After over seven months on hiatus, failing to actually complete it's previous season and leaving viewers totally in the dark, American Dad has finally returned to television. In a world that absolutely needs a good laugh, could one of the best animated comedies in history deliver some? Well.........
"100 Years a Solid Fool" wastes no time setting up it's A-plot, as Stan drags Steve and the family off to Little Columbia in Langley to laminate his library card. From there, he spins us a yarn, a tale stuffed with greed, betrayal, and mangoes. A young Stan steps up to take on one of Columbia's most notorious coke smugglers, El Narco, accompanied by Roger, who's disguised as an incredibly inept translator. It's very obvious Roger is El Narco, and at least the show doesn't try too hard to cover up this twist, as he almost immediately switches persona and kills all of Stan's team. It's a great set-up for another chapter in the Stan-Roger blood feud, one that feels fresh even after all these years thanks to the decision to set in the past. But that's not really what we got. Instead, Roger just clowns with Stan, who is suddenly a complete chump despite his jet ski takedown of a pack of smugglers earlier in the episode. Stan is made the fool time and time again, being crapped on by a rhino and kicked in the balls by Roger, eventually becoming a national laughingstock, apparently. We switch back to the present, where Stan discovers Roger's betrayal and takes him back to Columbia at gunpoint, to try and set things right. But 20 years have done nothing for Stan the fool, who ends up just joining in on blaming his young self for everything wrong in his life, as the episode ends with the message that there might just be a fool in everyone.
With no real B-plot to speak of, the main story between Stan and Roger can really be put under the microscope, much to it's detriment. Everything leading up to the reveal of Roger as El Narco is good set-up, giving Stan all the reasons in the world to seek revenge. I didn't really get his complete incompetence from that point on, again given his incredibly bad-assery earlier on, but it would've worked had he gotten his revenge. But after being clowned on again and again, Stan apparently just became a total coward, returning home with his tail tucked between his legs and never even bothering to confront El Narco again. Sure, maybe he didn't care about his co-workers being murdered, but his ego alone should've never let him let go of his quest for revenge. It seems like the episode is attempting to infer that Stan just learned to let some things go, but that's not at all consistent with the character we've seen. Stan isn't the type of guy to just throw in the towel, especially after getting a national holiday to commemorate his massive failure. I find it impossible to believe that after looking like such a chump, he just gave up, went back home and somehow convinced the CIA to keep him employed despite letting his team get murdered and accomplishing absolutely nothing. This lackluster ending totally killed my enjoyment of this episode, and hopefully the writers don't plan on producing too many efforts like this one in the near future.
A couple of the gags here did entertain me, most notably the opening with Klaus, and a couple jokes from Roger, as his stand-off with Stan worked well to move the plot from one location to another, and his threatening of Hayley after she insulted his soccer skills displayed some of his genuine egotism. I think if anything that joke truly showed the potential that was lost in this episode, as I think Roger can be treated as at least a semi-serious threat rather than the comedy heel he turned out to be. I mean, this man killed three people for goodness sake, why should I care about Stan getting some mangoes thrown at him?
4/10
"100 Years a Solid Fool" has a promising premise, but totally fails to realize what makes the characters of Stan and Roger so engaging in the first place, as their comedy feud feels completely empty and lacks any satisfying resolution. It's the most average episode you may ever seen from this show, one that really doesn't leave much of an impact. American Dad should never be forgettable, but unfortunately this episode achieves that status in every way possible.
"100 Years a Solid Fool" wastes no time setting up it's A-plot, as Stan drags Steve and the family off to Little Columbia in Langley to laminate his library card. From there, he spins us a yarn, a tale stuffed with greed, betrayal, and mangoes. A young Stan steps up to take on one of Columbia's most notorious coke smugglers, El Narco, accompanied by Roger, who's disguised as an incredibly inept translator. It's very obvious Roger is El Narco, and at least the show doesn't try too hard to cover up this twist, as he almost immediately switches persona and kills all of Stan's team. It's a great set-up for another chapter in the Stan-Roger blood feud, one that feels fresh even after all these years thanks to the decision to set in the past. But that's not really what we got. Instead, Roger just clowns with Stan, who is suddenly a complete chump despite his jet ski takedown of a pack of smugglers earlier in the episode. Stan is made the fool time and time again, being crapped on by a rhino and kicked in the balls by Roger, eventually becoming a national laughingstock, apparently. We switch back to the present, where Stan discovers Roger's betrayal and takes him back to Columbia at gunpoint, to try and set things right. But 20 years have done nothing for Stan the fool, who ends up just joining in on blaming his young self for everything wrong in his life, as the episode ends with the message that there might just be a fool in everyone.
With no real B-plot to speak of, the main story between Stan and Roger can really be put under the microscope, much to it's detriment. Everything leading up to the reveal of Roger as El Narco is good set-up, giving Stan all the reasons in the world to seek revenge. I didn't really get his complete incompetence from that point on, again given his incredibly bad-assery earlier on, but it would've worked had he gotten his revenge. But after being clowned on again and again, Stan apparently just became a total coward, returning home with his tail tucked between his legs and never even bothering to confront El Narco again. Sure, maybe he didn't care about his co-workers being murdered, but his ego alone should've never let him let go of his quest for revenge. It seems like the episode is attempting to infer that Stan just learned to let some things go, but that's not at all consistent with the character we've seen. Stan isn't the type of guy to just throw in the towel, especially after getting a national holiday to commemorate his massive failure. I find it impossible to believe that after looking like such a chump, he just gave up, went back home and somehow convinced the CIA to keep him employed despite letting his team get murdered and accomplishing absolutely nothing. This lackluster ending totally killed my enjoyment of this episode, and hopefully the writers don't plan on producing too many efforts like this one in the near future.
A couple of the gags here did entertain me, most notably the opening with Klaus, and a couple jokes from Roger, as his stand-off with Stan worked well to move the plot from one location to another, and his threatening of Hayley after she insulted his soccer skills displayed some of his genuine egotism. I think if anything that joke truly showed the potential that was lost in this episode, as I think Roger can be treated as at least a semi-serious threat rather than the comedy heel he turned out to be. I mean, this man killed three people for goodness sake, why should I care about Stan getting some mangoes thrown at him?
4/10
"100 Years a Solid Fool" has a promising premise, but totally fails to realize what makes the characters of Stan and Roger so engaging in the first place, as their comedy feud feels completely empty and lacks any satisfying resolution. It's the most average episode you may ever seen from this show, one that really doesn't leave much of an impact. American Dad should never be forgettable, but unfortunately this episode achieves that status in every way possible.
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