Tearjerker Returns

American Dad, S08E13

In a sequel to the Tearjecker story, Stan abandoned his life as a spy when his wife, Sexpun, was murdered by a new foe, Black Villain.  Bullock got him to return to his old life and partnered him up with Tearjecker to stop Black Villian's newest evil plan.

I was so excited to see that they did a continuation of this story.  I've been wanting them to do the Tearjerker bit again since I saw the first one a while ago.  It wasn't that I was curious about how Stan and Sexpun's married life went--I really wanted Tearjerker to survive the volcano and come back to be a thorn in Stan's side again.  Roger makes such a good villain since he's usually plotting and screwing people over in his real life.  Like, he's born to be a bad guy, with his loose policy on morals and common decency.

However, Tearjerker didn't end up being the main antagonist, and it was Black Villain who was running the show.  Principal Lewis as a bad guy wasn't a stretch either, but it was his lazy-ass name that I liked the most about him.  It was like someone don't even try to give him a real name.  It made him seem more like a joke rather than a man bent on destroying lives.

Next, I liked how Tearjerker got out of prison.  I was a little annoyed they showed all these underwater levels that separated Tearjerker from the surface until I saw him get pulled through all of them via the magnet inside of him.  It was kind of funny to see him get pulled through acid and cacti and stung by jellyfish.  I shouldn't have doubted that they wouldn't have bothered to slowly show us all of those layers of Earth if it wasn't going to be relevant.  I guess the way I was "fooled" helped make that joke about Tearjerker busting out a lot more funny to me.

My favorite part of the episode was when Sexpun (the clone) regained her memories of her original life and Tearjerker argued that this was impossible:

That's not how cloning works!  You're a completely different person!  You are so dumb!

I feel like he was set up to say that so that the "technical" viewers wouldn't be saying something similar.  Again, I like when they take a second to be the voice of their viewers to sort of combat future complaints (you can't complain about far-fetched concepts if they point them out first).

There were also a few gross moments.  The first, of course, is when Sexpun died.  It was bad enough to see a chunk of herself slide out of her middle without her falling on Stan and the hole around her spreading to Stan-width.  Since it's a cartoon this horrific image was amusing, but I can't imagine if I had to see something that gory in real life.  That would be so nasty.

The other nasty part was when the Tearjerker clones started fighting each other.  True to the DNA they had been created from, all of them were violent, unstable, and horny.  I don't know why Black Villain would have thought it would have been effective to use him as the base for his army.  They took care of themselves in less than two minutes.  And some of them were making out with each other.  Roger making out with anyone is bad enough, but seeing double Roger is double the gross.  But it was ironic that Black Villain unleashed the Tearjerker army only to have them be utterly useless.

Oh, I forgot that I liked how Tearjerker met his end in this story.  Something about him claiming that if a volcano couldn't kill him, nearly nothing would before he got stabbed through by a marlin was funny.  I guess this was because he was done in by something so cartoon-like.  How many people fall to their deaths on a fish?  And just when it looked like he was going to make it, a killer whale dragged him and that marlin into the sea.  So much for a third chapter in the Tearjerker saga.  Unless I'm lucky enough for them to simply make a convenient excuse as to why he survived a second time.

This was one of my favorite episodes.  It's definitely up there with that mock play.  I was extremely pleased to find out that they would do another Tearjerker story, even if it wasn't necessarily about his evil plan.  There was still enough comedy and general suspense with Black Villain added to the mix that I couldn't complain that Tearjerker wasn't in the center of it all.  I just hope that if they decide to make a third story that Tearjerker will be the headlining villain.  Maybe luck will be on my side, and I'll get to see that episode in the next season.

Same Old Story Again

The Cleveland Show, S04E11

Cleveland voluntarily took a severance package and quit his job, but kept it secret from Donna and had fun spending the money while only pretending to use that time to find a new job.  Roberta and Federline broke up, and Rallo was happy to see Roberta start dating a black guy until he found out that Devon was too strict and boring.

I can't say what's much different in this story about Donna and Cleveland compared to most stories about the two of them.  Cleveland does something wrong and enjoys himself in the meantime before Donna figures out that he's been lying through his teeth.  This formula for a story isn't unique to this show (Homer Simpson does it on a regular basis, as well), but what I dislike about when Cleveland chooses to do it is that he usually does it for selfish reasons.  It's not that he wanted to save himself from embarrassment or felt not so confident about finding another job, but he just didn't want Donna to make him do chores or whatever around the house (and he probably didn't want to have to use the money on his family).  I was surprised at first that he was going to tell Donna exactly what he had done at work until he used the time-rewinding technique from Superman (I don't know which one).  Unlike when I had seen Stan Smith use this on American Dad, Cleveland successfully went back in time to prevent himself from letting Donna spoil his fun.  I wish that Cleveland had only imagined he had done it, like Stan (I don't much like that they used the same reference like that).

Also, per usual to this setup, Cleveland's deception was revealed through his own carelessness and stupidity.  Much like when he was pretending to be homeless, he was too busy having a good time to remember that he shouldn't dine in the same restaurant his wife was working in.  I guess since Cleveland will never be the type to admit what he did wrong without being caught in the act first, we have to wait for his lies to catch up with him.  I wish they had caught up sooner--he wasn't doing anything that exciting with all that money.  He then spun the situation to look like he was going to end his life due to the hopelessness of the current job market, making him look even more like a selfish ass.   It would have been a great lesson to him if Donna had won in the end when she punched him off of the ledge.  Instead, Cleveland's seemingly joke to sue Donna wasn't a lie at all, and the money that he won in that settlement allowed him to return things back to status quo.  I didn't like that ending.  I hate when Cleveland appears to win in the end when he was the one doing wrong all along.  Unless they can do that in a very humorous way, which wasn't achieved this time, I'd rather see him get his just desserts.

There was only about one thing I liked about this story and that was when Clevleand was making some speech on the ledge to the "unemployed hippies."  He was getting a little long-winded and Rallo shouted out:

Wrap it up!

I had to laugh at that because the time was perfect and the sentiment was apt.  Cleveland was just having another bullshitting session that wasn't important in the least.  If only Donna could have gotten up  there sooner to knock him off.

The side story involved Rallo, but sadly he wasn't put to good use.  The focus was mainly on how Ferdeline reverted back to his non-poser self (a sight that was a bit eerie for some reason) and how Devon sucked the fun out of Rallo's life.  The latter should have been decently funny, but it wasn't.  I guess because there wasn't anything more to Devon than following the rules and reforming Rallo.  I actually didn't even feel like he was dating Roberta--it was more like he was Rallo's 24-7 babysitter.  I might have found Rallo's situation funnier if he complained to someone about Devon, but they didn't believe he was an unpleasant guy.  Instead, it just became clearer and clearer than Devon was as about as fun as counting blades of grass.  He was making Rallo's life hell, but to me it wasn't anything personal, so it didn't tickle my funny bone.  Also, Rallo didn't have any chances to turn the tables on Devon or anything.  He just had to get Federline back.  As much as I dislike Federline, he's the lesser of two evils, I guess.

This episode made me feel like I was watching a different but similar episode with just a few of the pieces changed.  I'd like to see Cleveland have more times where his lies seemed necessary rather than a reflection of him protecting his own best interests.  I would have also liked to see Rallo get more revenge on Devon than bringing back Federline to take his place.  While it's better to have Federline at Roberta's side than Devon, I would have ultimately preferred a story without the two of them in the first place.

