After last week's episode, which could be best described as..................................existing, I was definitely a little more interested for AD to shift to a world I'm much more familiar with. Even from the episode's title, you can see the emphasis on video games, particularly Overwatch, coming, but I don't think anyone was prepared for where the writers decided to take this one.
"Brave N00b World" is easily one of the most predictable episodes of American Dad I've ever seen, at least in it's first half. Stan is ignoring Steve for work, Bullock sends Stan and the rest of the team is China to assassinate a North Korean general by playing Overwatch, they eat lots of ice cream instead, all very ho-hum kind of stuff. I thought the episode did veer a little too close to the line of just flat out being an advertisement for Overwatch at times, but luckily they kept the focus on the tension between Stan and Steve instead. But focus is the biggest issue for Stan, who stays locked on the mission and uses his son to just get in the door, rather than attempting to expand their relationship at all. There's a bit of a logic jump when Steve easily convinces the CIA guys to attempt to win the Overwatch tournamnt rather than do their actual job, simply because he called them losers. But when the assassination goes awry, that's when the real fun begins.
That's right, we've got f***ing aliens. All of the Earth is obliterated by nuclear war, and we jump one billion years into the future, where a ship of aliens discover the Chinese ice cream. They recreate Earth using an advanced 3-D printer, out of a need to get more of the delicious treat. I guess the aliens also decided that Stan will show affection for Steve this time, I don't know how they figured out the secrets of human relationships, and that ends up preventing nuclear holocaust, as he never takes the mission from Bullock. Steve becomes a professor of what is essentially the Butterfly effect, Bill Nye eats ice cream, and I'm left to wonder, once again, what in the world I just witnessed.
I will say that "Brave N00b World" has a much more coherent and well thought out plot than "Tapped Out", and at least the intention of this episode wasn't just to gross people out. That being said, I don't know if I can declare it actually good. The wonky final act was very random but at least had the effect of making the episode stand out, and cover some new ground in the process. But your mileage may vary on that final plot twist, and the first half of this episode definitely lacks. Ultimately, there just isn't much real conflict to mine from the Stan and Steve relationship at this point in the show's run, and so they had to resort to this kind of wackiness to try and make it work. I think the writers can be praised for coming up with something that feels fresh, I don't think I've seen the aliens discover ice cream trick yet, but the abandonment of the episode's main conflict makes it feel quite empty.
Most of American Dad's B-plots these days are just a running stream of jokes with very little substance, and this one was certainly no different. Jeff, Hayley, Francine and Roger get their heads stuck in a banister, and so they shall remain for the rest of time. Klaus screws around for a bit and refuses to help them, Jeff gets a prostate exam, Dr. Lewis adopts kittens from Hayley and Francine interviews for a job whilst all still stuck. Then they get blown up by the A-plot, and only re-appear at the end of the episode, all still stuck but now in 2042. There is absolutely nothing of substance to this sidestory, but I still had some fun with it. I especially loved Jeff yelling at and then attempting to apologize to Buckle before being blown up.
Just in general, quite a few of the jokes in this episode land, though my personal favorite was the shot at Goop, though I could genuinely imagine that company hawking ice cream for your vagina. F*** Gwyneth Paltrow. Also, I did laugh at the US Culture Pod, that's some good low brow humor right there.
5/10
Some things about this episode worked for me, some definitely didn't. It's the definition of a middle of the road episode, which is unfortunately the best it seems American Dad can do at this stage of it's life. But at least it was interesting, and I had plenty of fun watching and reviewing it, and I suppose that's all I can ask for from any show.
I have an announcement to make: Henry's Universe Mode is returning! After a five month hiatus, I'm trying this again. I've done a bunch of work the past couple days updating my wiki, which is getting close to completed. I'm excited to see how this goes, while I've had my ups and downs with that series, it's run for so long that I'm not sure I can ever truly give up on it. NXT Takeover: Phoenix is the next event, and I expect that to go up either Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned!
- Henry
"Brave N00b World" is easily one of the most predictable episodes of American Dad I've ever seen, at least in it's first half. Stan is ignoring Steve for work, Bullock sends Stan and the rest of the team is China to assassinate a North Korean general by playing Overwatch, they eat lots of ice cream instead, all very ho-hum kind of stuff. I thought the episode did veer a little too close to the line of just flat out being an advertisement for Overwatch at times, but luckily they kept the focus on the tension between Stan and Steve instead. But focus is the biggest issue for Stan, who stays locked on the mission and uses his son to just get in the door, rather than attempting to expand their relationship at all. There's a bit of a logic jump when Steve easily convinces the CIA guys to attempt to win the Overwatch tournamnt rather than do their actual job, simply because he called them losers. But when the assassination goes awry, that's when the real fun begins.
That's right, we've got f***ing aliens. All of the Earth is obliterated by nuclear war, and we jump one billion years into the future, where a ship of aliens discover the Chinese ice cream. They recreate Earth using an advanced 3-D printer, out of a need to get more of the delicious treat. I guess the aliens also decided that Stan will show affection for Steve this time, I don't know how they figured out the secrets of human relationships, and that ends up preventing nuclear holocaust, as he never takes the mission from Bullock. Steve becomes a professor of what is essentially the Butterfly effect, Bill Nye eats ice cream, and I'm left to wonder, once again, what in the world I just witnessed.
I will say that "Brave N00b World" has a much more coherent and well thought out plot than "Tapped Out", and at least the intention of this episode wasn't just to gross people out. That being said, I don't know if I can declare it actually good. The wonky final act was very random but at least had the effect of making the episode stand out, and cover some new ground in the process. But your mileage may vary on that final plot twist, and the first half of this episode definitely lacks. Ultimately, there just isn't much real conflict to mine from the Stan and Steve relationship at this point in the show's run, and so they had to resort to this kind of wackiness to try and make it work. I think the writers can be praised for coming up with something that feels fresh, I don't think I've seen the aliens discover ice cream trick yet, but the abandonment of the episode's main conflict makes it feel quite empty.
Most of American Dad's B-plots these days are just a running stream of jokes with very little substance, and this one was certainly no different. Jeff, Hayley, Francine and Roger get their heads stuck in a banister, and so they shall remain for the rest of time. Klaus screws around for a bit and refuses to help them, Jeff gets a prostate exam, Dr. Lewis adopts kittens from Hayley and Francine interviews for a job whilst all still stuck. Then they get blown up by the A-plot, and only re-appear at the end of the episode, all still stuck but now in 2042. There is absolutely nothing of substance to this sidestory, but I still had some fun with it. I especially loved Jeff yelling at and then attempting to apologize to Buckle before being blown up.
Just in general, quite a few of the jokes in this episode land, though my personal favorite was the shot at Goop, though I could genuinely imagine that company hawking ice cream for your vagina. F*** Gwyneth Paltrow. Also, I did laugh at the US Culture Pod, that's some good low brow humor right there.
5/10
Some things about this episode worked for me, some definitely didn't. It's the definition of a middle of the road episode, which is unfortunately the best it seems American Dad can do at this stage of it's life. But at least it was interesting, and I had plenty of fun watching and reviewing it, and I suppose that's all I can ask for from any show.
I have an announcement to make: Henry's Universe Mode is returning! After a five month hiatus, I'm trying this again. I've done a bunch of work the past couple days updating my wiki, which is getting close to completed. I'm excited to see how this goes, while I've had my ups and downs with that series, it's run for so long that I'm not sure I can ever truly give up on it. NXT Takeover: Phoenix is the next event, and I expect that to go up either Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned!
- Henry
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