American Dad!

Let’s be honest – Family Guy has been in rapid decline for some time, bunging in pop culture references till it’s no longer funny, padding out runtime with rubbish cutaways and enticing viewers with the prospect of a main character being killed in a car crash (a premise they borrowed from every soap ever – and the royal family – so that was a good move). By contrast, American Dad! has increasingly become better, and well worth a watch, even if you need to stay up until Dracula time to see it if BBC3 can be bothered to give it the time of day for a change.

Originally created to be more political, with conflict settling on father Stan and daughter Hayley clashing due to their respective Conservative and Liberal viewpoints, it quickly evolved into a more subtly comedic show, combining farce, surreal and gallows humour to great effect. The show is based around the Smith family – Stan, wife Francine, Hayley and son Steve – along with German-in-a-goldfish Klaus and alien Roger. The family dynamic between the four is fantastic, with (debatably) a lot of the humour coming from Stan and his macho attitude, rash and drastic problem solving and revenge-filled mentality. It is padded out with a number of brilliant supporting characters – Hayley’s now-husband, stoner Jeff Fischer, and Patrick Stewart as Avery Bullock, the head of the CIA. However, the true ace in the pack is Roger.

Roger is one of the greatest TV characters of modern times – a depraved, callous, whimsical, devious and self-interested alien, the screen lights up every time he is on.

His sheer unpredictability is incredible, and his method of interacting with the outside world – adopting a variety of personas, each with their own personalities – is a brilliant idea, and has led to some of the best episodes of this show.

americandad.wikia.com

It is impossible to review a series as good as it in such a short space, but I wish to look at some of the best episodes. My personal favourite is ‘Roy Rogers McFreely,’ a fiasco in which Rogers grows mad at Stan, and so adopts a persona as McFreely, which he uses to become chair of the homeowners’ association. As expected, he exploits his newfound power and uses dirty politics to make Stan’s life a living hell, so Stan and Hayley begin a reign of constructive vandalism to fight back. The absurdity of the neighbourhood war, and the depths to which both sides sink, always makes me laugh out loud.

Another highlight is ‘Virtual In-Stanity.’ Stan realizes that he has failed to bond with Steve and has missed all the important moments of his life. His solution: to use the CIA’s virtual reality software and create a teenage girl android in order to get to know him better. When Steve falls for her, he finally has the chance to be there for him – if he can stomach the thought of having sex with his own son. The subplot features Roger starting his own limo business, and picking up some noisy, rude and messy college students. When they stiff him for the $20 fee, he resolves to cold-bloodedly murder them.

Although I have my favourites, you’ll be guaranteed twenty minutes of laughter and a solid story no matter which episode you watch, and I can only encourage you to do so. Really, this is the best sitcom on television currently, and it continues to go from strength to strength – if you are a fan of comedy, you’ve got to give it a try.