The past couple weeks of American Dad episodes have been fairly sub-par, but a Hayley-Roger rivalry and Klaus' run as a car mechanic help turn things around this week.
I always enjoy when a sitcom addresses the status quo of its characters, as "Pride Before the Fail" does this week. It turns out that Hayley is close to graduating from Groff Community College, and desperately wants to do whatever it takes to stay in school, where she feels extremely comfortable. It's actually a pretty decent meta storyline, as Hayley represents the writers, totally at odds with the idea of leaving her safety blanket and entering the outside world. Roger steps in, initially to help Hayley, but later goes against her in an attempt to procure her room, as Rogu's ska band has taken over his attic. Gotta admit, the biggest wasted potential in this episode was not hearing what on Earth the tiny alien was doing up there to ruin ska, of all things. Hayley attempts to flunk her way out of graduation, but Roger transforms into valedictorian Lacie Crinklehole to stop her. Both characters have great chemistry, and I can't honestly remember the pair ever being this much fun together. It's incredibly entertaining to watch Hayley and Lacie spar, though one has to appreciate just how much effort Roger goes to to get Hayley to pass, including projecting Hayley's image onto another classmate. Hayley gets one up on Lacie after taking her to a frat party, but Lacie seems to have won it by literally committing suicide in an impressive and horrifying visual.
Ultimately, Hayley manages to keep her room after taking advantage of Lacie's insecurities, forcing Roger to bring the character back to life to protect her reputation. Hayley and Roger play off of each other extremely well, and their feud is highly entertaining, but I do think the episode didn't really address why Hayley was going through all this effort in the first place. Sure, Hayley would've been homeless if she graduated, but as Roger himself points out, she's motivated and intelligent and likely would do fine on her own. I know that status quo is God and all, but I would've liked there to have at least some consideration as to why Hayley was so unwilling to expand her horizons, and maybe some attempt by her to better herself. Ultimately, it was an entertaining storyline, but it wasn't one that took any effort in actually exploring the characters involved, which felt like a waste.
In B-plot land, Francine has a dent in her car and Klaus steps in to help. Help in this case means turning the vehicle into a weird amalgamation of whatever Klaus thinks is cool, and he has friends in Tampa so I don't think his judgment can be trusted. Most of the storyline is built around Steve randomly turning into a Hispanic grease monkey and the visual of the car at the end, but Klaus is entertaining so it worked. Really, this whole storyline is worth watching just for Klaus' amazing line at the end when the dealer points that dent still isn't fixed.
8/10
"Pride Before the Fail" is a very solid half hour of American Dad, one that doesn't try to do too much and relies heavily on previously established character tropes. While that worked fine, the lack of ambition in this episode brought it down a few notches. I'm not saying every week should be a dissection of a character like Hayley, but this is one week where it was needed. And hey, any episode that includes Pirates of Penzance-inspired suicide can't be all bad, right?
I always enjoy when a sitcom addresses the status quo of its characters, as "Pride Before the Fail" does this week. It turns out that Hayley is close to graduating from Groff Community College, and desperately wants to do whatever it takes to stay in school, where she feels extremely comfortable. It's actually a pretty decent meta storyline, as Hayley represents the writers, totally at odds with the idea of leaving her safety blanket and entering the outside world. Roger steps in, initially to help Hayley, but later goes against her in an attempt to procure her room, as Rogu's ska band has taken over his attic. Gotta admit, the biggest wasted potential in this episode was not hearing what on Earth the tiny alien was doing up there to ruin ska, of all things. Hayley attempts to flunk her way out of graduation, but Roger transforms into valedictorian Lacie Crinklehole to stop her. Both characters have great chemistry, and I can't honestly remember the pair ever being this much fun together. It's incredibly entertaining to watch Hayley and Lacie spar, though one has to appreciate just how much effort Roger goes to to get Hayley to pass, including projecting Hayley's image onto another classmate. Hayley gets one up on Lacie after taking her to a frat party, but Lacie seems to have won it by literally committing suicide in an impressive and horrifying visual.
Ultimately, Hayley manages to keep her room after taking advantage of Lacie's insecurities, forcing Roger to bring the character back to life to protect her reputation. Hayley and Roger play off of each other extremely well, and their feud is highly entertaining, but I do think the episode didn't really address why Hayley was going through all this effort in the first place. Sure, Hayley would've been homeless if she graduated, but as Roger himself points out, she's motivated and intelligent and likely would do fine on her own. I know that status quo is God and all, but I would've liked there to have at least some consideration as to why Hayley was so unwilling to expand her horizons, and maybe some attempt by her to better herself. Ultimately, it was an entertaining storyline, but it wasn't one that took any effort in actually exploring the characters involved, which felt like a waste.
In B-plot land, Francine has a dent in her car and Klaus steps in to help. Help in this case means turning the vehicle into a weird amalgamation of whatever Klaus thinks is cool, and he has friends in Tampa so I don't think his judgment can be trusted. Most of the storyline is built around Steve randomly turning into a Hispanic grease monkey and the visual of the car at the end, but Klaus is entertaining so it worked. Really, this whole storyline is worth watching just for Klaus' amazing line at the end when the dealer points that dent still isn't fixed.
8/10
"Pride Before the Fail" is a very solid half hour of American Dad, one that doesn't try to do too much and relies heavily on previously established character tropes. While that worked fine, the lack of ambition in this episode brought it down a few notches. I'm not saying every week should be a dissection of a character like Hayley, but this is one week where it was needed. And hey, any episode that includes Pirates of Penzance-inspired suicide can't be all bad, right?
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