Review: American Dad “Comb Over: A Hair Piece”

Overview: 

Stan finds that his typically impenetrable confidence takes a hit when he experiences a rude reminder that he is, in fact, bald. Stan decides that it’s time that he tackles this area of embarrassment and cures this ailment. Stan’s dreams to possess a thick head of hair are suddenly a reality, but he’s left with other deficiencies to improve upon as well as a friend’s shattered life that might be much more difficult to grow back than lost follicles. 

Elsewhere, the rest of the Smith family decide that they’ve pushed their dreams aside for long enough and that it’s finally time to seize the day and become Nightcrawlers–just like Jake Gyllenhaal.

Our Take:

American Dad can essentially be consumed in any order and it’s inconsequential which episodes are watched when. That being said, in over 300 episodes there’s still some continuity that’s been established over the years and so it’s always a lot of fun when American Dad can play into these details instead of resetting the slate at the end of each episode. “Comb Over: A Hair Piece” is a special episode because it returns to a miniscule character detail from a random episode back in season four, “Chimdale,” that hasn’t come up again for hundreds of episodes, yet is now the crux of this new installment’s plot. 

“Comb Over: A Hair Piece” effectively plays with expectations once Stan takes Roger’s advice and undergoes experimental hair seed surgery to correct baldness. Complications ensue and the doctor’s description over how Stan’s body has rejected the hair seeds to a startling degree is another strong example of the episode’s exceptional script. The development that Stan’s kidneys simply vanished before the doctor’s eyes is hysterical and the right kind of absurdity for this escalating problem that stems from a superficial place and begins to snowball. It’s equally rewarding that these major developments as well as the three-month coma that ensues for Stan are brushed under the carpet and just treated like minor hiccups on Stan’s pursuit towards a heavy mane of hair, even if they could fill entire episodes under different circumstances.

Another satisfying quirk in this episode is Stan’s perplexed nature over how “telling it like it is” could be construed as mean rather than unabashedly cool. His awe over Klaus’ solution to simply lie and not tell it like it is, even when that’s what he believes, is equally ridiculous, but this exaggerated idiocy happens to work. “Comb Over: A Hair Piece” establishes such a free-floating idiocy, especially within Stan, that it’s believable that such a simple non-solution can still qualify as groundbreaking advice. It leads to an epiphany where Stand can completely massacre Roger’s Josay Bosay persona, but in a manner that serves the greater good and also demonstrates growth on his part.

Stan’s blunt truth session with his family backfires on him and leads to his hair seed pursuit, but it does touch upon another area of insecurity for the rest of the Smith family. There are plenty of passions that are dropped just as quickly as they’re initiated in American Dad, but Stan acknowledges how his family’s desire to become “Nightcrawlers”–unscrupulous freelance car crash photographers like in the 2015’s Jake Gyllenhaal film–never came to fruition. They all set out to prove Stan wrong and this is the absolute best kind of madness that American Dad deals in. It’s always better when it’s the Smith family that enables each other’s crazy decisions, but all of this already begins in such a heightened place with how characters will only refer to this profession as a Nightcrawler. 

This supporting story is fueled by this enthusiasm towards the Nightcrawler movie and Jake Gyllenhaal’s slimy performance than it is by any interest in photography or journalism. Admittedly, this storyline recedes into the background until it inevitably returns to intersect with the limo getaway hijinks that involve Stan, Roger, and Rod Stewart. It’s a slightly predictable development, but it’s still a fulfilling way to close out the episode and bring most of these storylines together. It at least uses the two contrasting narratives to compliment each other with a joint conclusion rather than time simply running out or going out on non-sequitur shock value. 

“Comb Over: A Hair Piece” is a delightful American Dad episode and the script by Brett Cawley and Robert Maitia is just filled with generally great dialogue and writing. Each scene is built around well-constructed gags that deliver comedy from every angle. It’s not just a strong plot that develops in a clever manner with plenty of changes, but it also uses the characters to the best of their potential. It feels like everyone has something to do here and even though most of the Smith family operate as a unit here they’re still all given unique threads of lunacy to pull upon. It’s a welcome contrast to last week’s episode where only a fraction of the cast were in play. Nobody is squandered here. “Comb Over: A Hair Piece” is full of so much nonsense, but turns out to be a surprisingly important episode. It’s deeply funny and will simultaneously silence all of those wig conspiracy theorists after over a decade of over-analytical observations.