Roger's Sacrifice

American Dad, S08E12

Roger was determined to be free to walk around without an outfit when Jeff was home, so he pretended to be Jeff's imaginary friend.  Klaus later revealed to Jeff that Roger was real, and Stan refused to let both Jeff and Roger live if Jeff wouldn't be able to keep Roger a secret.  Steve also struggled to avoid ridicule about his flat ass at school.

Roger was being a straight dumbass  thinking that being naked whenever he felt like it was worth risking his life.  That's what it boiled down to when he tried to find a way to be outfit-less around Jeff.  He really makes dangerous decisions based on silly or small benefits.  He could have either worn less heavy clothing (tweed--really?) or stayed up in the attic when he wanted to be nude.  It wasn't that hard.  But it is Roger and he likes to have his cake and eat it too.

I was almost lured into the false impression that Roger would sacrifice the freedom he enjoys on Earth so that neither he nor Jeff would have to die.  After all, he was disappointed when he found at that the gun pointed at him in the garage didn't have bullets after all.  He doesn't give a damn if Jeff lives or die or about Hayley's feelings.  So to see him pack up and see that montage of him to the tune of M.A.S.H.'s theme song, I was just waiting for Roger to pull the rug from underneath everyone.  He did have me going for a while--it was nearly the end before he betrayed Jeff and shoved him into the beam of that spaceship.  Nicely played, Roger.  It was funny that Stan was impressed by Roger's move and not upset at all that Jeff was gone.  I just wonder if Jeff will stay gone (probably not, though).

My favorite part of this story was the very beginning when Stan was reading a newspaper.  He was caught off-guard by a bra ad on the second page and kept searching for a real article:

Finally, here's an article.  "A woman choked on her own bra."  What newspaper is this?

I'm curious to know what kind of specialty newspaper he was reading too.  It's rare that I'm laughing that early on in an episode.

I also liked what Roger said when Stan had tackled him later for being naked in front of Jeff:

This is the talkiest rape ever.

I don't know why he is so calm about being raped.  I guess because he's no stranger to committing that crime himself.

Steve's story was a nice twist on puberty.  Instead of making fun of someone for their boobs or something not growing in, it was asses.  That school Steve goes to keeps getting weirder and weirder.  I felt bad for Steve, though, because all of his friends had enough behind to dance appropriately to the "Wally World" song.  Plus, Barry showed what a ham-crazy bastard he is by exposing the hams Steve had used to stuff his pants.  That idiot isn't much of a friend to him.  I think he probably would have still eaten Steve's hams even if Steve had explained to his friends what he was trying to do.

My favorite part of the story was when Steve went to "Ba-Donkin Donuts."  That name for that place was great, but it was even greater that the fire started there was because a fat guy in courdoroy pants had his thighs rubbing together too fast.  That had me cracking up.  I couldn't even feel sorry for all the people who got trapped in there knowing that fat thighs were the cause of the fire.  That was hilarious.

It was nice that Steve realized that his mom was right about his flat ass having a purpose since he was able to escape from the restaurant, but it was strange to me that all those people couldn't escape.  There were two windows in the front--couldn't someone have thrown a chair or something at it to make a hole? That was crazy.  As crazy as Steve calling 9-11 to  report to the dispatcher that he had overcome his hatred of his own ass.  Steve essentially killed all those people in there.  That was a pretty unexpected ending.

This was a pretty good episode.  I thought I would be over stories about Roger being exposed as an alien, but this one went down a different path.  I never thought they would have Roger leave Earth because they need his wacky ass on this show, but I didn't really imagine that he would send Jeff away either.  You never know what Roger will do.  The same sort of applies for Steve.  I wouldn't have figured that his ass would have saved him from a burning restaurant, nor would I have thought that he wouldn't help the people stuck in there.  In a way, Steve's as crazy of a bastard as Roger is sometimes.

Killing Max Jets

American Dad, S08E11

Roger's rich character named Max Jets got out of jail, and his generous nature and fat pockets seemed to be the answer to the Smith family's problems.  Once Max took on a young girlfriend, he decided to cut off the family and spend his money on her.  Not wanting to live on a budget again, the Smith family conspired to get rid of the girlfriend and, if necessary, get rid of Max instead so they could inherit his fortune.

There was little doubt in my mind that when Roger brought up Max Jets that it wouldn't be Roger himself.  It's ridiculous that he's been pretending to be imprisoned for many years and had to sneak back into jail as if he'd always been there.  But for Roger that level of excessive commitment to his persona is expected by now.  The thing that's most strange to me is when Roger plays characters who are loaded.  This isn't the first time he's been someone with money to burn, yet he doesn't choose to live his life in luxury.  I guess maybe Roger is just too compelled to live as many different lives as possible and sticking with one, no matter how financially stable some of them may be, doesn't suit his lifestyle.

You would think that with all the life experience Roger has by playing some many different people with different pasts and personalities that he might have a good handle on people in general.  It doesn't seem to be the case when he was letting Gina take him for all he was worth.  Then again, perhaps Roger simply wanted to stay true to the character of Max, who might not be so keen to notice that a woman like Gina was only interested in his money.  I don't know why he would want to play someone who was so stupid, though. 

Putting aside that Max got killed by Gina (unlike Steve I wasn't too bothered by the fact he got killed because Roger has had many of his characters killed), Roger must must have thought her actions didn't matter much since he was also playing his own son, Jerry.  When Gina mentioned that she had agreed not to inherit any money from Max in the case that he died, I should have figured there was a good reason.  It did strike me as odd, but I couldn't piece it together.  I couldn't even think about Gina being sneaky when Roger was in on the plot to get his own inheritance under the noses of his murderous, yet not completely unloving family.  It just made the whole appearance of Max Jet a way for Roger to screw with them and do absolutely nothing to help with their money problem.

Therefore, the fact that all of the family wanted to try and kill Max in their own way seemed a little bit like justice.  They were being selfish since they wanted to keep all the money for themselves if they succeeded, but it's not that surprising since they were living on such meager means.  Living without much excess can make people desperate to have more.  Plus, Max had already given them a taste of the good life.  To rip that away in a quick second over someone who wasn't even family could easily turn a person toward murder.

I didn't really find anything funny, per se, with this story, but it was interesting just because you got to see the family working together to kill Roger.  In general, I like seeing them working together on a goal because they get insane and fuel each other's crazy ideas.  I didn't like that Roger was having fun making them all dance around for money that they were never going to get, but at least I wasn't aware of how involved he was in the deception.  And also Gina killed both of his characters and took all of his money in the end, so Roger was the one who got ultimately screwed.  Adding that all together, I think this was a pretty good episode.

Somehow Better As A Play

American Dad, S08E10

The show was presented as if it were a play.  Francine threw Stan a birthday party, not realizing the dark family secrets the celebration would bring up.  Hayley was keeping a secret from Avery who slept with the family maid, Edna, in his heartbroken state.

This isn't the first time I've seen a cartoon do something like this, but every time I have seen it, I remember enjoying it.  This episode was no different.  I liked all the touches they added to make it feel like you were in the audience watching a play, such as the lighting and someone coughing being shushed.  I really liked how they did the lighting for when Stan's car was coming and going from the house, in particular.  Another thing I enjoyed a lot was them substituting glitter or confetti for the splashing water and for the blood.  It was also cute to see them use the pool, which was just made out of cardboard or something.  It was little things like that that made me like this story even more.

The stories were pretty dramatic, but I did find a few things to laugh about.  One of such was when Stan was brought home for driving recklessly by a police officer:

He was eating crab and driving.  He'd be spending the night in the cooler if there was anything illegal about what he was doing.

That was my favorite line.  I just liked that he got pulled over in the first place while he was sobbing and stuffing his face with crab legs.  Somehow it seemed like he was going to be arrested for something that silly.

