Review: American Dad “Klaustastrophe.tv”

Is this episode an EPIC FAIL? Also, Phil LaMarr!

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In Colombia, Bullock and Stan begin a sting operation to retrieve weapons grade Uranium from Demetrius Pertz. Stan will exchange the money while Bullock springs the net. All seems to be going well until a fruit stand rolls up, jeopardizing the plan. Stan tries telling the owner to move along, but he gets angry, telling Stan to “get out of here!” This causes Stan to have a flashback to some bald guy voiced by Phil LaMarr yelling at him in those same words. Usually, adding Phil LaMarr to ANYTHING increases its net worth, but for Stan, this is uncovering some repressed childhood trauma, which is decidedly bad. His abandonment issues flare up, blowing the mission.

Stan goes to see Dr. Ray (previously seen decapitated by an ant due to one of Stan’s previous emotional breakdowns), who uses a device to get a mental photo of Stan’s flashback. The man yelling at him (and voiced brilliantly by the star of Samurai Jack, Phil LaMarr) is none other than Curly Neal of the Harlem Globetrotters, so Stan goes to find him. First stop is at a Globetrotters game in Rhode Island, in which he and Steve get invited to join the game. Stan finds he is strangely gifted at handling the ball before being pelted with confetti, which helps further uncover his lost memories. He concludes that when he was nine, he went to Globetrotter Camp for the best month of his life, and then was kicked out for no reason.

And old coach guides Stan to Curly (who, and I cannot stress this enough, shares his voice with veteran Mad TV celebrity impersonator Phil LaMarr) and the other Globetrotters that know him from that time, and they reveal the truth: Stan wasn’t in Globetrotter Camp, his dad Jack had abandoned him for a month at one of their games and they took him in on the road. Four weeks flew by and Jack came back for him, but letting Stan go was too hard for the group, especially Curly, so they gave him the ol’ White Fang treatment, which inadvertently gave him further abandonment issues. So, Stan rides off, having finally realized he wasn’t abandoned by his idols…he was just abandoned by his dad. And then, weirdly, his dad drives around him and is weirdly NOT Krampus anymore. No explanation.

Stan goes off to eliminate Demetrius on his own so that he only has to rely on himself…and then is immediately captured. Luckily, he’s saved by Curly and the Globetrotters AND Dr. Ray. After a few cool moves with some grenades (and killing Dr. Ray again), they’re cornered but then saved by Bullock and his team, who still consider him part of the team despite him leaving. Stan now learns that he will always have people who care about him, as he goes to get Steve from “Sesame Street On Ice Camp.” And all of this thanks to Phil LaMarr.

Also, Klaus puts together a prank channel that the rest of the family gets in on, but that only tanks it. In his rage, Klaus pranks them one last time but ironically requires them to spit and pee on him to survive, which naturally gets recorded and posted online.

OUR TAKE

Ah, another episode about Stan’s fragile psyche. There are actually a lot of episodes this reminds me of, though the one it brings to mind the most would be a Season 6 episode, “Stan’s Food Restaurant”, ALSO about a seemingly bright spot of Stan’s bleak childhood that is actually darker than it appeared to be. Though I think this uses aspects from that in an interesting way, cutting to one of Stan’s more tragic character elements: the abuse his father caused him and how he inadvertently is doing the same to Steve. Although, I am eager to find out why Jack is not Krampus currently.

Also, Phil. Friggin. LaMarr.