BRIAN GRIFFIN DEAD: GENIUS OR DICKERY

BRIAN GRIFFIN DEAD: GENIUS OR DICKERY

The news has already probably broken where ever you are; Brian Griffin, the anthromorphic, alcholic, aspiring novelist dog from the Family Guy show has been killed off, and replaced with Vinny, a tough, no B.S. taking canine.

While fans are calling for blood, I'll list briefly why, from a writing point of view, this is either genius or dickery (i.e. an act of completely dick-headed-ness).

Genius:

Fitting tone, style, and humor; Family Guy was been known for its random and absurd actions, namely random flashbacks, gruesome chicken/man fights, period jokes (both historical and ovulation), and deaths (Diana Simmers, Murt Goldmine's wife, Joe Swanson's son (sort of), and KIND OF Cleaveland Brown in a way). Even Peter died and came back to life (TWICE!).

In fact, Brian's death has been hinted at for many years; he's 35-50 in dog years, I can count at least two occasions where his own dog mortality has been the butt of a dark  joke, and even he's hit and killed a dog mirroring his own future death.

Why would you truly think, in a show as random and bizzare as Family Guy, that ANYONE would be safe.

Plus, in a world of long running TV shows, where "killing off character" is usually code for a side character leaving, it's kind of refreshing that one show went for the gusto.

Even the introduction of a replacement seemed like a stab at the idea.

Dickery:

This changes the entire dynamic of the show. It's short-sighted simply to quote Brian as being simply Stewie's equal when he was also Peter's best friend, a (not so) secret admirer of Lois, a comforter to Meg, and even Quagmire's pet-peeve (pun not intended). Admittedly, Brian had slipped away from the voice of reason character he was in the beginning, but he was still something of a father figure to Peter.

It is of course ironic that the most human character should be an animal in a world where they are easily disposed of and tossed aside. It's almost cruel and slightly sadistic that a semi-pro-animal rights show would just cull a dog. Their reasoning, according to reports, is that killing off a human, especially in the family, would have too much of an impact and been too close to home. Though the backlash on twitter, with the hash tag #bringbrianback, says otherwise.

But...

I can't be the only one who's skeptical of this. I can't be the only one who thinks there's a bigger joke to all this. It wasn't so long ago the infamous "You're getting old" episode had us think they were closing down shop when really it was a big joke about hype and normality. I think one of a few things may happen;

1. Brian is brought back; According to report the staff writers loved "an idea" and planned several next episodes around it. Notice the report never said "THE idea" or even specifying it directly as being the idea of Brian's death. I think the idea may be of simply killing off a character, bringing in a new one, making them unlikable as possible, and then killing them off and returning everything to normal.
2. Some possible solutions to Brian's death may be;

• Vinny slowly morphs into Brian, to no one's notice.
• God brings Brian back to life.
• Brian isn't dead.
• Stewie finds a way to bringing Brian back (maybe with a Brian ray gun or something)
• Death himself brings Brian back.
• Or (possibly most likely in my opinion) They just act as if nothing happen, Brian back in place.

Worth a thought. Only the 8th of December, Family Guy's next air time, will tell.