I also found the end to the Hayley story to be unexpectedly funny.  I mean, it was terrible that Edna had suffocated a baby right when Avery and Hayley had gotten back together, but their reaction to the baby's death was so over the top with anguish.  The lighting went red, they were screaming, and they ripped out their hair and clothes.  It was definitely one of those times I didn't want to laugh, but I just couldn't help myself.  They were doing a great job of bad acting.

There was one other thing that wasn't quite funny, but mentionable.  When Francine tried to keep the party going with their guests, she had someone start a record of Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit."  Her songs are not anything you want to play at a party unless it's a drinking-out-of-sadness sort of affair.  I just liked the irony of that moment.

Oh, and it was so weird to me that I happened to fall asleep a little before Stan went outside to find his father and son swimming in the pool.  When I woke up again, Patrick Stewart was pretending to be asleep himself and the episode was pretty much over.  The timing of that was hilarious to me, although it was just because I randomly dozed off.  Patrick Stewart was sort of amusing as the host of this play.  Even when he was making cheesy puns of "Act Two" with a sneezing sound.

I really liked this episode, even though the stories were pretty sad overall.  I liked how Stan was misinformed about his broken family and in the end he started one of his own by ending his life.  Despite the dark nature of the story, I enjoyed that it came full circle.  The story about Avery, Hayley, and Edna was equally tragic in nature, but the little time we spent on them allowed me to find a little humor in the grandness of the emotional conclusion.  I couldn't say anything that bothered me in this episode.  Wish they would do more like this one!

Award Whoring

American Dad, S08E09

Francine finally decided to cut off supporting Roger in all of his fake achievement, and Roger tried to win back her friendship by pretending to discover a lost mountain tribe.  Steve struggled to get Stan to answer some simple personal questions about himself so he could do his history report.

It's almost cute how much Francine will give Roger encouragement when she knows that all he does is pretend all day long.  So it's not a shock that he would have this huge collection of awards that he didn't deserve, including a fake degree.  I doubt that it's his first time pretending to graduate from a college.  Despite all of this it took quite a lot before Francine threw in the towel.  I would have already been like Stan and the others and not paying Roger any attention.

It was interesting to me that Roger seemed to cherish the self-made award that Francine awarded him more than the other awards that he had stolen.  There are times where Roger seems not to give a damn what people think about him at all, and then there are times he is so sensitive and wants to be beloved when he treats people any way that is convenient to himself.  At first, I was annoyed that he would again try to fool Francine with his little production with the tribe until Roger admitted how much he valued Francine's opinion.  It's more than her husband probably does, so I could see how Francine would be touched that Roger went to all of that trouble just to win back her favor.  Roger always seems to be going to great lengths to create his personas and fantasies that I think it does show how hard-working he can be.  It also shows how much of a psychopath he is, but if he's really determined to do something, he will take extraordinary and seemingly impossible steps to make it happen.  I agree that's worth a Frannie.

The main story wasn't really funny, but I sort of loved the side story about Steve and Stan.  First of all, Stan seemed so angry at Steve just for asking him a few questions.  I mean, he had this look of pure inconvenience before he even really knew what Steve was trying to do.  It just makes me laugh at the ease at which he can become perturbed.  The best part, however, was every time that Steve called Stan while he was at this Chinese restaurant (he must love that place), Stan kept saying these depressing and/or inappropriate things to him.  Stan was opening up finally, but not about anything that his son needed to hear from him.  It was especially bad when he was talking about his sex life with Francine.  I loved when Snot refused to let Steve end the call and steered the conversation to Francine's boobs:

[Snot] Dad, what do Mom's boobs look like?[Stan] I'll tell ya, Snot, they're perfect.

I like that Stan both wasn't fooled into thinking Snot was Steve and didn't care if Snot knew exactly how he felt about his wife's breasts.  He probably went on a very long discussion about that and other things with all those kids in the room.  So freaking funny.

In the end, I liked how Steve had lost all hope of getting his report done and showed his teacher exactly what happens when he tries to ask his father a simple question about his past.  I loved how disheartened the whole class looked after hearing Stan talk about how pointless life was and how he thought of ending it all.  And even when the teacher jumped out of the window, I thought it was funny.  Especially when he said:

Life dismissed.

There was also a good line at the beginning of the story after Stan told Steve to not even bother to do his history report:

[Klaus] It's high school, Steve.  It doesn't matter.[Steve] You said that about middle school.  When does it start to matter?[Klaus and Stan] Never.

Wise words from a bitter man and man stuck in a fish's body.

The last thing I sort of liked was Stan's admiration of Cuba Gooding, Jr.  He even sensed when he died and went to his funeral.  I bet if Steve had asked about CBJ's life, he might have been able to get a report.  That probably would have been better than sharing his father's dismal outlook on life with the class.

I liked this episode.  It's good to see that even though Roger will always be pretending, he doesn't really pretend to need Francine in his life.  Any episode where Roger isn't a complete ass is usually one I like a little better.  However, as far as the laughs went, I had to hand to Stan this week.  He was killing me with the TMI.  This story was a good indication of why the things Stan isn't saying freely are probably something better left unheard.

Family Of Quitters

American Dad, S08E08

Francine convinced the family to try to stick to something to the end for once by giving up what they couldn't for their New Year's resolutions for Lent instead.  They were motivated to keep their commitments because Bullock had agreed to cut off one of their fingers if they broke their promises.  When it became too hard to keep it up, they tried to make each other fail so that they could end their Lent promises.  Roger also went on a quest to find a girl with impressive breasts that he had met at his Mardi Gras party by trying to match a nipple to a tassel he found.

I sort of liked that the family was acting collectively.  They never seem to have much in common, but as far as giving up their promises, the Smith family acts as one.  It's sort of sad the way that all of them are failures, especially since their so-called vices weren't that bad.  But I guess if you're so used to giving up so easily even staying away from popcorn for 40 days can seem like an impossible challenge.

It's also sad that the family was acting as a single unit only to set up Francine to fail.  In fact, they blamed her for having Bullock hunting after one of their fingers in the first place.  That was so messed up.  But the thing that I got me thinking the most was why the paramedics or coroners or whatever didn't notice that Stan and the others were just playing around.  I know that Stan sometimes uses his connections to get the authorities and such to fake deaths, but I wasn't convinced that was what had happened.  I dunno.  I feel like they should have made that fact obvious if that was what was going on.

Anyway, my favorite part of the whole story was when the family was having movie night and Stan was doing his best not to yell at Steve who was taking forever to find a movie on TV:

Steve, please, kindly, please find a movie and stop flipping channels before I wring the last breath out of your very, very, very annoying body.  Thank you very much--thanks.

I love seeing Stan try to stifle his rage with an overcompensation of politeness.  It just sounded so strained and unnatural that it was funny. Later, when he was able to yell, I liked that he did so retroactively:

Stop flipping channels yesterday!

People hardly yell at people for something in the past like that, so it was pretty funny.  Just wish there were more funny moments.

At the end, it was almost funny that Bullock seemed to vanish into thin air, save his cloak, but when they pushed it aside, they saw that Bullock had just ducked down into a trap door he had made in their floor.  It was sort of an awkward moment to end on, but it sort of worked for me.

In the side story about Roger, I did think his twist on Cinderella was original, but I knew that it wasn't going to end with some beautiful girl in his carriage.  I sort of thought maybe he mistakenly thought a man was a woman, but it was even more of a twist when it turned out to be a cow.  For Roger that's not too surprising.  It was certainly silly and good enough for a side story to distract the viewers from all that finger-cutting madness.  It also taught me what a "pastie" was.  Never heard that term before.

