Review: American Dad ”Roger Passes the Bar”

Spoilers Below

In the first of the back-to-back season premiere, we see a lot of what I enjoy in an American Dad episode: a hilarious Roger misadventure, and Steve’s judgment being blinded by adolescent hormones, which also proves to be pretty funny. In “Roger Passes the Bar” we see an attractive figure move to town and very quickly get the attention of Steve and his friends. In an attempt to have their way with Charlotte, the guys do a variety of chores and DIY projects. Of course, we all know this won’t exactly work out the way Steve would like, but we still cheer him on, and the payoff of this subplot is great.

We also see Roger’s values get tested when he sells his beloved attic bar after a scary heart attack. The new owner takes the business in a direction that Roger less than loves, and must decide if his new luxurious life is worth seeing his baby (the bar) turn into something he never envisioned. I think the story shed some humorous light on something very real happening in America (and Canada) and that is the diminishing presence of the small business.

“Roger Passes the Bar” was a good episode to premiere the season with. Personally, it gave a lot of my favorite characters the right amount of screen time and there were plenty of laughs had. I think I would have rather saw an episode focused on Stan or Francine to open the season, but I can’t argue with results because I really enjoyed this episode for the most part. There was a lot of that American Dad humor glazed over two subplots I feel like I’ve been told a million times on other shows. That is both a good thing and a bad thing, and I’ll go over some of my negatives in a moment, but first I just have to mention that I really liked how the episode opened with Roger. It had a very “season premiere” feel to it, it’s not really that big of a deal, but it’s something that stood out to me so I had to mention it.

No episode of any show is without its flaws though. Like I mentioned before, “Roger Passes the Bar” gave us two subplots I felt I’ve seen a million times before on other shows. The attractive girl getting gullible guys to do favors for her and selling out values for a lot of money. Two stories we’ve seen quite a lot on TV. One of the things I’ve come to love about American Dad is that it strays from things we’ve seen or heard before. It’s a very creative show, and even when it does pay homage to other stories, it usually finds a way to make the story it’s own. I didn’t feel like that was the case this time. I also didn’t like how the two stories concluded. The episode, for the most part, was pretty funny, but because the two subplots felt recycled, I thought the show would give us some twists. It was pretty much what I was expecting though.

Overall, I have to say I liked this episode. I think on any other night I may have been a little harsher on this episode, but I think I’m just glad to see the show back strong. I think what the show needs to do this season is to find something to keep itself fresh. It hasn’t had this problem in the past, but I feel at that tenth season milestone, it’s time to do something that will rejuvenate the show. Last season on Family Guy, there was a social media uproar over the supposed death of Brian, and we also saw Cleveland and his family come to join the cast. Two things that got people interested in the show. I think American Dad should follow to a degree and do something that will get us talking.

Thank you guys for reading! I’m very happy to back, I always look forward to days I can review something for you guys, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun this season. How did you feel about “Roger Passes the Bar”? Like it, dislike it? Let us know!