Falling somewhere in the middle between The Simpsons and South Park, Family Guy was sadly too short lived during its three season run on Fox, but fan demand brought it back and now the eleventh DVD collection (which actually contains the twenty-three episodes that make up season ten) is upon us. For those who haven't seen it, the series revolved around the misadventures of the Griffin family who reside in the town of Quahog, Rhode Island. Peter is the kinda-sorta-well-intentioned but misguided father, Lois the perfect housewife, Meg the unpopular angst-ridden teenager and Chris the sweet but slow son. And then there's Stewie, their infant boy who in the early years was bent on global domination but lately seems more interested in time travel and harassing the family's dog, a quick witted hard drinking pooch named Brian. Like The Simpsons, or King Of The Hill, the neighbors also play a big part in the series. Sexually obsessed Glenn Quagmire and wheelchair bound tough guy cop Joe round out the core characters nicely and give the Griffins a decent crew to play off of.

At this point in the show's history, it's got a pretty loyal fan base and an equally vocal group of dissenters. The show polarizes viewers not only because of its tendencies to push buttons (a complaint often levied against the show is that it's mean spirited, and there's one episode in this collection that definitely feels that way) but also because it doesn't really have much of a plot. Continuity is thrown out the window in favor of pop culture references and sight gags galore and those who have seen the series know that it's not at all uncommon for the show to throw in a musical song and dance number, a disturbingly long but oh so sweet cameo from the late, great Conway Twitty, or a prolonged fight scene. We get just as much, if not more, of that type of humor in this latest batch as we have before. The series runs the gamut from taking unabashed cheap shots at minority groups to delivering some truly scathing and often times brilliant satire with frequent stops everywhere in between resulting in a show that really stands out as much for its humor as it does for its irreverence.

Disc One:

Lottery Fever / Seahorses Seashell Party / Screams Of Silence: The Story Of Brenda Q / Stewie Goes For A Drive / Back To The Pilot / Thanksgiving / Amish Guy

Disc Two:

Cool Hand Peter / Grumpy Old Man / Quagmire And Meg / The Blind Side / Livin' On A Prayer / Tom Tucker: The Man And His Dream / Be Careful What You Fish For / Burning Down The Bayit

Disc Three:

Killer Queen / Forget-Me-Not / You Can't Do That On Television, Peter / Mr. And Mrs. Stewie / Lego My Meg-O / Tea Peter / Family Guy Viewer Mail / Internal Affairs

It should be noted that all of the episodes in this collection are presented uncut, so expect some foul to hear some foul language that you didn't hear when these were originally shown Sunday night's on Fox.

This season is a pretty strong one. That aforementioned mean-spirited episode is Screams Of Silence: The Story Of Brenda Q and it's not only the strangest episode on the season but one of the strangest of the entire series. Basically Glenn's sister gets into an abusive relationship and he, Peter and Joe decide to take care of the problem. The episode gets increasingly darker as it plays out and the ending, which is presented straight and without any obvious irony or attempt at humor, is pretty grim. The crew should get credit for tackling a serious social issue with at least some semblance of seriousness but is this really the right format to raise an issue like this? Opinions will vary, obviously, but this episode is twisted.

Aside from that, it's more or less business as usual. There are some fun celebrity cameos here, the most obvious one being Ricky Gervais who provides the voice of a dolphin who helps Peter out and then demands a ridiculous amount of favors in return. The Lottery Fever series opener is a fun one which shows not only how Peter behaves after winning the lottery but how those around him will leach off of him when he does. We get to see Brian take mushrooms before a hurricane hits the town and then watch him trip out and see some seriously bizarre hallucinations. The Back To The Pilot episode also stands out as we see Stewie travel back with Brian in tow to January 31, 1999 (which was the broadcast date of the series' first episode). This shows how the series has changed over the years and also how in just as many ways it has stayed the same.

Quahog news anchor Tom Tucker gets the spotlight in Tom Tucker: The Man And His Dream in which we learn about his acting career. It seems he played Michael Myers in Halloween IV and once Peter learns that, he and James Woods get involved in resurrecting his thesping profession. In Killer Queen Peter and Chris wind up at fat camp where a serial killer is at work, while back in Quahog, Stewie is terrified by the artwork of Queen's New Of The World album cover. H. Jon Benjamin from Bob's Burgers and a bunch of other great credits does a guest voice here. Stewie falls for a girl named Penelope, voiced by Kate Blanchett, in Mr. And Mrs. Stewie but of course that can't end well even if she shares his love of weapons and math. Tea Party is another stand out. When Peter tries to open his own business and gets shut down, he becomes an advocate for small government and takes hardcore conservative Tea Party ideas to ridiculous extremes with predictably funny results.

All in all, this is a pretty great season. It's also fairly daring, not that the show has ever really shied away from controversy but they definitely push things on a visual level here. That's not a bad thing, so long as you're accepting of the fact that as offensive as the series can be, it's an equal opportunity offender and it provides a great opportunity to laugh at the absurdity that is all around us on a daily basis.

Video:

This latest season was broadcast in HD in 1.78.1 widescreen which, and that's the aspect ratio that is used for this DVD release. As has been the norm with the Family Guy sets so far from Fox, the video presentation is very good. The colors look nice and bright, the image is strong, vibrant and clean, and there are no problems with print damage. There aren't any issues at all with mpeg compression throughout the set during playback, though there is some mild line shimmering and light edge enhancement detectable in a few spots that, while not distracting or overbearing, is definitely there. Overall though, this is a very nice presentation in terms of video quality and each and every one of the episodes in this set look better on these DVDs than they do in reruns on TV, especially in terms of color reproduction. Everything looks brighter and more vibrant which adds to the fun of the series' screwy look and style.