I guess this episode wasn't bad.  I did like that we got to see the family sort of bonding over their own shortcomings.  It reminds me of when they were all falling apart because they didn't have Dr. Penguin to hide all of their lies.  These sort of stories remind you that despite all of their differences, there is a strong bond between all of them, whether it's a tendency to lie or quit.  I wouldn't say they are the funniest or best stories, but they are interesting regardless.

Franny's Life Is Her Own Business

American Dad, S08E07

Francine found out that the fireman who had saved her from a well 35 years ago wasn't dead as everyone had thought.  She attempted to adapt him back into society.  Stan and Roger also tried to start up a male stripper shoe business, but their investment money was dependent on killing someone.

I was sort of annoyed that Terry and Greg were such assholes about trying to get Francine on their show.  They were pissed that she avoided them, and yet they clearly wanted to embarass her on TV.  I mean, they have an idea of what Francine has been doing with her life, so I have little faith that they were trying to do good.  I really hated them in this episode.  Sure, you could blame Steve and the others, but they seriously thought they were trying to help Francine.

Then I was annoyed at the rest of the people with such high expectations for Francine.  Henry was a firefighter--it's pretty much a given that he's going to save lives.  Why should any person he save, even if he dies, be responsible for living an incredible life?   It was such bullshit.  I just kept hoping Francine would come to the conclusion that she didn't have to feel guilty and didn't have to impress anyone with her life's accomplishments except herself.

I was sort of glad to see that Henry wanted to go back into the well (even if he ironically died after diving back in) because seeing him bite off a woman's nose, punch and kill a bird in midair, and nearly rape Klaus made me think that Francine would have been infinitely better off never having found him in the first place.   I mean, maybe it would have been nice if she could have returned the favor by getting his life back on track, but when you think about it, Henry living in a well for thirty-plus years would have never realistically gotten back into society (not without some intense therapy or something).  I didn't want to see what other disgusting things he was going to do next.  He just needed to go (not die, though).

The side story with Stan and Roger was pretty uneventful.  They only tried once to kill Hideki's wife and then found out their idea had already been stolen.  It all happened pretty much in what seemed one breath.  I was expecting something much more different.  There were, however, two interesting things from that story.  The first was seeing Roger hosting that Japanese game show:

I kept wondering what Roger was saying, but after listening a few times, I figured that he was just saying gibberish (or super fast and badly pronounced Japanese or something).  When seeing this, I was sort of reminded of the ridiculous shows I would happen upon while flipping through TV in Japan. 

The second thing I thought was interesting was that Stan and Roger were having coffee later at a place called "Coughy's Coffee."  I don't know why but that made me chuckle.  I think that's a pretty good name for a coffee shop.

In general, I don't think I liked this episode that much.  I would have much rather Roger and Stan's story had been extended and the "Baby Franny" story had been the side story.  I feel like lots of times I would switch the main and side story.  However, I'm just glad they didn't do another Christmas story.  Almost every one they've shown has been really violent and crazy.  I'd much rather be angry about a story like this than see another insane holiday episode.

Steve's Wild Night

American Dad, S08E06

Stan and Francine's regular babysitter got injured and they decided to let Hayley watch Steve so that they could go to the horse show they were looking forward to.  Steve wanted to prove that he was wild, so he snuck out of the house to a party and Hayley spent the night trying to get him back before their parents figured out how irresponsible she was.  Stan and Francine hired Roger to drive them in a horse and carriage to the horse show, but his reckless driving on the highway made them miss the show when he wrecked the car.

There isn't much that I liked or disliked about this episode.  In general, I liked that Stan and Francine didn't trust Hayley to watch over Steve at all.  I sometimes forget that they don't find her to be really reliable.  It must be because she tends to be the one most concerned with what's morally right that it makes me overlook the fact that she is sort of a flake and a wildcard.  However, she would have had an easy time watching Steve if she hadn't pushed his buttons in the first place.

It was nice to see Steve have a pretty successful night.  He managed to run away from Hayley (which was easy because she wasn't prepared to chase after Steve in the first place), get alcohol to ensure his ticket to a party, get a cute girl's number, and spend a few seconds at a cool party.  For him, that was about as good as it gets, even with a methhead threatening him with a gun because he didn't give him a receipt and said addict getting his head shot off in the room of the girl he just met.

If I had to pick something I liked, it might be that Snot kept telling people "you're doing great," when they were being questioned by a police officer in Jeff's van.  Everyone was certainly not doing great, but Snot is so damn positive.  I'm still enjoying him from the previous episode and just thinking that he's such an upbeat guy that he has no clue that they were gonna get so arrested.

After seeing the grim end to the former babysitter, Lindsay, it was sort of nice that her ghost ended up helping Hayley and Steve move Francine's car back to the house in time.  I don't know why she chose to help them, but it was only slightly random, so I could go along with it.  Her good deed as a ghost sort of made her death seem a little less sad and unnecessary.

As far as Stan and Francine's story, I didn't care for the way they were so horny about horses.  It was almost too gross, but not quite there.  I'm just surprised that with Roger taking the carriage on the highway that no one got hurt.  I never expected them to get to their show with Roger handling their transportation, but they did get to see some kind of horse show.  However, I feel like their story didn't really add much of anything.  And Roger's role was minimum so it was lacking comedy for me.

This was an okay episode.  I certainly didn't have much to complain about.  It was nice to see things go pretty well for Steve and see Hayley and Steve sort of get along.  I don't know how I feel about Lindsay dying for the sake to help Steve and Hayley (it seemed), but at least it was something different to see.  However, I didn't see the point in Stan and Francine's story at all.  It could have been filled with more of Steve enjoying the night being "wild" for once.

Always Carry A Gun In The Hallway

American Dad, S08E05

Stan pretended to put Snot into witness protection so that he could keep Steve and Snot apart.  After spending time alone with Snot, Stan bonded with Snot and fought Steve for Snot's friendship.  Roger kept attacking Jeff in the hallway after Jeff cleaned his room for him.

I usually don't care for Snot, but in this episode he was just such a nice guy about the cruel things Stan was doing to him to keep Steve away that I sort of grew to like him.  I mean, Stan is such a hard person to reach on an emotional level and Snot was able to break through Stan's wall and befriend him.  You just have to love someone who could make Stan cut loose and stop being so callous.  All the things that Stan didn't like that Steve was doing with Snot became the same things that Stan enjoyed.  It's not surprising to see Stan contradict himself, nor try to compete with someone else.  It was just kinda funny to see him competing with Steve for Snot.  Although, if you think about it, it might have been crazier if they were fighting over Barry or something.  At least in this story Snot seemed worthy fighting for.

I can't say that the Roger story was better than the Stan story, but it definitely grabbed my attention more.  Um, Roger is such a psycho!  Usually, he has some kind of selfish reason for screwing someone over, but I don't think he had much reason to attack Jeff beyond wanting to just terrorize him.  At first it seemed like maybe he was doing it just to get back his money so he could get free cleaning services from Jeff, but it went beyond that.  I guess what was the funniest about this sick scenario was that Jeff had no idea that Roger was the same person attacking him, due to that weirdness where some of Roger's personas can't be detected by family members (although I don't know if Jeff even knows that Roger is an alien).  Roger kept attacking Jeff in ways that were impossible for him to pull off because he was basically in two places at the same time.  It made me feel worse for Jeff because he had no chance to escape Roger when Roger could defy the laws of physics.

Another funny point was how the hallway back to Jeff's room kept looking more and more like a creepy alleyway or just the outside of some ghetto apartments or something.  It was all dark and overly long, and at one point I could hear a baby crying.  I liked that ridiculous element of it because you started to forget that Jeff was just walking around in the house, probably not that far away from the attic in the first place.

