Review: American Dad “Dammmm, Stan!”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Stan and Francine are desperate to find a new couple’s activity that can bring the two of them closer together, but when Francine finds an affinity in fly-fishing, unfortunately Stan doesn’t share the same level of interest. This difference of opinions only further accentuates how difficult it’s been for Stan and Francine to find common ground. Both Stan and Francine stoop to drastic efforts to push the hand of their partner, but what should be a productive bonding exercise only makes them separately miserable and might even resort in one of their deaths.

While Stan and Francine attempt to smooth out the bumps in their relationship, Steve and Hayley become consumed with a mystery regarding some curious markings on the house’s door jam. The two dig deeper, only to learn a fascinating secret about one of their family members.

Our Take:

American Dad has featured a solid run of Francine stories through the most recent batch of episodes, all of which have focused on a different facet of the character. There’s definitely some overlap in these stories, but for the most part they’ve portrayed Francine in contrasting lights that demonstrate the complex extremes of her character. Francine can fuel her own story, but her adventures typically gain depth when she’s paired together with Stan and the nature of their marriage is put under the microscope. This has been done plenty of times in the past and so while in that respect, “Dammm, Stan!” doesn’t tread new waters for American Dad, but it’s still able to deliver a satisfying episode that remembers why Stan and Francine can be such a dynamic pairing.

American Dad always does a good job at showing that Stan is someone who is willing to go to extreme lengths and put in an incredible amount of work as a means to avoid doing something that he’s not interested in. Usually the amount of work Stan puts into his sabotage plan is wildly disproportionate to what he’s looking to avoid, which further speaks to the egotistical and oblivious nature of Stan’s character. In “Dammm, Stan!,” Stan is willing to construct an entire dam as a means to stop the river and therefore prohibit both him and Francine from doing more fly-fishing. It’s a radical act, but it’s probably not on the list of the top ten craziest things that Stan has ever done.

It’s not unusual for American Dad to play Stan and Francine against each other like this and even though fly-fishing is just a recent interest for Francine, it’s still genuinely sad to hear her talking about how she enjoyed it and felt a sense of purpose through the activity, only for Stan to tell her to suppress all of that in favor of his own interests. It becomes even harder for Francine to empathize with her husband as the ugly nature of lake life progressively floats to the surface.

American Dad always benefits from more Rogu and Steve and Hayley’s storyline makes some smart use of the supporting character. Klaus initially turns to Rogu as a confidante on the whole Omar issue, only for it to turn out that this is exactly what Steve and Hayley hoped would happen. Klaus does not respond positively to the fact that “he’s been Rogu’d,” but it does get to the bottom of the mystery at hand. The speed at which American Dad moves through this plot speaks to how the story is less important than Klaus’ emotional response to it.

The main stories in “Dammmm. Stan!” tackle some emotional territory, but this is also an episode that features some excellent digressions independent of the plot. Roger sticks around through the episode, even if he’s just used as sounding board and source of absurdity, but his initial appearance in a duck persona and being restricted to duck-based duties is a fun gag. The funniest joke in the episode is also the randomly disgusting sequences of events that lead to Francine vomiting in horror just as Stan leaps into it with a look of pure exhilaration. It’s a perfect visual representation of the very different places that Stan and Francine are at throughout “Dammmm. Stan!”

“Dammmm. Stan!” is a satisfactory episode in what’s been a somewhat shaky tail end to American Dad’s current season. Both of the stories that are told in this installment are strong and go to some entertaining, unexpected places and it’s really only their resolutions that are on the weaker side. That’s not to say that “Dammmm, Stan!” had to do anything extraordinary with these plots, but just adding an extra note of reflection from Klaus and Stan would have helped. There’s still a lot to enjoy in this episode and more Rogu is always a good thing.

Oh, and I’ve done the work for you—there’s no actor named Omar in the cast for Tremors 5: Bloodlines. You’ve saved yourself five minutes.