American Dad! Season 14 Episode 14
Julia Rogerts
Grade: C-

Minions. Why did it have to be, etc. After a laughless 8 minutes of setup that felt like padding, we arrived at the break in Roger and Stan’s friendship (which was at least some narrative momentum) and then a hugely stilted Roger fantasy setup, with the only two good bits being Percy the service rooster and Stan wrestling a guy at the fair who wanted to prove his strength. Stan’s nonchalance about needing to work and in fooling Francine was overall a nice touch.

But then the episode turns into a version of “the Purge” (which Rick and Morty covered much better last year). I would have liked more of Roger trying to hold onto the narrative script of Stan redeeming himself long after it ceased to be applicable and in the face of mob attacks, all the while constantly sabotaging their escape- there’s the crux of a really great episode hidden in there! Stan shooting the air was tons of fun. But it just ends abruptly, and that wasted ammo turned out to actually matter, which made it less fun.

And speaking of that subplot- what was that? I’m not going to scour all 14 seasons for evidence that Barry and Jeff interacted- I’m willing to take the show at its word- but aside from the really funny callback to Stan playing basketball and some short fun with how seriously the family took the premise, there was no payoff, no humor, and no real clue what it even was aside from a promise to reveal that next episode that may or may not be honored. That’s just bad writing. Were Barry and Jeff just chilling talking about how weird the forced interaction was? Was it a metaphor for how the show’s content with not having to give it’s characters much to do, but having fun playing them off each other? I honestly don’t know.

Random Observations:
There’s a corpse in here!

cause he sure seems- DAMN IT PERCY

Oh my God. This fudge is amazing!