Seth MacFarlane Was the Best He’s Ever Been on ‘The Loudest Voice’

As most of my co-workers know, I do not enjoy Seth MacFarlane. His animation projects grate me and contain as much nuance as a tank full of manatees randomly selecting words. His forays into acting have swung from so contrived they feel like fan fiction (hello, The Orville) to just plain bad. But I have to give the man credit where credit is due: MacFarlane’s take on Brian Lewis in The Loudest Voice is this year’s most surprisingly excellent performance.

Told through a series of snapshots from 1995 to 2016, The Loudest Voice chronicles the rise of Fox News under Roger Ailes’ reign and the many sexual harassment scandals that eventually led to this downfall. It’s a fascinating and highly stylized take on the creation of an empire that encompasses many of the opinions fans and critics have about Fox to this day. And standing right behind Russell Crowe’s is MacFarlane’s Brian Lewis.

MacFarlane plays the former Vice President of Fox News with an unsettling mixture of unhinged ambition and blind loyalty. Multiple times throughout the series a more junior reporter or producer comes to Brian, worried that a news story or a segment is too sensationalized to be good journalism. On almost every occasion, save for the series’ final two episodes, Brian dismisses their arguments completely. In the exaggerated universe of The Loudest Voice, this is a man who knows what responsible journalism looks like and who actively chooses to ignore it.

Every aspect that traditionally turns me off of Seth MacFarlane’s work — his “boy’s club” energy, his intense confidence, his willful immaturity — blends to make the character of Brian Lewis believable. This character is the dramatic version of Veep‘s Dan Egan (Reid Scott), a ruthless, cocky human broom whose main job is to clean up other people’s messes. It turns out when MacFarlane fully leans into the smugness that has made Family Guy a staple of modern television, he’s great.

My television foe has bested me this year. Seth MacFarlane is unquestionably powerful in The Loudest Voice, and finally admitting that both to myself and the world is the only birthday present I can give the man.

Watch The Loudest Voice on Showtime