I used to watch American Dad a good few years back and only recently have I started watching it again. I’m on season 4 and I’m still watching stuff that I sorta remember but don’t really and it’s been a super enjoyable watch. I’m someone who finds Family Guy to be pretty bad and I’m not a big fan of cutaway humour so when I started to forget American Dad, I think I just assumed it was the same but I really isn’t and most of the jokes really do come from the story being told. I’m wondering though, it has a lot of seasons now so I’m curious if it’s gotten worse? I’ve noticed a lot of these adult shows get worse the longer they go on, does American Dad?
Does American Dad drop in quality in the later seasons?
Episode DiscussionIt only gets better imo
Yes but also no because of...Well, how stuff actually works outside of the generalized and irrational nonsense of online discourse. I couldn't honestly cite a bad season overall off the top of my head but I can immedately name several weak episodes within seasons. And also several good episodes in those same seasons.
12-14 has quite a few misses and don't-rewatches, with even great episodes having some truly awful bits in them (Top of the Steve? Solid episode! 'Tuttle the dogfather'? One of the most worthless garbage bits in all of TV history. Big 'Family Guy at its worst' energy.), but season 18's hitting it out of the park right now.
I’m not a big fan of cutaway humour so when I started to forget American Dad, I think I just assumed it was the same
American Dad has never used Family Guy's cutaway style. It sounds like you never watched it.
And for what it's worth, even Family Guy has mostly abandoned cutaways. I've seen a few good episodes in recent seasons...Although it still suffers its other problems like how movie references aren't jokes, Seth and five minutes of random bullshit isn't funny, Seth and the joke was over twenty seconds ago so quit dragging it along, Seth.
Great start. Shitty middle but i dont think it ever got unwatchable. Its coming back in more recent seasons. Last one was gold.
That’s good I’m glad it’s coming back in recent seasons. If you don’t mind explaining, what was shitty about the middle seasons?
For me, anyway, a few things were going wrong with it:
1) Roger's personas just weren't as interesting or fun. The show even has this become a plotline in one episode with Francine calling him out for losing his edge. There are less actual 'character' personas with names and stories and more just Roger-in-a-wig-for-one-scene types.
2) B-plots became seemingly obligatory, stuffed in merely to be there. They got very uninspired and often left less room for the A plot to meet its (usually high) potential. So it was bad B plots and weakened A plots because of them. There's an episode with this great set-up - Stan forgot his wedding anniversary so he has Francine committed to a psych ward to buy him time - and instead of that being the meat of the episode, most of it is this just random meta storyline with this live-action Chinese dude. Another episode sets up as a two-parter with Stan losing his mind and seeing Biblical signs to find an ark and 'be the new Noah'...And the second episode just drops all of that for this pretty weak National Geographic documentary riff.
2B) And this is where a lot of weaker Roger personas happened too when they were just there for these mandatory, dull B stories. There's an episode where Roger is a baby. And everything in that plot is off-screen. It adds nothing but, I guess, a paycheck for those voice actors that week. The A plot of that episode is one of the best though...Although the episode ends on one of the show's worst bits seeming ripped straight out of Family Guy...Which actually is a good segue because
3) The writing got very...Worst-of-Family-Guy ish. More 'haha random' shit and dragged-out bits. There's a scene in one episode where a side character pops up out of nowhere and...Has dog-hybrid babies. Because 'lol wacky'. He's nowhere else in the episode and none of it is ever referenced again. And there's a few episodes have had a recurring bit of characters just...Saying words wrong like they're fucking idiots. Hayley can't say 'scoop' and Steve forgets how to say his name ("Stoive"), and the writers call this humor...That Hayley example is as recent as season 16, just two seasons ago, but the overall episode is decent. And there's an episode where they all kinda just become psychopaths who find murder hilarious and fun. It plays like Family Guy's worn-out 'haha Meg's abused' bit dialed up to 11...In fact, that episode is pretty much a full rip-off of a Family Guy episode where Meg decides that being abused is great because the family enjoys it together.
4) Flanderization. Haley's pretty much just Jeff 2.0 lately. Lazy stoner. All her activism and such is gone from the character. On the other side of that though, Klaus has developed from 'Foreign pervert, liked Hitler' in the earliest episodes to actually having a full personality now. Granted, it's a shit personality by design - he probably listens to Joe Rogan podcasts and watches Andrew Tate - but it suits him.
It's hard to say the show's gotten bad overall. I can say it's developed some bad tendencies. I can say it gets uneven - see above, 2B, where a worthless B plot is paired with one of the all-time best A plots of the show, but the episode ends with one of the all-time worst 'jokes'. I can say there are certain scenes and episodes that are just...Infuriating in their failure. But I'm still watching it and the season that just dropped hasn't missed yet so...Any show going so long will hit some low points but it's still quite far from the Simpsons-point-of-no-return.
Long rant bro. Hits the main points perfectly. There are a couple good one offs during those seasons that are great it you have wade through some crap to get to them.
Im talking like 12-16 kinda area is when its worst. It just gets predictable and flatlines for a bit. Unfortunetly they also steal a couple plot ideas from family guy. But the spark is reignited and it bounces back.
They also switched networks around that time.
Last season had some of the best episodes yet. So no, it hasn't dropped off.
Gold Top Nuts and Beyond The Alcove are absolute gems.
Gold Top Nuts is the most Gold Top episode.
Beyond The Alcove is good too but it just makes me lament the lack of a They Live type episode. I wanna see Principal Lewis and Bullock fistfight for ten solid minutes. ...I gotta watch that movie again.
It's started dropping off in the past couple seasons. I say around 14
Hell naw
I think it started getting bad after Jeff left and tanked even worse after he came back. I've more or less stopped paying attention since then.
Yes sadly it has, the last couple of seasons have been really hit for me and a coworker of mine. This newer season has promise so far
No the world has changed that much. You can't do the gay jokes with Roger anymore which was always gold or talk about guns and rape. This is why comedians keep talking about how difficult being a stand-up is nowadays. Everybody is super sensitive and can't just take a joke like black people and science fiction, or changing black faces in America, and the smiths walk in wearing black face.
Yes, once it moved to TBS.
I honestly think it’s funnier than it’s ever been. The show has completely reinvented itself after the first few seasons and it really took about 10 seasons for the show to really bloom. After Mike Barker left, the show was forced to change again. Nowadays the stories follow a more absurdist and surreal plot centered around an everyday task, and it works. That is how the show has managed to stay fresh. They can make something out of pretty much nothing.
3 through like 8 are peak and there is definitely a drop off