American Dad! Season 14 Episode 19 Kloger Grade: F Oh God why. Between the product placement (eHarmony)and the sex scenes that seemed like something out of the dark corners of the animation internet (hitting incest, bestiality, rape…), this is the kind of episode that makes me want to stop watching the show. Why even is Klaus dating ‘Roger’ and not that personality of his? Doesn’t Roger regard Klaus with contempt and shouldn’t that have been a part of this. Why am I even asking canonical questions. Hayley’s subplot was no better. Just us slowly watching her eyes crust over with … Continue reading “Kloger” American Dad! S14 E19

American Dad! Season 14 Episode 17 Family Plan Grade: C- None of this worked very well. I chuckled over the expectations game about which gag they’d go with or at the stupidity of the gags, but that’s about it. Oh, Steve’s about to eat a macaroni cock? How outré. The transition to a battle royal type event seemed promising, if only because it seemed to indicate that the ‘father’ figure Francine was worshiping was just a schemer who put fake letters in adoption agency files to get hangers on to kill each other over the inheritance. But, no, we get … Continue reading “Family Plan” American Dad! S14 E17

American Dad! Season 14 Episode 16 The Bitchin’ Race Grade: B+ I can dock this one down to a C+ for the ‘alpha/beta’ reference/dynamic, stupid recurring villain, and dumb race TV show conceit with no payoff to Dick’s party, or I can point out that the jokes are funny. With a script laser focused on the jokes tonight, it seems more fitting to go with the good grade. Some of the jokes didn’t land with full impact- Klaus’ Russian roulette routine, the aforementioned ‘beta’ joke, but Roger was expertly deployed and mirrored by an insufferable kid who miraculously survived the … Continue reading “The Bitchin’ Race” American Dad! S14 E16

American Dad! Season 14 Episode 15 The Life and Times of Steve Smith Grade: B A good start and some solid jokes with some baggage. From the beginning I was looking for clues about a potential cross over with the AD episode Rapture’s Delight in terms of whether they were going to be made mutually exclusive. So- if they both work together- Stan in his dream of living his best life, makes a deal with the dream devil? Is this like Inception? In the end, we don’t know. I kinda missed having the CIA around in this one. It’s hard … Continue reading “The Life and Times of Steve Smith” American Dad! S14 E15

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 … Continue reading “Julia Rogerts” American Dad! S14 E14

American Dad! S14, Episode 13 Camp Campawanda Grade: B+ Some fantastic bits and visuals (the townie bar was a dead ringer for Moe’s bar from the Simpsons) in this episode were marred a bit by a plot that ended with an extreme, abrupt smash to the credits (at least as far as Roger and Klaus’s plots were concerned). I can’t for the life of me buy that Roger had no ulterior motive. And no final callback to a tripped out fish? Seems like a waste of a setup. That episode title too- ugh. Also, it’s season 14- why do we … Continue reading “Camp Campawanda” American Dad! S14 E13

American Dad! Season 14, Episode 12 Bazooka Steve Grade: A- I was worried with the cold open that we were in for a retread of a bad Family Guy episode (specifically ‘Jungle Love’ where Chris escapes to South America through the Peace Corps to avoid high school hazing). And the over-the-top football parody wasn’t clicking with me at first either. But the episode turned out to be a gem. The Hayley b-plot went in an interesting direction (instead of just being a Roger scam to get free taxi service), Steve learning to love sports by becoming deeply broken on the … Continue reading “Bazooka Steve” American Dad! S14, E12

American Dad! Season 14, Episode 11 Casino Normale Grade: C+ Blessed with an A plot with a lot of promise (Francine taking on the CIA), this episode was nevertheless rather aimless and generally saved by a couple good bits and jokes. Roger’s B car plot was even worse, with our favorite insatiable killing machine even more fuzzy on his motivations than usual. Stan learning his lesson was a weird departure from standard American Dad procedure, and the year time jump was a little needlessly distracting. This season of the show has split up the two halves of its cast pretty … Continue reading “Casino Normale” American Dad! S14, E11

American Dad! Season 14, Episode 10 A Nice Night for a Drive Grade: A- The polar opposite of last week’s A-, this episode earns its keep through a steady string of jokes- from referencing ‘El perro, el perro, es mi corazón, El gato, el gato, el gato no es bueno. Cilantro es cantante, Cilantro es muy famoso, Cilantro es el hombre con el queso…’ to a bunch of solid one-liners. Plot wise, Klaus has traditionally been an underutilized asset in American Dad’s run- largely due to him being denied character progression and forced to reset his fishy state at the … Continue reading “A Nice Night for a Drive” American Dad! S14 E10

American Dad! Season 14, Episode 9 Witches of Langley Grade: A- Much of this episode was sub-par, from the lifeless intro to the pat conclusion, to the kid stereotypes, to underused Roger, Fran, and Stan, but by the time the show got butterflies coming out of people’s butts I laughed for a good couple of minutes. So, yeah. American Dad can be subjective. A lot of wasted time with Roger, some glossed over effects of blood magic- hair? Could zombie thralls be reversed? Does blood magic require blood? And Principle Lewis didn’t do much of anything, really. A flashback would’ve … Continue reading “Witches of Langley” American Dad! S14 E9

American Dad! Season 14, Episode 8 Whole Slotta Love Grade: A- Effective 4th wall breaks have been a hallmark of the later American Dad seasons, with freeze frame/Roger having a stroke proving the first solid laugh and Roger skipping right to the part in his story where he overreacts to new obsessions providing some welcome plot movement. This wasn’t the best night for one-liners, but I thought that the solid plot more than made up for that. I wonder what Roger’s body count is. I bet it’s high. The predictable climax of having Roger try to take down the plane … Continue reading “Whole Slotta Love” American Dad! S14 E8