American Dad Rate and/or Review: Threat Levels

[Spooner]

If no one else is going to. =/


I was worried going into this, but the ep was pretty well improved over the pilot. The anchor couple was pretty good (though I can see that EASILY getting overused as MacFarlane has a hardon for the gay jokes).


I'm not much of an in-depth reviewer.

4/5

[pat]

it was better than the pilot, i'll give it that much. that's about all i'll give it though, since it wasn't that much better. the only line i really laughed at was when stan mentioned fighting with a bicycle. about as boring as the pilot, and it's safe to say this'll be the last episode i'll watch.

2/5

[kevin]

i watched about 5 minutes, and what i saw was mediocre. 2/5

[jesse]

3/5, better than the pilot, but still kind of stale.

[NoOneFamous]

I can honestly say it sucked, and not because I am biased towards Family Guy or anything. There was no improvement between the pilot and this. Every character is annoying and still thin as cardboard.. not to mention cliche'. The premise and most of the humor was pretty cliche, too, and I don't think I really laughed once. Stan makes for a terrible lead character, talks annoying, and is an unlikable jerk. The plot dragged on and stumbled around without wrapping up most of it, and I had lost interest halfway through. And I know this isn't just because the show doesn't use cutaway gags like Family Guy, because even Family Guy knows how to at least wrap things up.

I'll give this show one more shot, and if it still sucks, I hope Fox gives it the boot and focuses on Family Guy.

[reyontoyeny]

It was better from the pilot. It had a pretty decent plot going and i even laughed a few times.
3/5

[TriforceBun]

Wow, WOW.

The pilot was one of the worst animated things I've seen, but this was even worse. In what may be the first time watching an animated prime time "sitcom", I didn't laugh a single time in the entire thing. And only a single joke stood out to me as being somewhat clever (the Season of 24 bit). I'm in awe of how bad this was, honestly!

Let's start with the positive stuff: the premise was okay. The idea of the husband being threatened by his wife making more money is decent, and the plot pretty much stayed on that idea (after the pointless "We're gonna die" thing in the first act). The problem is that an okay story means nothing if the characters are so terrible. Stan Smith, perhaps an amusing character in theory, comes across as an unbelievably horrible person. He almost snipes his wife? He wants to punch his kid in the face? He abuses his power to send a real-estate agent to some camp in the middle of nowhere? He's narrow-minded, jealous, angry, and completely unlikable, and none of it is funny.

His son is hardly better; he ALSO attempts to kill a family member--his sister--and he's also a greedy, conniving horrible person, sic-ing bums on each other to make money (from who, by the way? Is this a show that's airing on TV or what? This is never explained). The daughter, Hayley, seems to at least have a thread of decency, but the show treats her like the "Meg" of the series, i.e. the unpopular, whiny, PC one. It's like Lisa minus everything that makes Lisa endearing. The fish seems to already have worn out his joke, with what, three lines in this episode?

Maybe I could stomach all this if the episode was funny but...it just wasn't. Nothing was politically smart, everything with the gay guys was terribly done, the man randomly dropping his pants to expose his lack-of-genitals was horrible, the thumb-bite joke...ack, running out of synonyms for "bad" here...you get the picture. This episode didn't have a single laugh, but it did provide plenty of groans.

Bad, awful, terrible, excrement. And so on.

I'm not the biggest fan of Family Guy, but at least it's usually entertaining. This wasn't, in any sense of the word.

1/5, F
Unprecedented.

[Rekart]

2/5. Better than the pilot, but not that good. It is basically the first episode of the show, so they've got a good excuse. I'll watch every episode that's on, I think, because MacFarlane can pull some jokes out of his ass sometimes, but if it doesn't get much better then this, I don't think I'll have too many eps to watch.

[bbf2]

I agree that its the unlikeability of the characters that really puts the nail in the coffin. Stan is basically evil. Jerkass Homer and even Peter at their worst are still much more sympathetic than he is. It could have been really funny if he was a well-meaning guy blinded by intense patriotism and conservatism or something, and dedicated to obeying the law no matter what the cost. Instead they decided to make him a hypocrite and a snake who uses his position to do things that are pretty much evil, and its not even entertaining, its sort of disgusting (even though its just a cartoon.)

[Crotis Jivefunk]

Two stoned guys riding an elevator, Mexicans crossing into the U.S. border, and a man biting off his own thumb....Name the only laughs in this episode.

Seriously, this show needs to be canned. bbf2 is right about the likeability of the characters. Roger's the only one I find remotely interesting. The rest don't really have any personalities, and the show is basically aborted Family Guy ideas without the funny.

[Wavy Gravy]

It was better than the pilot, but not by much. Though a good amount of jokes made me laugh ,the characters just aren't all that endearing, and even the best plot in the world won't work with lousy characters. At least I've got new "Family Guy" episodes to fall back on.

3/5. Not great, but not horrible.

