Review: American Dad “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers”

Overview:

Roger takes on one of his more honorable crusades through the solar-powered work of one of his many personas, Dr. Sunny Sunderson. The passion and positive work that comes from Dr. Sunderson’s efforts soon inspires Hayley and Jeff to align with Roger’s character and glom onto some of his environmental altruism. Roger is appreciative for the extra help, but when arguments break out between the SunSucker company it becomes unclear if Hayley and Jeff are the right people to get involved with Roger’s pure pursuit. 

With the fate of Langley’s future suddenly at stake, Stan finds himself more consumed with the circumstances surrounding his missing TV Guide. 

Our Take:

It’s nothing new or unusual for Roger to be up to some kind of scheme, but a major difference to the nature of “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” is that Roger’s work isn’t something toxic that he forces onto the people around him. Hayley and Jeff legitimately admire Roger’s developments as Dr. Sunderson and the most important element of this entry is that Roger genuinely cares about his solar-powered progress. He’s the pure one through all of this as opposed to the wild card that so often pollutes a project and brings it down to his level. It’s satisfying that “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” explores that not all of Roger’s personas are negative and selfish. In fact, empathetic personalities like Dr. Sunderson exist so that Roger himself can be so self-serving. It’s a purging through persona.

American Dad is always comfortable to so readily make Roger its troublemaker and force of negativity, so it’s a welcome change of pace that his character here is so trusting and naïve. This in turn allows Hayley and Jeff to fulfill Roger’s standard role of chaotic opposition, even if it’s unintentional and they enter this installment with noble intentions. This inevitable blow up becomes more successful because of the unexpected role that it slots Roger into during all of this. American Dad is often at its best when it attempts to finely scrutinize Roger’s actions and routines, so it’s appreciated that Hayley addresses the sheer amount of work that Dr. Sunderson has accomplished and Roger also establishes that this character has decades of experience under his belt. 

Roger’s simple mantra with his company is that they avoid fossil fuels and anything that will negatively impact the Earth. It’s a slippery slope when Hayley and Jeff propose minor concessions that become emblematic of the compromises that have set back Dr. Sundersons for decades. Hayley gets so lost in her goal to expedite Roger’s 1000-year-long dream of a solar-powered city that she’s willing to utilize massive amounts of pollution to reach this place of supposed environmental solvency. Roger’s sliding morals become a growing obstacle and it’s crushing to see his vision get tainted as Hayley asserts more control. 

This isn’t necessarily an episode of American Dad that needs to connect its disparate storylines, but it works in the favor of this installment that the plots in “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” do manage to dovetail together. Dr. Sunderson’s destructive acts throw the rest of Langley into a tailspin, which renders television moot as well as Stan’s journey to learn what’s on the tube and when. To the episode’s credit, “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” is well aware of any clumsy plotting and manages to retroactively turn it into a humorous and abstract way to conclude everything. 

The broader strokes to the plot in “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” succeed, but there is also a wealth of excellent wordplay that’s flown through, whether it’s frustration over unintentional Siri interaction or Jeff’s failure to understand that it’s “fossil fuels,” not “fossil, fools.” They’re dependable gags that add to the larger sense of weirdness that’s present in “Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers,” most of which acts in service towards just how bizarre Langley and its supporting players have become. Another reliable running joke through the episode is Hayley continually missing giant artifacts around Roger’s business, most of which directly influence what’s about to happen next. His fancy sketch of Jeff is also hysterical and too good of a joke for how quickly it comes and goes.

“Dr. Sunderson’s SunSuckers” is a very comfortable American Dad episode that confidently moves at a fast pace, but doesn’t feel like it’s without a plan for where it’s going or that it’s unnecessarily padded with a barely there C-story. The lesson that’s learned by the end of it all isn’t exactly new territory for the series, but it does help that it’s Hayley who experiences the biggest epiphany in this episode and that she and Roger can actually reach a sweet place of understanding. An actual compromise. The world may not be in any better shape by the end of all of this–and in fact it’s actually tacitly worse in Langley–but Hayley is likely to think twice before the next time that she wants to take over one of Roger’s schemes.