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American Dad "An Irish Goodbye" Review

American Dad dunks all over Frontier Airlines this week, and well I could just finish the review here and call it a day, I suppose I should put up the appearance of effort.





"An Irish Goodbye" is not too dissimilar to last week's "Wild Women Do", as Francine once again needs a break from Stan's wackiness. I will say, it's probably fine to do two episodes in a row with similar plots, but it better be leading to something. Anyway, while Jeff and Stan are off playing Davy Crockett, Francine sneaks off and an intrigued Hayley follows her mother. Hayley finds out that Francine let's off a little steam at an airport bar named O'Rivals, the name of which is simultaneously the best and worst part of this episode. Francine performs a really bad musical number, and convinces Hayley to join her. When large quantities of Bud Light aren't enough to forget her problems, Francine starts a bar fight, and it's incredibly fun to watch the pair kick all kinds of a**. Of course, Francine's decision to let Hayley in on all this backfires, as Hayley goes from escaping her marriage to just leaving entirely, searching out the original O'Rivals in Ireland.


If you thought American Dad would deliver a very reductive portrayal of Ireland, you would be correct, as apparently, all Irish people are swamped with nothing but misery, depression and cancer. Hayley takes advantage of stereotypes and starts a bar fight, which is incredibly fun. Honestly, if this episode had been nothing but wild brawls in pubs, it would've been at least ten times better. But a resolution needs to be found, so Francine tracks her wild daughter down, accompanied by Jeff. Here, American Dad goes the laziest possible route, turning Jeff into ostensibly a subservient slave. Not only is this a very odd choice, it doesn't fit his character at all. Jeff's never been the type of guy to take directions from anyone- it's the main reason why he and Hayley are together in the first place. Literally just last week, Jeff refused to listen to Francine and caused all kinds of chaos. A better resolution could've saved what was honestly a very dull premise to begin with, but this is all better left completely forgotten.


But "An Irish Goodbye" transcends mediocrity in the B-plot, mostly thanks to Rogu. Roger's former tumor is back, and is comedy gold all episode. From pranking Francine by pretending to be Hayley to insisting he would eat any sister Roger produced, Rogu is unquestionably the best. And that's all before considering his stint going Stan and playing frontiersman, which produces that incredible final line- "Rogu is going to Hell, but he not going alone". Words to live by.


7/10


This episode was hard to rate, as the writing for Hayley and Jeff was abysmal and brought down what was otherwise one of the most fun episodes of the season. I suppose that's were American Dad is at right now. Most storylines are either tired or illogical, constantly re-treading tired ground. But the animation and one-liners remain top notch, and make most episodes, if not interesting, at least entertaining. 

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