Roger made the mugging more twisted when he decided to pull down Jeff's pants after assaulting him.  Luckily, Roger said that he didn't have time for it and walked away, but it was very unnerving!  Roger is the best at contradicting the statement that things couldn't get worse.  Even though it's sick that he was trying to violate Jeff, it was funny before Roger's last mugging attempt that he said to himself:

I’m gonna rape him this time.

I just don't get Roger.   With all of his talents (he seems to be able to fake a thousand different professions) and disguises, he could have his choice of real jobs and function outside of the Smith house as a normal person.  But instead, he spends a lot of time at home messing with people.  I mean, it was wonderful that Jeff had a gun to shoot Roger because he seriously was going to rape him.  And for probably no reason more than that he could get a kick out of knowing that Jeff wouldn't know it was him.   But despite all of Roger's flaws, he does spice up an episode with his horrible actions.  And you can't really know what he's going to do in the future because he's some kind of crazy, awful person (err...alien).

This was a good episode to make you appreciate Snot as a character more and possibly it was good to remind you that Stan is pretty pathetic in the friend department.  Roger, as usual, is so insane to the point you can't figure out why he's doing unspeakable things to friends and family.  However, if he didn't do all these shocking things, the show would be pretty dull.  I just really hope I don't have to see him top himself with something worse before the season ends.

Just Call Roger "Daddy"

American Dad, S08E04

Stan kicked Roger out of the attic so that his newly widowed mother could live there and resisted at first when Roger and Betty were married right away.  Stan grew to love Roger as his new dad, but thought his mother was in danger when he saw someone had left a website open that offered advice on how to kill one's spouse.  Steve and his friends also found a lost script for a Fast and Furious sequel.

It took me nearly to the end of the episode to not be grossed out by Roger being involved with Betty.  He's just so nasty!  It's times like this that I'm reminded that he's an alien just playing dress-up and also has screwed more people than Stan's ever seen in his life.  It just made me skin crawl a little to see his hands all up on someone that closely related to Stan.  Stan seemed more angry about it than wanting to vomit, like I did, mostly because I guess he didn't like the idea of having a new dad.  I never expected Roger to try and fulfill that role to Stan nor did I think that he would be successful in establishing a loving (yet weird) father-son relationship with him.  I mean, Roger was a pretty good stepdad.  Knowing Roger, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop because Roger always has some kind of ulterior motive when one of his personas is doing something good for someone else, but he remained good until he had to kill off his character (which was really convenient).  I was a little surprised that Betty was trying to off Roger, but she is Stan's mother, so that crazy had to come from somewhere.

I think the only gag I really liked was where Roger kept having pictures of himself and Stan that had just happened or were about to happen.  It was really weird.  It reminds me of when I look at pictures in movies and such and always wonder who was there at that exact perfect moment to capture the pictures.  Because they would be too in the moment pictures for someone to have just casually happened to get them on film.  This joke wasn't hilarious, but I appreciated it.

I didn't appreciate too much the story about Steve.  Did not need to see the characters from those horrible Fast and Furious movies making out with each other.  I think we could have been all right not having a side story at all.

This episode was okay.  I think what I liked most was that Roger was genuine for a change.  He's usually such a bastard while trying to pretend to be a saint that it sometimes makes me mad.  Also, Stan learned a little that his mother isn't so perfect, so maybe we won't have to see her again anytime soon.  I wouldn't mind seeing Roger acting nice again sometime. He's disgusting and weird, but he really makes the show entertaining (He just needs to not be so conniving all the time).

Just Keep Your Eyes Down And Keep Walking

American Dad, S08E03

Francine wanted to have fun with Stan, but he only wanted to hang with his CIA boys.   So with Roger's help Francine posed as a man, hoping that she could later reveal herself when she became best friends with him.  Steve and his friends also joined a conglomerate of other boy bands like themselves under the management of Snot's uncle.

I think I liked Steve's side story a little better just because Francine sneaking into the CIA retreat as a man wasn't that interesting as a whole.  I thought that their music video was pretty funny and the idea of this huge boy band reminded me of the large girl band AKB48.  I doubt there was any connection to this group, but I couldn't help but think about it when the boys were named by B1, B2 and etc.  I actually thought they might be pretty successful as a group if they hadn't been outdone by a slightly bigger boy band (and Snot's uncle hadn't given up by committing suicide).  Steve has always had a good singing voice, anyway, and the other members were so random I felt like it could have had its appeal.

As for the main story, I didn't like anything in particular until the very end when that hiking guy from Mt. Kilimanjaro showed up and wondered if Stan had beaten his wife in some kind of domestic dispute.  He pulled out a gun on him and soon afterward I was delighted to see a mock public service announcement come up staring Jon Hamm (cannot go wrong with him whether real or cartoon):

Hi, I’m Jon Hamm.  Over a hundred percent of all domestic disputes are just two people trying to work stuff out.  You getting involved isn’t going to help.  You don’t know what’s going on. I don’t care what you think you see.  Just keep your eyes down and keep walking.

He was like so perfect for someone telling you that you have no idea what you're looking at and mind your business!  I laughed so hard, especially because I never expected him to pop up.   This sort of makes up for the rest of the episode not being so intensely funny.  I'm definitely adding this to one of my favorite scenes in this show ever.  Thanks, Jon!

I did like the boy band thing, but I have to say that I would repeatedly watch this episode just for the last few minutes.  I never expected that I could like Jon Hamm so much outside of  Mad Men, but he continuously shows me that he can be just as wonderful as a cartoon character.  It's too bad I didn't feel the love so much for the regular characters of this show.  As usual, when the story's not really about Roger messing up someone's life, it tends to not be a story that captures my interest much.

Too Many Stories, Not Enough Funny

American Dad, S08E02

Stan tried to assassinate a war criminal during a family vacation while keeping Francine in the dark about it.  Hayley and Jeff tried to rekindle their sex life.  Steve followed a boy to a nude beach and kept meeting dangers along the way.   Roger was dumped by an elderly man he met while he was acting out one of his widowed characters.

Stan trying to go behind Francine's back to do CIA work was just irritating until Francine was more than a little into helping him kill the man.  With her part of it, it was much better to watch, especially when Francine was hitting Joe with the racket for ruining her vacation.  And it was nice that they found a way to make the hip hop necklaces scene seem less random by it being the cause of why Francine wasn't killed by a direct shot to the chest.  I don't mind random, but sometimes things are so incredibly random (like that particular scene at first) that they are a little distracting.  But I suppose the funniest thing about this story was Stan's rivalry with the gardener who kept besting him all the way to the end when he killed their target.  I liked that because the gardener was just a nice guy who happened to be better than Stan was.  And I like seeing Stan knocked down a peg sometimes.

I feel like the Steve story was better or just simply a necessary side story because it was just bad decision after bad decision that distracted you what was going on with Stan and Francine.  I don't know why Steve was so enchanted by everything his new friend Liam suggested and went along with it like a moron, but he paid dearly for every mistake he made while Liam was left unscathed.  I guess that it was a good thing that Liam wasn't just leading him to his destruction and they did make it to where he claimed they were going, but it sucks that Steve was the only one who had suffer in the process.  My favorite line of that story was when Steve realized that Liam wasn't as smart as his accent made him sound:

You sound smart, like Hugh Grant the movie star, but you’re stupid, like Hugh Grant the person!

I'm not sure why people are so affected by particular accents, but they are.  It's interesting how the same thing said by two different accents could give off two completely different reactions just because of the sound and delivery.  I like how people are so influenced by sounds.

