Let's close out the year with a look at the final day of TV recaps, Sunday.
The Amazing Race: This easily was the worst cycle of this show in quite a while. While still heads and tails above most reality shows, TAR stumbled a bit this season as a result of some poor casting. There were very few likeable teams this time around. Even worse, most of the teams were terrible at playing the game. I've never seen so many misread or misunderstood clues in one season. The locales were nice, but then again, the show always does a nice job of finding unique places each time that truly represent this beautiful planet. The show will return again next spring and I'm hoping they'll have a better group of racers next time out.
The Simpsons: 20 years in, the show is what it is. It can't possibly be as good as it was in its glory days, but it seems they've brought some fresh blood in to help things feel fresh again. This season has had some ups and downs, but each episode still manages to yield some laughs from me. I particularly liked the most recent episode that involved Mr. Burns buying a basketball team. It was nice to see a full episode devoted to a character outside of the family. This show has created this wonderful world of characters, yet has reduced most of them to one-note jokes. Here's hoping with the new writers, new aspects of these fun characters will be explored.
Family Guy: You know, considering the fact that this show didn't return with new episodes after the strike ended last spring, you would have thought they would have had a ton of episodes brimming with good ideas coming into this new season. Instead, the show seemingly became even lazier, not even trying to cobble coherent plots together. If the pop culture references worked, then the show remains amusing, otherwise it's just a muddled mess. The standout episode of the season had to be the Surfin Bird episode, which I go back and forth on as to whether it was the funniest thing ever or the most annoying half hour of television ever made.
American Dad: It seems apparent that either Seth McFarlane has put most of his focus on this show or has much more capable running this one than Family Guy because it continues to be a much better show with intelligent humor and clever plotlines. Consider this had the stigma of being the bastard son of Family Guy for so long, it's funny to see how it has surpassed it in quality now. The biggest problem area for this show is Roger, who is great in small doses but grating when he takes over the show. It will be interesting to see how this show's quality is affecting once Seth's third show, The Cleveland Show makes it's debut next year.
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