Review: American Dad “Better on Paper”

Overview:

Stan allows his insecurities to get the better of him when he stumbles upon a collection of Francine’s old love letters, one of which he fears might actually be of substance. As Stan digs deeper into the subject of Francine’s secret paramour, he finds himself in a particularly twisted love triangle that will blind him over what’s really important if he’s not careful.

Our Take:

There’s something to be said for the “simplicity” of “Better on Paper” where this is really just Stan’s battle against himself–both in a literal and metaphorical sense. All that Stan needs to do is listen to Francine, who wants him–not Printer–but he’s so infinitely in his own way that any sign of backing down on his original headstrong mission feels like failure to him even if it’s exactly what he needs to do here. It’s an ouroboros of ignorance as Stan’s insecurities swallow his obliviousness ad nauseum. There are a handful of past American Dad episodes where Francine does give into temptation and allows herself to be swayed by outside forces. Never once in “Better on Paper” is she actually interested in Printer’s advances and the episode is stronger for not going down that route. Stan’s connection with Francine is on the line, but this is a story where he ultimately needs forgiveness from himself, not Francine.

The first half of “Better on Paper” has some growing pains as it struggles to properly settle into its premise. However, there’s so much fun to be had once Printer’s robot uprising takes place and American Dad just goes for it. The robot-centric material that fills the final act is so silly and verges on Futurama’s Robot Mafia in terms of broad stereotypes that are based off of crude machine designs. “Better on Paper” periodically checks its own pulse when it comes to some of the broader jokes that its robots make and it’s hard to begrudge any of them for how foolish this all gets. There’s a Looney Tunes-esque energy to Stan’s showdown with Printer that definitely doesn’t make any sense, but it doesn’t matter. In a perfect world, American Dad will keep Dr. Weitzman and his espresso-bot lover together and periodically check in on them.

It’s impressive that “Better on Paper” goes all in on its outlandish storyline and doesn’t dilute it with any B-story that steals focus. This allows some of the episode’s simpler moments to breathe a little more and there are just some entertaining character beats that naturally develop as the episode goes on. For instance, it’s very funny that Stan confuses a spider and a rat for Roger personas and that he’s so out of touch, yet impressed, when it comes to Roger’s abilities in this department. Stan’s inability to locate Roger becomes a well-structured joke where he spends the entire episode hiding. This keeps Roger absent for the entire episode, which is a bit of a disappointment, but it’s not necessarily a story that requires his presence and it’s worth it for the strong punchline that concludes the episode once his hiding spot is revealed.

“Better on Paper” is such a stupid episode of American Dad, but in the most complimentary way possible. There are few series that could effectively pull off a ludicrous story of this nature, let alone inject genuine empathy into it while also being seriously funny. It’s an episode that works as well as it does because it properly commits to its premise and fearlessly allows it to get as wild as it needs to be. American Dad continues to kill it this season and episodes like “Better on Paper” prove that silly nonsense can still reap big rewards.