Roger's story was okay, but I felt like it could have been cut.  I mean, why the hell does he need to be a character while on vacation?  I shared Steve's annoyance that he was choosing to do that, especially one who was a senior citizen woman.  At least he was still true to his Roger self (who is pretty damn vindictive) and changed characters just to screw over the man who screwed over his character.  It's just weird to me what Roger chooses to do during a vacation when he could have just spent it as normal guy character just chilling at the bar.  But I suppose if he hadn't been Abigail, he would have been hanging with Steve and Steve wouldn't have needed to follow Liam around.

Jeff and Hayley's story was even more unnecessary.  It was a big ol' heap of "who gives a crap?"  There's something really gross about hearing them getting it on and I'm not really sure why that is.  I feel like I'd much rather hear Roger talking about his sex life than them.  Even grosser than their sex life itself was Steve sort of checking them out at the nude beach (or Hayley, I guess), not quite convinced he was seeing his sister.  Eww.  I know he got trampled and dragged along by a horse, dropped to the ground, and had bees stab him from the inside, but dang.  No need for the slight incest there.

Well, it wasn't a terrible episode, but it wasn't great either.  I can put this into the so-so pile without much thought.  I wouldn't bother to watch this episode again on purpose, but I wouldn't mind if it was on TV.  They would do better to have a few less stories in an episode and work on just maybe two that were actually funny.

Let's Get Roger Locked Up

American Dad, S08E01

After hearing Hayley singing at his attic lounge, Roger became dangerously obsessed with Hayley.  Stan wanted to buy a new car, but couldn't find anyone to pay him at least 15,000 dollars for his old car.

I just have to say that Roger is so insane.  Like, it's weird to be saying that after everything else he's done, but when he was targeting Hayley he outdid himself a little.  First of all, he shot her and still showed up in her hospital room to bring her the disgusting gift of Christina Aguilera's larynx, which he played like a kazoo!  Eww!  Then he proceeded to knock out Hayley and kidnap her.  It was really gross watching him cuddle up on her with no clothes (though he usually is naked when he's himself).  It just looked like he was humping her, although Roger has mentioned that he has no genitals (but how does he have all that sex?).  Well, I didn't think it would get much worse from there until he decided to take Jeff's skin.  Ugh...  Seeing him in Jeff's skin was so gross!  Roger really needs to go to a place for the criminally insane.  I often think that he will end up killing them all one day (like he tried to do in a different episode in a sort of spoof of that movie Alien or whatever).

 The side story where Stan was stubbornly trying to sell his car wasn't funny until the very end of it where the lady was trying to escape the lion and crashed the car.  It was sick, but in a funny way, how the lion pounced and attacked her while they were both on fire until they both burned into ash.  That's not how I expected Stan to get over his car not being worth what he wished it to be at all.  I'm thankful for that story even though it wasn't hilarious just to distract me from how creepy Roger was.

I liked this episode even though it was disturbing.  It's interesting that Roger can get even more insane than he already is and all it takes is for him to fall in love.  I'm glad, though, that he got over Hayley in the end (when it was sort of far too late by that time).  I also think it was great that they started their season with a story about Roger because whether it's funny or creepy, it's still much better than stories about the other characters.  I can't wait to see what horrible things Roger is going to do the rest of this season!

Toys And Steve's Virginity Are Here To Stay

American Dad, S07E18

Stan took Steve to lose his virginity in Mexico because he wanted Steve to grow out of playing with toys.  They failed to find a suitable whorehouse to facilitate that and also got kidnapped by some drug cartel.  They only managed to escape when Steve used his imagination through a toy made from parts he found in their cell.  In a side story, Roger wanted to steal a bottle of Rain Duck from Greg and Terry to enjoy with the steak dinner Francine made.  All of his attempts failed, so Francine had to get it herself, but Roger had planned all alone to get rid of Francine and have the meal to himself.

It's episodes like these that make me think that Steve and Junior from The Cleveland Show are so similar.  They both are teenage boys who refuse to grow up and continue to play with toys.  I would have preferred that Stan fight Steve and his "army" toys over and over again, rather than have had Stan listen to Klaus' plan.  Taking a teenager out of the country to get laid seems a little extreme just because you don't like him playing with dolls.  Steve seemed to love the idea, but I think if he and Stan had succeeded it would have somehow warped him.  It would have at least taught Steve that it was okay to buy sex, and possibly he would have never bothered to seek companionship based on mutual affection.  So in a sense, the fact that every whorehouse they went to was disgusting and horrifying was a great thing.

I just wish that they didn't have to portray Mexico in such a horrible light.  I don't know which of the places they went to (that were shown) was worse, but I especially disliked when everyone was vomiting on the streets.  I also don't understand why anyone besides Stan and Steve needed to puke at that particular moment.  It seemed unnecessarily gross.  Even if it was for a joke about horchata (I've never tried it, so that one goes over my head), I think it was excessive.

I had hope for them to enjoy nicer trip when Stan and Steve were taken in by a group of people in a car, until they all took out guns on them.  But truth be told, it's always risky to take a ride from a stranger no matter what country you're in.  It was just a little ironic because just before Stan and Steve knew they were in danger, the man said that most of Mexico is wonderful.  At least that line suggests that the writers aren't completely trying to make Mexico seem unpleasant.  I just wish things had turned out differently, but I guess their troubles were vital to Stan allowing Steve to continue playing with toys.

I was glad, too, that Steve had such a great imagination because I don't know what kind of food they were fed in their cell, but it didn't look like anything good.  In Steve's mind they could be eating food that was recognizable and weren't surrounded by rats and roaches.  I also didn't like looking at the toilet paper tube, roach-headed, rat skeleton-armed toy that Steve made. So glad that he could picture it as something less creepy and nasty.  If I had to watch Steve the whole time shaking that monstrosity of a toy around throughout the end of the story, I'd have had to look away most of the time.  Especially with its roach head (I can't stand those things).

Because of my repulsion of "Pedro," I couldn't blame Steve for throwing the thing out when they got away from their captors.  I liked that the fantasy version of Pedro was outraged, though.  Plus, he said that line that you hear at the end of the episodes: "Bye, have a beautiful time."  That was kind of cute.  It made me like the ending of the episode a lot more.

As far as the Roger story went, I can't believe that I didn't suspect that it was all going to be a setup by Roger.  From the beginning, I wondered why Roger would bring a really nice wine (that he obviously loved) to a steak dinner that Francine claimed was going to be for her and Stan (did she have no idea that he went down to Mexico?).  I guess I got distracted at his attempts to steal the last bottle from Greg and Terry that I started to ignore the why.  He wasted all this time making a device with dominoes and other triggers throughout the house just to take out their electricity.  What a rip (not in a way that made me laugh).  After Roger was failing like a champion, I was glad to see Francine get the damn bottle in a quick minute.  But I was pissed that Roger set her flying away on a giant wrecking ball.  Not another story where he just screws over someone and gets to reap the profits at the end!  Freaking Roger.  I love him because he provides fantasy and creepy humor, but I hate how he is frequently exempt from consequences.  He needs to pay more often!

This may be an episode I would come to like after watching again.  It lacked a lot of the usual annoyance I find when the stories concentrate on one of Stan's plans (or Klaus', really).  It would have been better if Roger was a little funnier, but at least he wasn't portraying himself as another obnoxious persona and was more or less playing himself this time.  However, it would have been even better to see Roger get away with less in the future.  The joke of Roger screwing people over for his own selfish needs is really starting to wear thin.

Ricky Spanish--What Up With That?

