Summarizations and recapitulations of television series
In which Jeff just wants to have a pleasant afternoon with Klaus… A Klaus/Jeff pairing should yield comedy gold as the usually pushy Klaus and the meeker less assertive Jeff makes for a good outing. This time, well in this … Continue reading American Dad! Season 20 Episode 4 The Pleasanting At Smith House
In which Roger sabotages Roger… It’s no secret that I and others have criticized the direction the show has taken Roger in recent seasons. His personas have not been well thought out save for a few and often have been … Continue reading American Dad Season 20 Episode 2 The Professor and the Coach
In which Roger goes on an unexpected detour to New Mexico. What we really know about Roger is contained in flashbacks and time travel sequences. His backstory is nebulous and always changing because that’s who is he (and in a … Continue reading American Dad! Season 20, Ep. 1 Fellow Traveler
In which the Smiths try to teach Klaus a lesson. Francine throws a birthday party for Klaus but he acts so selfishly that everyone leaves. The family has to figure out how to stop Klaus from acting selfishly. They stumble … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 20 Gernot & Strudel
In which Roger remembers his Jambalaya recipe. Francine is frustrated that she can’t grow a garden until she orders the farmers almanac. She eventually grows some good tomatoes, which makes Roger remember that he can make a really good Jambalaya. … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 19 Jambalaya
In which Jeff tries to please everyone and ends up pleasing no one. Jeff’s very nature is to be a cypher character. He goes along with the plot as is necessary. In fact one of the very early episodes is … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 18 Please Please Jeff
In which Stan hijacks Hayley’s thing The Stan/Hayley conflict is essentially the original basis of the show (what if All in the Family but updated and animated). The show has grown passed that but often returns to it for general … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 17 Hayley was a Girl Scout?
In the Flesh premiered on BBC Three in March 2013. We visit a Britain that survived a zombie apocalypse. A drug was developed to cure the undead of their brain munching cravings. The “partially deceased” must now re-integrate into society. … Continue reading LGBT Media: In the Flesh
In which Barry tries to buy some speakers and learn a lesson in the process When you’re a long-running show and you want to stay fresh from a story telling perspective, you better have a deep well of characters from … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 16 I Heard You Wanna Buy Some Speakers
In which Roger and Steve try to save a dying mall American Dad! has a lowkey Halloween/Horror episode tradition including episodes like Poltergasm, Best Little Horror House in Langley Falls, and I’d even put The Witches of Langley up there … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 15 You Are Here
In which Steve gets over his hero worship Stan as written is the very idea of the kind of toxic alpha jerk who believes he’s better than everyone, including his family. How that is often played for laughs on AD! … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 14 A League of His Own
In which Roger drives everyone into danger When everyone is too drunk to drive home from Oktoberfest, Roger offers to drive everyone home but is rejected. Everyone says he is a terrible driver, even returning insurance adjuster Heinrich Brown and … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 13 The Fast and the Spurious
The L Word follows a group of lesbian and bisexual women living in Los Angeles. They hang out, gossip and hook up. The first season is short on plot and momentum. It takes eight episodes to introduce a serious conflict. … Continue reading LGBT Media: The L Word. Season One (2004)
In which Stan and Francine get heated… The Stan/Francine marriage dynamic is one that feels well explored because it’s one that has been done on American Dad’s contemporaries, such as The Simpsons and Family Guy. However, often times they’ll throw … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 8 “A Song of Knives and Fire”
In which Klaus maybe isn’t’ the worst?… Klaus is designed to be the punching bag. The one everyone hates because it’s easy to be mean to a man in a fish. The show and its characters can score easy jokes … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 7 “Beyond the Alcove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Klaus”
In which Stan tries to save a restaurant… As originally conceived, American Dad! was animated All in the Family with Family Guy sensibilities. That is to say, an arch-Conservative father butting heads with his liberal hippy daughter. The show has … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 6 “American Dad Graffito”
In which Stan tries to hold on to his memories… Stan is a person defined by his traumatic childhood. He has a father who abandoned him, and a mother who needed the attention after her husband left. So Stan often … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 5 “Epic Powder Dump”
In which Steve and Snot try to hold it together… The Steve and Snot friendship is always one that seems to be teetering on the brink of disaster. From “Jenny Fromdablock” to “Steve’s Franken Out” there always seems to be … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 4 “A Roger Story”
In which Stan can’t chop it… Stan Smith is a man out of place in the world, whether it was the original conception of the show where he was a Conservative butting up against a liberal world, or just a … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 3 “The Book of Fischer”
In which Stan gets a new look… The immutable nature of episodic television means that the characters can almost never change from episode to episode (both metaphorically personally and literally physically whether it be clothes or body). We’ve seen AD! … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 2 “Dressed Down”
In which Francine and Roger are reality TV stars… Like the progenitors of American Dad! (The Simpsons and Family Guy specifically) the long running nature of the show and the malleability of some of its characters means that in order … Continue reading American Dad! Season 19, Ep. 1 “Langley Dollar Listings”
