Review: American Dad “A Star is Reborn”

SPOILERS BELOW

Another great episode of American Dad. I could just end the review with that, because honestly I feel like I’ll just be repeating myself at this point in the season. But alas, I have too many thoughts on this episode to keep to myself, so I invite you to read on as I delve into what made last night’s American Dad one of the best of the season.

In “A Star is Reborn” Stan once again abuses the CIA’s technology to his advantage, and hacks into a radio contest to win a trip to Hollywood. Once there, Stan gets mixed up with an old movie actress who possesses ambitious plans for the two of them. Meanwhile, Hayley and Steve undergo crate training after bad mouthing the TV show “Bones”, and offending Roger.

This is probably my favorite episode of the season thus far. I’m a sucker for classic movies, and this episode had a references and symbols of them. I was laughing right from the start of the episode until the very end. The story presented some pretty interesting ideas about the aspect of reincarnation, and there was a really weird sense of drama in the third act. While the episode didn’t break from comedy, it did bring the characters to a pretty dramatic place. The ending of the episode is my absolute favorite part. Facing certain death, Francine tricks June (the old actress) by buying into the idea of reincarnation and admits to remembering her past life with Stan. It obviously works, and after killing June in a hilarious fashion, Francine confesses that she really does remember being with Stan in a past life? It leaves us with the mystery of whether or not she was telling the truth. It was beautiful in a weird waste.

Roger’s story was complete filler, but it was still pretty funny. I’m a big fan of my DVR and when I see something go missing from it, I essentially become Roger in this episode. I’ve never resorted to crating the people who negatively critique my favorite shows, but I’ll have to keep that in mind for next time! What really made this subplot funny to me was the fact that I was able to relate to it pretty well. When Roger put Hayley and Steve into the crates, it also lead to some funny moments. Ultimately there isn’t a satisfying conclusion to this subplot, everything just sorts itself out conveniently and we’re on to conclude the other story in the episode. So while I did enjoy the content of Roger’s subplot in various areas, I did think it could have done better in other areas.

Overall, I was very happy with this episode. I think we had a pretty interesting villain with tragic motivation. There were a lot of clever jokes, and my favorite ending of the season. The majority of the episode was very strong, but there were a few things I wished they fleshed out a little more. I think this could have worked very well for a season finale. The dramatic tension in the episode would have been a good touch in ending the season, so hopefully they have something in store for us that is even better!

How did you guys enjoy “A Star is Reborn”? Enjoy it as much as I did? Not as much? Share your thoughts!