American Dad, S07E17

Steve helped Roger undo the bad rap one of his personas named Ricky Spanish had made for himself through apologies.  It all seemed to be going well until Ricky went to make amends with Daniel, an ex-coworker Ricky let take the blame for a crime they had both committed.  The two began to steal sweaters just like old times, but were going to let Steve take the fall instead.  Steve tried to believe in Ricky's ability to change until the very end when Steve got arrested by the cops and had to spend some time in jail.  In a side story, Stan and Francine tried to ditch Tungee, a boy they had sponsored from Africa who came to live with them.  They left him at a Costgo only to ditch him again immediately.

As much as the town hated Ricky Spanish, so did I.  I thought there was potential for Steve and Ricky's journey through redemption (possibly in way that started off like it was helping, but actually made things worse), but it was all a ruse for a second sweater heist.  And I thought somehow the caterpillar turning into a butterfly would be more meaningful in causing Ricky to change.  Instead it was used as some kind of metaphor to show how Steve's innocence as a child was killed just like the butterfly trapped in the jar.  I didn't really get it, but hearing someone  like Werner Herzog narrate at the end really made it feel like some kind of ending to a depressing movie (with a deep meaning that would go over my head).  Overall, a story where Roger ultimately screws over Steve and gets away with it completely is a failure of a story for me (if I'm looking to laugh, anyway).

The only thing that was good was when Steve was trying to encourage Ricky at one point and he used SNL as an example:

It's like Saturday Night Live.  The opening sketch stinks, the monologue is awful, but then Kenan does "What Up With That?" and it's all worth it.

I absolutely love that sketch on SNL.  I had my reservations about Kenan making an impact on SNL like he used to do with All That back in the day, but sometimes all I want to see is that sketch when I happen to watch that show now.  I was so happily surprised to hear that they thought the same thing  about how well Kenan steals the show at times.

The Stan and Francine story was just stupid.  It proved what horrible people they were and how they enjoyed taking granted for things as long as there wasn't someone around who could ruin it by appreciating it.  Granted Tungee was an unwanted guest, but it wasn't like he was destroying their home or making that much of a nuisance to them.  I think he was better than damn Klaus is.  At least Stan and Francine stayed true to themselves and didn't pretend like they really wanted Tungee back.  They got rid of him like they really wanted to deep down inside, no matter how nice of a kid he was.

This episode just made me mad and was a waste of time except their on-the-nose assessment of SNL.  If that line wasn't in there, I would have thought it was one of my least favorite episodes.  I definitely saw one of my least favorite Roger personas.   I like the kind that are up to schemes that try to fix problems of the other characters, not ones that pretend they are letting one of the other characters fix him.  I'll be happy not to see this episode again, but I surely will be watching some clips of "What Up With That?" after this.

Forget A Sexual Partner? Just Go Back In Time

American Dad, S07E17

It was revealed that Stan may not be Hayley's father when Hayley needed a kidney transplant to replace the one that was busted from an intense night of drinking.  Francine didn't know who the other possible father was, so she and Stan had to go back to the past to find out his identity.  That went well until Stan's jealousy made him stop Francine from screwing the other man, and it jeopardized Hayley's existence.  They then had to ensure that Francine did screw the right guy, which was harder to do once Stan and Francine showed themselves to their younger selves.  However, with a little ecstasy in Francine and a little push in the right direction, they were able to ensure Hayley didn't disappear from the present and obtained another kidney she could possibly use.  We didn't get to know whether Stan is the true father or not, but we did see that he valued Hayley enough as his daughter to not care about something as superficial as blood ties.

I rather like when Francine's past is brought up because she was such a party girl in the day.  So I was interested to see her old friend Kelly (voiced by Kathy Griffin) come into town, and I hoped she would slip back a little into her old ways.  I never imagined that Hayley wouldn't be able to keep up with her mother and her kidney would fail.  And that was a pretty scary display of how alcohol can damage your internal organs.  There was something about making them people-like and seeing one of them shrivel up and die that made me a little more cautious the next time I think about putting an excessive about of alcohol inside of me.  I think they should use that clip to frighten people from underage drinking.

I'm not that surprised that Francine cheated on Stan.  I would be frightened about marrying someone as white bread as him (at least on the surface, anyway--he's insane).  I didn't think they would ever figure out who the father was without Francine remembering.  Using a time machine to go back and see who it was, was a strange turn of events.  At least it was something I can't say that I've seen before in a show.

It was funny how Stan kept saying all these horrible things to Francine when he found out that she had cheated on him, but his body language kept suggesting he was going to say something sweet or forgiving.  That joke worked well for me because I didn't want to listen to him bitch about how Francine was a slut.  The humor offset me taking his complaints so seriously.

The only other joke I really liked was when Stan was explaining to their past selves about time travel and they forgot to use Back to the Future as a reference point.  I was thinking about it the whole time, so I'm glad that they were aware of what I (and probably most viewers) had in my mind.  I guess, though, they didn't bother much with that usual rule that you shouldn't reveal yourself to your past selves.

I didn't care too much for Roger's character who was the inventor of ecstasy.  I wondered what the point was of Stan taking his formula and putting it into his jacket pocket until they needed it later in the past.  Also, without that happening, Stan wouldn't have been able to call in a favor with Roger to steal the possible baby daddy's kidney. Although, Roger is pretty twisted (I mean, he was dancing around while stealing the kidney), so he might have just done it for Stan anyway.  I wish that he had a bigger role, though.  There wasn't any good Roger lines this time.

For this show, I could sort this story into one that was "heartwarming."  Stan was upset, for good reason, about Francine's betrayal and seemed ready to cut Hayley out of his life, but in the end, his love for his daughter outweighed his outrage.  It was nice that they could do that sort of thing without underplaying it too much with comedy.  Call me a sap if you will, but I appreciate these sort of moments every now and then.  It can't always be about how much you can shock and entertain us--if the show is centered around a family, at least throw in a few stories about the value of those bonds at some point.

Minimum Wage Is No Joke. Except This Time

American Dad, S07E15

Stan was reasonably fed up with Jeff (and Hayley) living in his house and was determined to show them that they could easily afford to move out while Jeff was making minimum wage.  In a fashion very similar to the show 30 Days, Stan and Francine took the challenge to live on such wages for a month, but failed very quickly.  To offset Stan's insane spiral into poverty, Roger and Steve found a way to ride a real Ferrari, so they could live their dream and rub it in Klaus' face.

Jeff was pretty damn annoying with him crapping while Stan was in the shower and using up the last bit of syrup.  Usually, I think when Stan is going on about something, he is out of line, but I think most people would want to see Jeff leave their place.  I don't know if showing him and Hayley that he could live with as little money as they make was the best way to tell them to get out, but it did make for an interesting story.  I won't say that I laughed a lot while watching it, but I was waiting to see what else could happen to Stan before he gave up.  It took him quite a while (even though it was less than 2 days) before he swallowed his pride.

I think that them living in their car was a pretty miserable way to live, but it was better than an apartment where people steal your only lamp, and you can hear a woman being murdered down the hall.  I wouldn't want homeless people staring at me while I slept, but I still would chose it if I could get some clothes or cardboard to cover up my windows at night.

It's hard to say what I liked the best about this story, but it might have been when Stan went to a burger place and tried to apply for a job, not knowing that the manager could see him trying to clean himself up before he entered the store.  I thought maybe the guy would give him a break, but I guess he looked too much like a homeless person for him to let his grossness slide.

The worst thing of all in the episode was when Francine woke up the first morning in their apartment and a random, diseased-looking cat was giving birth near her.  God, that was super gross!  Ugh.  It was also pretty bad when Jeff came out when Stan and Alex were trying to rob the place and stabbed Alex over and over.  It was literally overkill.  Stan was lucky to only have gotten stabbed once.

