American Dad! ~ Review "Killer Vacation"

Sorry that this review is super late, had a busy time hanging out with family.

In the 135^th episode to come out of American Dad’s vast repertoire of ideas, we meet up with the Smith family in another vacation episode, one that in my opinion doesn’t take place in the goo. In it, they travel to … where Stan receives a special assignment from Bullock to kill the hotel manager, who is apparently an ex-CIA enemy. Meanwhile, Hayley and Jeff are trying to repair a troubled marriage on their one year anniversary since they announced they eloped on the 100^th episode “100 A.D.” Now, they are trying everything to repair their marriage. Elsewhere, Roger in his new persona falls for a much older gent.

                I am not a fan of the vacation episodes on American Dad! The first vacation episode, “The Vacation Goo” which was the season 3 premiere, was my least favourite episode of the show. Despite having a fun concept, it is droned by a plot that goes quickly into the ridiculous, even for American Dad! standards. And a little tip for the MacFarlane crew, cannibalism is NOT FUCKING FUNNY!! Other vacation episodes or episodes that have partial vacations therein, have been good, but never matched up to what the show’s potential has.

                Putting the following above into consideration, I will definitely say that this is the best of the vacation episodes, but I found “Love, American Dad! Style” a better episode. The jokes are really well done, as always, but as an American Dad Fanatic as the title of this blog says; I am a more-or-less expert in the inner workings of what makes a successful joke on AD. And the show taught me since 2005 to expect the unexpected. Even during the credits of Family Guy just before American Dad! appears, I am still not quite sure how the story will go or what they will reference, even watching the show as long as I have.

                The writers of the episode are Kenny Schwartz and Rick Wiener (please keep your comments to yourself about Mr. Wiener’s last name). They are by far my favourite AD writers. Even from their first episode, season 1 episode 4, “Francine’s Flashback”, they showed us that they have the chops to write some of the most interesting, unusual and downright hilarious episodes in American Dad’s selection. This time around, I was nervous about the overall episode, wondering if it was going to be funny or not, but when Wiener and Schwartz’s name flashed over the “Written by” section, all my worries dropped, because they really only had one episode that I didn’t like (they had others that I didn’t like as much as I thought on first viewing, but after reruns, I found the episode enjoyable after second or third viewing). That, coupled with Rodney Clouden’s always swift direction leads to a fairly pleasant episode.

                As is always, the voice acting is wonderful, but like a fair number of episodes, there isn’t one actor that is ahead of others, this is the case for “Killer Vacation.” The entire cast do good jobs voicing their respective characters. And even the tremendous Patrick Stewart does amazing as Avery Bullock, and the whole business with him loving Francine’s boobs is just genius. Speaking of which, Wendy Schaal does brilliant job as always with her work as Francine. Rupert Grint, from Harry Potter fame, is really fine in a guest appearance as Liam, the boy who brings Steve to a nude beach (oops, spoiler alert!).

                With good voice acting, not the best story, great writing/direction and funny jokes, “Killer Vacation” may dwarf in comparison to “Love, American Dad! Style”, but for what it has to offer is a greatly traditional American Dad! episode that fans and newcomers will grow to like.

7/10

Review ~ American Dad! "Love, American Dad! Style"

Hello there. This is the introductory review of the American Dad Fanatic, or as he’s known as on YouTube… the American Dad Fanatic. I will begin reviewing the new episodes of American Dad! every Monday after the episode’s Sunday airdate. This is my first review, the 134th episode, "Love, American Dad! Style" Comments and feedback of what you thought of the episode is always welcome.

                In the season premiere of the eighth season of the greatest T.V. show ever, Roger decides to improve his bar in the attic of the Smith residence, which so far has no visitors. He decides to arrange a lounge singer to entertain the patrons, but the only problem is who will be the singer, until that is he hears Hayley singing in the shower and realizes that she’s perfect. Agreeing to do so, she becomes to the talk of the town and the bar’s attendance skyrockets. Now, Roger sees Hayley in a new light, by which I mean he loves her.

                This episode, which coincides with the debut album of Rachael MacFarlane, Hayley Sings, which by the way is a pretty cool album in the least, is in the great tradition of usually interesting season premieres. Some of which has garnered Emmy nominations (“1600 Candles” and “Hot Water”) and others being kind off step backwards (“The Vacation Goo” and “In Country… Club”), however “Love, American Dad! Style” may not have the freshest storyline, and the B-story has been done before, but the episode delivers in great humor and really does set the bar for the rest of the season.

                This plotline is familiar to me of season 2, episode 18 “The Magnificent Steven” B-story, where Roger pretended to like Hayley in order to get a free T-shirt. Judging on the similarity in synopses of the two individual episodes nearly six years apart, one would make the grand assumption that the staff is running out of ideas, which according to the episode plots currently released may very well be the case, but I will say that writer Erik Durbin, who in my mind is one of the most controversial writers currently on the AD staff, has done a great job of making this story different from the other episode and still maintain a level of hilarity that the show does so well. I mean, if I heard about the idea of Roger falling for one of the ladies in the Smith household, and becoming a stalker in the meantime, I would have said “Make this episode NOW!”

                As usual, Rachael MacFarlane does a wonderful job voicing Hayley. Usually, American Dad! fans are split between either thinking that Hayley is a really annoying, useless character or thinking that she’s the most beautiful woman in the world. I have always been somewhere in the middle. In fact, I don’t really have a favourite/least favourite of the six primary characters (Stan, Francine, Steve, Hayley, Roger and Klaus); I think that they are all awesome in their own ways. Likewise, I thought that what Rachael brings to the Hayley character is a strong female character that the Meg character from Family Guy really isn’t. And now, seeing her in the episode, I am starting to become Roger in a sense. Do I have a little crush on her too? I don’t know. And her brother Seth is always comically godlike as Roger.

                Overall, “Love, American Dad! Style” may not be an episode to the caliber of other episodes released even as close as last season, and has a plot that has a bit of been-there, done-that quality, but it still features tremendous comedy and great performances from the cast.

8/10