[The "Urban" Lenny]

1/5 I thought the show would actually improve as the series went on, but this episode proved me wrong. The only joke that even got a chuckle out of me was when they sent the realtor lady to Abu Ghraib. Other then that it was an absolutely terrible episode. I really can't stand any of the characters either, especially the fish. What is he supposed to be funny or something. Hopefully next weeks episode might be much better than this one and the pilot. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Max Power]

2/5. Gave me a few laughs and then...nothing.

[dyln]

Woah, since the preview I had my expectations high, so this really sucked. 1.5/5

[Larson Something]

Nope, still doesn't do it for me at all. 1/5.

[Eart]

That was a great episode! 5/5, definately!

[Didntdoit]

They better not cancel King of the Hill for this.

If they do, Rupert Murdoch will pay.

Honestly, this is just an excuse for Fox to say, "See! Look! We aren't conservative!".

Absolutely unwatchable.
1/5

[skittlebrau]

I'm not being biased torwards Family Guy or anything because I honestly thought this show would improve from the pilot, and it did by just the tiniest little hair. But it was still bad. Only one instance where I chuckled, not laughed: "Vaginas are great. I wish I had one.". Everything else was a waste of my time. I won't be watching this again any time soon.

1.5/5

[Mike Scully]

I tried watching for 20 minutes, but then I just gave up, because I didn't want to ruin the giddy feeling of 3 quality animated episodes from before. I think the humor is completely sadistic, and blatantly insultingly stereotypical of whoever the writers are trying to make fun of.

[eric]

all you need to know about what I thought is that I changed the channel to a seinfeld episode halfway through.

[Tomacco]

The likeability of the characters, as it's been discussed here, will be the death of this show. Stan is harsh, evil and seems to hate his own family. Francine is insanely dull and underdeveloped, even if it's only the second episode. The daughter is like the worst qualities of Lisa Simpson but made a teenager who seems to be jaded with everyone around her, Roger is..what, gay or something? I don't even know.. he was a LOT funnier in the pilot. And Klaus is a gimmick character who I just don't find funny. Steve is the only sympathetic character, who reminds me of a slightly more confident Kevin from "Mission Hill" with his group of geek cronies.

Those aside, the only jokes I found funny were the gay couple on the news (at first, got even got old by the end) and Stan saying "with gay couples, which one has the vagina?". This was even followed by a HORRIBLE joke about a genitalless co-worker, which was even repeated. Another weird joke off the top of my head was Stan licking Francine's hand...which just seemed out of place to me somehow. The episode also seemed to go all over the place and drag on forever. First it was about the family being infected and dying, then about Francine becoming a real estate agent, then somewhere the story about helping bums and pitting them against eachother came in, and Stan decided to fight the bums to prove his musculinity. Maybe it was because I had watched four (better) cartoons before this, but I with a lack of humor I was literally bored and couldn't bring myself the effort to try to follow what was happening. I thought the pilot killed this episode to be honest, and this one dashed my hopes for what I thought was going to be an at-least-good show. Family Guy >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>American Dad.

2/5

[skittlebrau]

I'm surprised you can remember all their names, because I have no clue who you're referring to.

[Ryan]

Wow...what a crappy finale to Animation Domination. Or maybe it was because I just cruised by Family Guy, as I already watched it three times (and an extra two times with company), so it was background noise to me. Anyways, I have a theory:

2003: Seth invents American Dad.
Early 2004: FOX greenlights American Dad. Seth is happy.
Mid 2004: FOX renews Family Guy. Seth yells out "Aww, shit!!!"

You get it? Seth has TWO, count 'em, TWO shows to take care of. And since FG is too much of a hit to let go, Seth is just running AD into the ground so it can get cancelled.

The bad news? AD goes down, so does FG. Is it possible for AD to get cancelled and let FG run its course? We'll see when the ratings come in...but for now, 2/5, just for the Asian video camera joke and Stan grabbing for his crotch whenever he's threatened about being less than a women...

[vox]

i recorded it in case i ever get into masochism

[Wasteland]

Eh, it was okay. Not great, but okay.

[Wavy Gravy]

No, I think "Family Guy" will hold up in spite of "American Dad"'s shortcomings. I doubt FOX would make the same mistake twice.

[Cole]

Is it possible for AD to get cancelled and let FG run its course?

of course it is.

[NoOneFamous]

^ yeah, why wouldn't it be?

Steve is the only sympathetic character, who reminds me of a slightly more confident Kevin from "Mission Hill" with his group of geek cronies.

I wouldn't even say he is sympathetic. In both episodes he has been portrayed as a selfish brat with no respect, and does anything to get what he wants.

[NoJean]

Better then the new simpsons episodes/5.

[NoOneFamous]

^ no way. I'm by no means the the biggest fan of new Simpsons episodes, but they're still better than this crap. Plus, The Simpsons is on a role with good episodes recently.