Review: American Dad “Who Smarted?”

Overview:

A radical new form of technology at the CIA provides a risky solution to the perpetual embarrassment that Hayley and Jeff both feel whenever they’re out on double dates together. Jeff receives the opportunity to boost his middling intelligence and no longer feel inferior to Hayley, but the experimental process perhaps works a little too well. Jeff is smarter than ever, but this new version of Hayley’s beau causes unforeseen stresses to appear that might be even worse.

Meanwhile, Roger and Steve get into the dangerous business of snake anti-venom production and business is nipping. 

Our Take:

The whole Flowers for Algernon trope where a typically imbecilic character temporarily becomes a genius has been an easy well to draw from for many decades. It’s an easy subversion of the norm and everyone from Meatwad in Aqua Teen Hunger Force to Homer Simpson and Futurama’s Fry have gone through this ordeal. American Dad has inverted its characters to great effect on several occasions, but it’s both a little surprising and impressive to think that in 300 episodes the series never resorted to a “Flowers for Jeff” storyline where American Dad’s resident doofus becomes hyper intelligent. After so many episodes and decades of content, American Dad has more than earned the right to deliver a “Jeff gets smart” episode. “Who Smarted?” contains the broader strokes that one might expect from an episode of this nature, but it’s actually a very thoughtful experiment that doesn’t phone in what could be a very paint-by-numbers episode. Instead, “Who Smarted?” is just weird and funny enough that it’s the perfect premiere to a new season of American Dad. 

It’s been interesting to see how the most recent seasons of American Dad have applied a lot more focus to both Hayley’s professional aspirations at Sub Hub as well as the health of her relationship with Jeff. This shift feels natural after other characters in the series have previously received a ton of attention and in that sense “Who Smarted?” feels like a natural evolution to what Hayley and Jeff have been dealing with for the past few years. Hayley’s embarrassment and Jeff’s insecurity over his lack of intelligence is nothing new, but Hayley’s slacker nature usually acts as enough of an equalizer. Jeff’s dimwitted nature is perhaps a little too extreme here, but it’s at least highly funny incompetence. 

“Who Smarted?” is a focused episode of American Dad that doesn’t try to do anything too radical with its premiere and instead comfortably embraces character dynamics that it knows bring success. There could certainly be more Stan in this episode and Francine and Klaus are reserved to mere cameos, but Hayley and Jeff are able to anchor this entry. “Who Smarted?” is proof that American Dad still has plenty to say after 300 episodes and that this new season should be just as impassioned and hilarious as what’s come before it.

And here’s hoping that Stan’s owl remains a regular fixture of the Smith household. Oh the sights that he and Rogu could see…