Review: American Dad “The Mural of the Story”

Was this episode rushing or was it dragging?

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

While reprimanding Hayley for eating at a place he’d expressly forbid her from going to, Stan passes by a famed town mural defaced by graffiti. He rallies the town to restore it, using his disappointment in Hayley as a scapegoat for it’s defacing and riding the high of crowd’s faith in him, but then goes onto blowing the budget and trying to clean the mural on his own. This backfires, making the mural even worse than before, though the crowd redirects his due punishment to Hayley, and Stan says nothing to stop them. Doubling down on his selfishness, Stan tries keeping the pariah Hayley under house arrest when she just wants him to tell the truth, then tripling by attempting to change her face and making her look like some sorta Quasimodo monstrosity. Enraged and broken, Hayley drives away but is seemingly almost killed by an oncoming truck. In reality, she found a much better plastic surgeon and plans to haunt Stan with the seeming consequences of his actions, but soon learns he has repainted the mural to show how he framed Hayley. Touched, Hayley tells him everything and helps him to destroy the new mural.

Also, Steve goes into a “Whiplash” parody but with drumming instead of clowns. So, if you know that movie, you must feel pretty clever for understanding that.

OUR TAKE

Stan’s stubbornness when he’s screwed up is a more uncommonly used quality for the basis of an entire episode, but it’s usually used to good effect. Sometimes it’s not letting a dog die until it’s a lifeless abomination, sometimes it’s harpooning Francine during a hurricane, and in this case, it’s destroying Hayley’s reputation and face until she swears revenge. All perfectly good episodes, this one included.

Also, for you English Majors out there, you MAY notice Hayley’s fake doctor name, Montacristo, is a reference to the classic revenge story, “The Count of Monte Cristo”. So…good on you if you picked that up.