I think it was good that Stan's attempt to live on minimum wage had nothing but low points that kept sinking further and further.  Since he was so confident that he would be able to do it, it was funnier that there was no moment that he was doing all right.  That was probably the best thing of the story of all.

I sort of liked how Roger and Steve were able to con the guys at the Ferrari dealership to let them take a car for several days it seemed.  However, I didn't think that they would have to go as far to parody an Al Pacino movie to do it.  Roger was kinda funny when he kept reciting lines from Scent of A Woman, I assume (I've never seen the movie, so I don't know), but his words were out of place with what the salesman was saying, so it was like Roger was just having a conversation by himself.  Somehow him doing that got them the car!  I was as amazed as Steve was.  I don't understand, though, why Steve was driving the car all the time.  Isn't Steve too young?  I forget his age.  I just know that he's in high school.  Either way, someone as young as him driving a car that they didn't even pay for was crazy.  He did hit Stan, though.

I liked this episode, even if it wasn't so funny that you would laugh out loud and despite that Roger and Steve were up to no good, but it was nothing more than an almost uneventful ride in a stolen Ferrari.  I wish there had been more jokes I liked and wish that part with the cat had been eliminated (didn't you guys have enough with the animals last week??).  Next time, I hope there's more Roger because he was too tame this time.  Also, let's have less Jeff.  I feel like he's been having too much screen time lately.

A Dog Story Worse Than Old Yeller

American Dad, S07E14

A story about Stan falling in love with a dog?  How could that possibly not be a wonderful episode?  Luckily the writers are paying attention in some fashion because Francine pointed out that it's been done (though you can't blame shows like this for a little repetition when you've done so many stories), but it still didn't stop them from making us suffer through Stan attaching himself to another dog that ends badly.  We had to watch him obsess over a dog that needed to be put down in the most humane way possible, but instead was made into some Frankenstein monster of a dog.  If only the Hayley and Jeff story could have lightened the overall tone of this disturbing and slightly depressing story.  No such luck.

Since we were privileged to watch Stan's childhood dog, Freddie, meet an undeserved end, it was sort of a given that Kisses, the new dog, would not live long enough to repair the hole in Stan's heart that had been placed there by his mother's deceit (did you really need to lie to your son and make him kill his own dog?).  However, instead of being killed by a car in the street during some innocent frisbee play, Kisses is killed by an air balloon basket (not the most incredible part) which was piloted by what seems to be a gang of pirate kittens.  What in the world??  Okay, I know you writers have to throw our expectations out the window, but that is almost too hard to believe even in SF world.  They might as well just made the dog dead without us even knowing what happened if it was going to die in such a meaningless, only for a joke way.

The best thing about Stan refusing to let Kisses go, despite the dog was only alive thanks to a machine at first, was when he went to library and studied how to fix the dog on his own.  After he had defaced the library, a librarian urges the sleeping security guard to do something.  The guy's lazy, half-hearted attempts to stop Stan (he didn't even get up) were hilarious.  I hope they bring that man back.  He was great.  I also liked that they played the theme to Weird Science during his studying montage.

Another funny scene was when Stan stole Kisses and brought him to Dr. Lizzie (voiced by Amy Sedaris--yay!) .  She crackles for the longest time in what you think would be really disconcerting to the listener, but Stan, with his face dead serious, tells her that she has a beautiful laugh.  Amy did a good job of conveying a pretty creepy doctor who would be capable of turning that cute dog into something that only Jesus could love.

I think that Steve put it best to describe the sight of that dog which had eyes for testicles, a drumstick and a frog leg for hind legs, a softball mitt for a skull, and was dragging some kind of electric box on wheels:

Oh, God!  Please kill this dog!

Even as a cartoon, it was pretty hard to see that blind dog hobbling around and breathing for dear life.  It's beyond sick.  I'm glad that Freddie came to Stan in a dream to convince him to let the dog be at peace, but did he really have to blow it up to bits so that its bloody head hit their bedroom window??  Excessive much??  That dog had been through enough.  At least he could have killed it peacefully.  Watching this was almost on par with that horrible kitten cutaway gag on Family Guy.  Let's stop with all the dead animals, shall we?  I think I got my fill last Sunday, for real.

 Roger was being his creepy self, despite this disturbing episode, only slightly lightening the mood.  My favorite scene of his was when he was hitting on Jeff in the pool.  Also, even though it's pretty nasty, I like how he was trying to get Stan to have popcorn from a bucket he had clearly cut a hole into.  Which makes me wonder what kind of genitalia that he has.  I assume he's a male, but he is an alien so maybe he has something else that is some combo of both genders (he is bisexual, after all)?  Actually, I shouldn't wonder this.  I think I would be better off not knowing the answer to that mystery.

I feel like I could have been fine not watching this episode, though I'm not as disgusted by it as I may make it seem.  I've seen worse (where I had to turn away from the TV), but I think I was mostly bored by Stan connecting with a pet again.  Like Roger said, he is the only pet that family needs (and no one gives a damn about Klaus since technically he was originally a human).  I hope this episode marks the end of Stan ever having to deal with a dog again unless it's guard dogs or something less intense.  I don't think I can tolerate another bad end for a pet that didn't do anything wrong (though it was nice that it was dedicated to the real life Freddie who passed--aww).

Ya'll Know Dr. Penguin Is Roger, Right?

American Dad, S07E13

Okay, so Roger or Steve explained in one episode that Roger has at least one character that each family member, for whatever reason, doesn't know that it's Roger in costume.  However, when it comes to Dr. Penguin, the family therapist, all of them clearly seem to know that it's Roger, but act as if they don't know.  It's amazing that Roger is a sort of jack of all trades and is fairly knowledgeable about a lot of professions that seem impossible for him, but for the most part, it is understood by everyone that he is playing pretend.  I just couldn't get over the fact that they were sharing their deepest secrets with Roger, who is known to screw with others for his own amusement or when it might benefit him.

I also thought Roger's Sergent Pepper character was random, even for him.  I guess he just likes to be well-rounded and do every kind of character he can.  He really commits to these personas--it's ridiculous.  He knows full well that he isn't really in the army or anything, yet when Klaus tricks him into thinking he got a draft letter for Iraq, Roger goes without a single thought.

I almost felt bad that no one listens to Klaus, and I thought he might be a better therapist than Roger.  I don't know why I thought it was funny when Roger, during one of his many moments of ignoring and belittling Klaus,  hit Klaus and said, "Punch a fish, make a wish."  I guess it was just amusing that Roger didn't take Klaus seriously even for a second.  My hopes that Klaus might give the Smith family a wake-up call about lying to each other were for not; it turned out that when the lies came out, everything turned to shit, and Klaus was to blame.

Everyone had pretty bad secrets, except for Hayley, whose was only hurtful to Jeff because he is a moron.  If the stories all interlocked (instead of being struck from the record each week), I doubt the family would be able to get over all that (despite that Klaus via Sergent Pepper's voice worked it all out).

I kinda liked White James.  I guess he was just in this episode so Klaus would have a way to travel to Iraq (why he used him, who knows?).  Before he showed us his business card that boasts he is a "purveyor of bitches" he has a nice line::

If you ever need bitches, remember: White James.

The story this time wasn't so bad, even though it focused on Klaus and how pathetic he is.  Roger wasn't too outrageous this time, but I didn't mind that as long as we didn't have to hear about the other family members too much, mostly Stan.  I would have liked to see better Roger characters, though.  With this show, Roger's characters are the best part of watching.