Jeff finally gets a main story in an episode, and of course it's about stripping. This man can't catch a break.
We open with Jesse, Roger's persona for this episode that he's very invested in, a stylist in a male erotic club who dreams of making chivalric cabaret a thing and opening his own club. Of course, it's hated by the horny female customers and mocked relentlessly by the rest of the Smith Family, and Roger, now in a wheelchair after coughing up some of his own spine, must team up with Jeff, a fellow outcast, to realize his dream. There's a lot of comedy to be mined from this pairing, especially with a motivated Roger and Jeff genuinely trying to help, as he goes into erotic dancing himself. It doesn't work, because of course, so Jeff turns to actual stripping to help pay for his motel fees, and ends up just sort of falling into being a male stripper. Probably the biggest drawback of this episode is Jeff's complete lack of agency, as he's just the pretty face to Roger's brains for most of it, and even when he strikes out on his own, he has absolutely no reason to push for success. The episode does address this when Jeff admits to some of the other strippers that he has no dreams and no ambition, but that doesn't excuse lazy writing. Jeff just glomps onto Roger, helping to fullfill Jesse's dream instead in what feels like a weak ending for this storyline that never really went anywhere in the first place. They continue to fail at everything, as even Roger's attempt to use his disability for some pity cash falls through when he accidentally reveals he can still walk, before being crippled for real trying to play the slots.
This is an A-Plot that feels like a complete non-starter on paper, but to it's credit, "Cheek to Cheek: A Stripper's Story" took the material and really embraced it. Again, the pairing of Roger and Jeff works very well, and their dynamic progresses quite naturally for the first half of the episode. But the lack of motivation and ambition for Jeff make the whole thing feel quite pointless, and makes his final decision to go with Roger's dream over any of his own just feel disappointing. One of the biggest issues of the first three episodes of American Dad's return is just how little actual material there seems to be in these scripts, and even "Downtown" last week felt more rich and worth watching, even if that episode was flawed in execution. Nothing the show is doing right now feels like it quite clicks or really lives up even the content of last season, which was never completely perfect but at least felt worthwhile to watch and review. I don't know, I guess all shows go through ruts from time to time, but it's really feeling like time has finally caught up to American Dad.
More and more, I'm noticing that the better versions of this show are the ones with the most engaging B-plots, and "Cheek to Cheek" unfortunately comes up very short there. It's a short Klaus interlude, as his personal space is being taken by other members of the Smith Family, leaving him to fill a corner of Steve's room with his doghouse. He then just proceeds to be a complete a** for the rest of the episode, which I can at least relate as my neighbors in real life are completely insufferable. There's a bit where Steve calls in a noise complaint, only to get tazed for being on Klaus' "lawn", which is funny but totally nonsensical. At the close of the episode, Klaus is now married to a Persian(?) girl, and her family has moved into the room to annoy Steve for the rest of eternity. There's nothing much to get into here, this entire storyline is just filler and a significant dropoff from the excellent Stan, Roger and Francine adventure in "Downtown".
5/10
Once again, American Dad is completely forgettable this week, and it's starting to become a really worrying trend. It feels like this show has lost it's identity, and I have to imagine something has happened behind the scenes that we just don't know about. But through thick and thin, I will keep supporting it, and with so many episodes promised in the future, these reviews will keep coming. With TEW 2020's full release pushed back into mid-May(a very good decision in my opinion), I really don't know what content I'm going to putting out over the coming month and a half or so. American Dad at least keeps this blog somewhat active and helps me concentrate on something other than the real world, so at least the show still has that going for it.
We open with Jesse, Roger's persona for this episode that he's very invested in, a stylist in a male erotic club who dreams of making chivalric cabaret a thing and opening his own club. Of course, it's hated by the horny female customers and mocked relentlessly by the rest of the Smith Family, and Roger, now in a wheelchair after coughing up some of his own spine, must team up with Jeff, a fellow outcast, to realize his dream. There's a lot of comedy to be mined from this pairing, especially with a motivated Roger and Jeff genuinely trying to help, as he goes into erotic dancing himself. It doesn't work, because of course, so Jeff turns to actual stripping to help pay for his motel fees, and ends up just sort of falling into being a male stripper. Probably the biggest drawback of this episode is Jeff's complete lack of agency, as he's just the pretty face to Roger's brains for most of it, and even when he strikes out on his own, he has absolutely no reason to push for success. The episode does address this when Jeff admits to some of the other strippers that he has no dreams and no ambition, but that doesn't excuse lazy writing. Jeff just glomps onto Roger, helping to fullfill Jesse's dream instead in what feels like a weak ending for this storyline that never really went anywhere in the first place. They continue to fail at everything, as even Roger's attempt to use his disability for some pity cash falls through when he accidentally reveals he can still walk, before being crippled for real trying to play the slots.
This is an A-Plot that feels like a complete non-starter on paper, but to it's credit, "Cheek to Cheek: A Stripper's Story" took the material and really embraced it. Again, the pairing of Roger and Jeff works very well, and their dynamic progresses quite naturally for the first half of the episode. But the lack of motivation and ambition for Jeff make the whole thing feel quite pointless, and makes his final decision to go with Roger's dream over any of his own just feel disappointing. One of the biggest issues of the first three episodes of American Dad's return is just how little actual material there seems to be in these scripts, and even "Downtown" last week felt more rich and worth watching, even if that episode was flawed in execution. Nothing the show is doing right now feels like it quite clicks or really lives up even the content of last season, which was never completely perfect but at least felt worthwhile to watch and review. I don't know, I guess all shows go through ruts from time to time, but it's really feeling like time has finally caught up to American Dad.
More and more, I'm noticing that the better versions of this show are the ones with the most engaging B-plots, and "Cheek to Cheek" unfortunately comes up very short there. It's a short Klaus interlude, as his personal space is being taken by other members of the Smith Family, leaving him to fill a corner of Steve's room with his doghouse. He then just proceeds to be a complete a** for the rest of the episode, which I can at least relate as my neighbors in real life are completely insufferable. There's a bit where Steve calls in a noise complaint, only to get tazed for being on Klaus' "lawn", which is funny but totally nonsensical. At the close of the episode, Klaus is now married to a Persian(?) girl, and her family has moved into the room to annoy Steve for the rest of eternity. There's nothing much to get into here, this entire storyline is just filler and a significant dropoff from the excellent Stan, Roger and Francine adventure in "Downtown".
5/10
Once again, American Dad is completely forgettable this week, and it's starting to become a really worrying trend. It feels like this show has lost it's identity, and I have to imagine something has happened behind the scenes that we just don't know about. But through thick and thin, I will keep supporting it, and with so many episodes promised in the future, these reviews will keep coming. With TEW 2020's full release pushed back into mid-May(a very good decision in my opinion), I really don't know what content I'm going to putting out over the coming month and a half or so. American Dad at least keeps this blog somewhat active and helps me concentrate on something other than the real world, so at least the show still has that going for it.
Comments