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American Dad "Top of the Steve" Review

Boy, this season of American Dad just keeps getting weirder. This week, we have a parody of a really terrible spin-off sitcom, and I just don't how to feel. Points for creativity, I guess.






"Top of the Steve" features an incredibly cliche sitcom setup, as Steve moves out of the Smith house and somehow joins the all-girls Pendlingtonton Academy. There's a headmistress who makes dick jokes, a technicality that features a clause that features an addendum and wacky sidekicks like Spitz and The Babe. It's really, really hard to know how to react to most of this. It's absolutely awful television with no redeeming value of any kind, but that's entirely the point. This is Steve's chance to be the Big Dog(ruff ruff), and considering he's a pretty cliche character at times, it makes perfect sense his spin-off would be this dumb. I actually have to knock the episode for not leaning further into the premise. There's an audience reaction early on, but it disappears as the episode progresses, for some reason. However, when Roger discovers the spin-off setup, that's where things get really fun.


I absolutely love the final act of "Top of the Steve", as Steve and Roger try and somehow fail to throw the Battle of the Bands, and have to escape an angry mob of hackneyed storylines. It's just so meta and so hilarious, and I enjoyed every second. Of course, since it's a late season spin-off, they're filming in Vancouver, and have no budget, so Steve and Roger escape by beginning to sing "Hey Jude", which the producers can't afford to get the rights for. I do love how focused this entire plot feels, maintaining the same manic energy throughout. Through intentionally terrible writing and completely unfunny jokes, the writers managed to conjure up a slice of brilliance. While it's hard to enjoy at first, this might be my favorite story of the season so far, a damn near perfect parody.


That parody cross over to the B-plot, as Steve is replaced in the Smith family by some incredibly outlandish guest stars. I will say that Stan missing his son while Francine and Hayley are mostly indifferent didn't really make a lot of sense to me, but oh well. There's a Punky Brewster parody named Spunky Rooster, though I personally loved obnoxious British dandy John Michael Heaton. Everything is so clunky, so impossibly lame and wonderful in every single way.


8/10


More commitment to the bit would've been appreciated, but "Top of the Steve" is still a sharp parody of this specific genre. It's an episode that does so much right in doing so much wrong, and you have to admire the audacity of it all. Now if you'll excuse me, there's someone at the door. It's special guest star Wayne Gretzky! *canned audience applause track*


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