Holidays with the Griffins

It's that time of year again! The time where Seth MacFarlane realizes he needs to buy his family Christmas presents so he puts out a new Family Guy DVD. Released much quicker than previous sets is the new "Family Guy: Volume Three" collection, which features three discs of episodes from as recently as September and spans back to the triumphant return of the show to television in May.\nWhile it's easy to mock the show for its takeover on the DVD industry, who wouldn't want more Family Guy? With demand high enough to bring the show back from the dead, it's easy to see why seasons are being released on DVD faster than ever.\nBut don't expect enough material to last as long as the other sets did. While volumes one and two contained 28 and 21 episodes respectively, volume three contains a meager 13. You might recall commercials this fall for the "season premiere" of Family Guy when the new season had already begun. This was because the season was split into two parts, and thus volume three is only part one of the season (with volume four slated for a spring release). \nBut enough number crunching, it's FAMILY GUY. Does it even matter what features the DVD has? For those of you who think it does, this paragraph is for you. All the special features are on disc three of the set. Included are commentaries on selected episodes by MacFarlane, producers, directors, writers and cast members; "World Domination: The Family Guy Phenomenon" featurette, which basically uses MacFarlane and the people mentioned before to explain how the show was brought back on the air; deleted scene animatics, which show preliminary animations alongside the actual scene; "Score!" -- The Music of Family Guy featurette, which is a behind the scenes look at the music of the show; multi-angle table reads, which show the hand storyboard/animatic comparisons, which are similar to the deleted scene animatics, except with scenes that were actually used.\nThe only real positive aspect of volume three is that even though it has roughly half the episodes of volumes one and two, it's only a little bit cheaper ($32 at Best Buy, $25-$30 online). Nevertheless, with adequate special features to go along with thirteen fresh episodes (the first few I find to be some of the best ever), Family Guy volume three is another excellent addition to the collection.