Review: American Dad! “The Grocery Store Bank”

Overview

Stan, Francine and Roger concoct the perfect plan to rob a bank but agree never to do it. Peace reigns.

Our Take
I don’t know what everyone is talking about at the start of this episode, I’m just as excited when a new grocery store opens as when someone has a baby. And yes, I prefer the grocery stores that have everything in it. Fortunately, the season premiere of American Dad has all of the cool, calm, and collective as the refrigerator section of a Rickles and we’re all better for it.
Spoiler alert, and I’m only mentioning this because it ends up being conducive to the plot, but the one and only Turlington makes a comeback. More importantly, it’s the Craig Robinson portrayal rather than the Forrest Whitaker portrayal, the former of which I actually prefer. For my money, Craig has far more range as a comedic actor than the Academy Award winning star of one of my favorite TV shows Godfather of Harlem which shouldn’t be surprising given that Craig’s had an awesome career doing a ton of movies with Seth Rogen, being on The Office, and making me hungry with his Pizza Hut ads.
As for American Dad, “The Grocery Story Bank” is titled as such because that’s the central location within a new grocery store that becomes the staging for a robbery concocted by Francine, Stan, and Roger, which of course goes horribly wrong because everyone was high when putting together the heist. But, really this week’s episode was hilarious. Great callbacks to prior episodes, a predictable twist that didn’t matter, and a hilarious plot.
I actually love the fact that this episode was presented as such and didn’t feature a lame B-plot with Jeff or the rest of the Smith clan, the show took all 20-minutes and gave it to us in a send up of an almost Ocean’s Eleven bit but done only the way the producers of American Dad can do it.