Review: American Dad! “The Nova Centauris-burgh Board of Tourism Presents: American Dad!” (S13Ep14)

Spoilers Below

The episode starts with Steve, Snot and friends doing live action role-playing, or LARPing. The cold open is really funny when it shows what’s really happening around them during the boys’ imaginative play– let’s just say dog excrement plays a part.

Meanwhile, Stan sets up a shark tank in the kitchen, and Roger has the idea to start up a Sea World type park in their house, with Klaus and Hayley’s help.

Francine ends up LARPing with the boys after they convince her that imagination is a useful tool they use to escape life sometimes (and among this is a very funny Star Wars bit). By the end of the episode, the boys, Francine, AND the J. V. football team (and its coach) have all learned a lesson– how to compromise. And all of this after a few wise words from Francine.

Of course, Stan’s “Ocean Land” is not a complete success. It also feels kind of like a forced story… although I still enjoyed all of it. The episode was weird, but somehow very likable. Some really solid laughs. Not the best of the season, but certainly not the worst.

Looking forward to next week’s episode, which is the first of a two-episode arc– “Daesong Heavy Industries”. We’ll see if they can pull it together and make it all gel successfully.