One of the television shows that I have been watching for quite a long time and continues to is the famed animated sitcom “Family Guy” directed by Seth McFarlane. Apart from being funny, it portrays humanity with all its flaws and is why I have been watching and will continue watching it. Its premise is based on a conventional middle-class family of five members with the dad as the sole breadwinner – a depiction of a classic American family. The protagonist, Peter, is not the wise father as a father ought to be, instead, he is oafish, stupid and gluttonous and somewhat embodies all the sins one might think of. His male child is not promising while his wife is often suffering, a depiction of what an American family should not be. Peter, while depicted as oversized not in bad nor good, rather in flawed humanity, he represents the collision of American ideals with an ironic, grim reality.
In the episode I watched this week, Peter and his wife Lois were both competing and vying to be the president of their children’s school board, this collision came out foolhardy. It, in all intents and purposes depicted the 2016 presidential elections and the 2018 mid-term elections in America in the way that these two parents conducted themselves. Throughout their campaigns, these two parents, in an adversarial manner, attacked each other’s integrity and character without minding the consequences their actions had bot on their children, family, and the society as a whole. This mirrored the situation witnessed during the 2016 and 2018 elections, where Republicans, led by President Trump unleashed unsavory attacks on Democrats, particularly, their presidential candidate secretary Clinton, and vice-versa. The result of their bare-knuckle like, unfiltered fight has been a highly divided nation in which bigotry, hatred, xenophobia, and anti-Semitism has fostered. This is clearly not the America that people have come to know or expect.
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Unlike in the case of the Republicans and Democrats, Trump and Hillary, Peter and his wife Lois eventually reconciles and cools temperatures by reminding everyone that despite being competitors in election, they remain a family and must continue to be so since it is the most important. In this instance, the sitcom is engaging, as well a challenging the ideals of today’s America and painting a picture of what America, especially when it comes to family and politics, should and ought to be.
