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.

Nick's Weekend Getaway

Grimm, S01E16

Nick took off a weekend with Juliette so that he could propose in a romantic setting.  The house in the woods that they rented was near a house where a cat-like Wesen was keeping his bird Wessen girlfriend prisoner so he could steal a golden stone from her throat.  When Juliette and Nick can no longer turn a deaf ear to what has been going on next door, they get involved.  Nick not only took down some Wesen up to  no good, but with Rosalie's help, he also performed a mini surgery on a woman's neck without killing her.  When all of that terror was over, Nick thought it was still a good idea to pop the question, but his lack of honesty lately got him rejected.  Hank, on the other hand, was no longer being rejected by Adalind, and Renard had the two go out on a date.  It becomes no clearer as to why it's necessary to have Hank wrapped around her finger.

I sort of forgot that Nick intended to propose to Juliette already.  Their relationship has just not been that great.  So when he told Hank he was taking off to propose to her, I didn't care too much about it because I knew she would never agree.  The idea for them to leave Portland was mainly an excuse to play out the Wesen domestic violence story.  I mean, how could you care about Nick proposing when you don't really understand why they are together in the first place?  I feel like Hank and Adalind have more chemistry than Nick and Juliette and Hank's under a damn spell.

Speaking of Hank, he's went full out stalker in this episode.  It was a little scary because I wondered how far he would go to protect "his woman."  He did threaten a man who kissed her, but that was all according to Renard's plan (why are people bending backwards to help him??).  I just don't want to see Hank get locked up because he's found sitting outside of her apartment watching her with no non-creepy reason to explain it.

Something else that worries me about Adalind's spell--has it effected Wu?  I could have sworn I saw him eat a paperclip at work.  Maybe I was imagining things, but if that's true, what the hell has eating those cookies done to him?  We don't know yet, but so far he is acting normal (if that paperclip thing was just me).  Why not just tell us now, writers??  Why do you wait like you're adding suspense?  You're just adding fuel to my frustration.

Anyway, the main story was fairly good.  I didn't like seeing a scared and abused woman with her obsessive and violent husband (boyfriend?), but he eventually got what was coming to him, thanks to Nick sticking his nose into their business.  But it did make me uncomfortable, the way he kept force-feeding her, especially in that electric-chair-looking thing.  Before they said he was trying to get her to grow a deposit in her throat, I thought he was going to fatten her up and eat her or something (since he was a cat and she was bird).  It was a little less disturbing that he wanted to cut open her throat and take something out of it.  Seeing Nick do it (who I wouldn't trust to cut a turkey) was bad enough, but I can't imagine how violently Tim might have done it since he probably didn't care if Robin lived or died.

I like that Monroe and Rosalie are getting along so well.  They are definitely making goo goo eyes at each other, but Monroe isn't making any moves yet.  What is most interesting is that Monroe seemed a little hurt that Nick has started to use Rosalie for Wesen information just like him.  Almost as if Monroe has to be the only Wesen he can call for how-to advice in the creature world.  I would love to see this expanded upon in the future.  No one can replace Monroe (Nick would be lost without him), but Rosalie could certainly make him "jealous."  Then again, why fight over helping Nick?  You don't get any rewards (or concern about your well-being from him).

They brought up another "mystery" by showing that Rosalie's brother had several different passports in the shop.  Um, is that really important??  If the dead brother's past isn't relevant to things that are already going on, I'm going to be really pissed that they gave the audience one more thing to ponder.  Just stop it!  Finish your other mysteries and then start a new one.  

One thing that was more annoying than some random question I may not want the answer to was when Nick finally took down Tim and the stone broke into pieces.  Nick let out a classic cop-show line saying:

You know what they say, Tim--you got to break a few eggs to make an omelet.

Really, Nick?  Even if there was someone else around to hear you say that (besides Tim), why the hell would you say that hackneyed line? He lost a good bit of credit with me, surprising me that he had any left in the first place.  He actually made me put my hand to my face.  So lame!

Another complaint I have against Nick is that he could have Juliette as his fiancee easily if he'd stop lying!  When she gave him a perfect opportunity to come clean about the recent terrifying and eerie events, he just tried to smooth it over with telling her all that mess would just be done soon enough.  Um, that's not reassuring at all!  Thank God she decided to learn to use a gun because Nick is committed to leaving her ass in the dark.  And she's not about to marry someone who is so closed off to her.  Juliette's reasons for turning down Nick make think she is about the smartest person in this show.  Her reasoning was completely valid.  So much so that Nick couldn't even argue with her and left the room without a word.

I think this episode was all right, but all the extra things around the main story were in the way of it being a solidly good one.  I want to see more of Monroe and Rosalie (we only got a little taste), and I'd like to see why Nick even loves Juliette or they need to not bother with their relationship at all.  I'm interested to see what will happen to Hank the more he falls for Adalind as much as I want to see what residual effects that spell has for Wu.  And I'm begging the writers--please no more new questions.  Answer the old ones.