEANINGFUL IS PICKED UP!
You know how I said in the 2nd paragraph that “Lessons were learned, and that there wasn’t only a mirror held up to society saying “You’re ugly and we know it too.” but also a man(or dog, baby, mom, or daughter) who learned something that episode. Not every episode, but that time.”
right? Yeah well recently the most meaningful thing Peter has learned recently in the past few seasons is that he shouldn’t break his friendship for spoiled friends that wanted a piece of the cash that could be rewarded for selling a rare action figure that literally came from his butt. Yes, that’s right, his butt. That’s not problem though, it’s that he isn’t given any good lessons to learn, much less we could take in. Why would we learn that friendship is more than value if the friends were being spoiled over money?
I admire the visible attempts, it feels so bland seeing the new ways that the writers are trying to make lessons in the new family guy. This is just ONE example btw, I’m too tired to make more.
In conclusion, Big Pete has suffered a horrible strike of flanderization that has overall ruined his character. If I were to attempt to improve his character, I would start with small gestures of affection towards his family and having him find more touching messages of his experiences. Trying to help out Chris with his homework, willing(but hesitant) to help Meg with her school problems, being more worried about how Lois thinks, being more hesitant about the idea of inflicting needless harm, feeling more struggle to reach the solution to the conflict of the episode and having the story acknowledge the tone of the situation and be a little more subtle with the jokes during that moment. Not anything that completely 180s his current character, but subtle nudges into a direction that seems more appropriate for a family guy, a man who is willing to put sacrifices at hand in extreme situations.
Thank you for reading this all, and goodnight, Reddit.
I know, long conclusion, right? That’s why I made a summary of the post down there👇
In short, Peter Griffin suffers from flanderization that made him a almost unrecognizable character compared to his earlier seasons, although I do believe that he is capable of being written to be morally correct if they put more effort to show his wellbeing.
