Review: American Dad “LGBSteve”

After nearly a three month break, American Dad returned last night with an all new episode on TBS. Since it’s move to TBS, I’ve enjoyed the show a lot. If you follow American Dad on any social media, you know TBS has been very creative and active, coming up with original images to inject some humor into everyday internet browsing. The quality of the episodes has also been pretty good. There have been some misses here and there, but overall I must say I’ve really enjoyed this season. I was very skeptical about the move to TBS. It felt a lot like “Community” moving to Yahoo streaming, excited as a fan, worried as a critic. I had thoughts that the show would be finished, but it’s been renewed for another season after this one, and it’s putting up pretty decent ratings. Things seem to be shaping up for American Dad, now let’s get into this review!

In “LGBSteve” Hayley falls in love with roller derby and is determined to join the women’s team. After going to the rink with Steve, the team decides to let Hayley join on the condition that Steve joins the team as well (They mistake him for a girl).

Before my synopsis I was gushing about where American Dad stands, and I’m about to gush a little more because this was a strong episode in my books. The episode dives into issues like having an identity crisis and social acceptance, and really portrays them in a funny way. With so many hot topic issues surrounding the LGBT community today, this episode could have come across offensive to some, and maybe cross a line here or there. It didn’t do any of that. I think it was respectful to the content, and was really funny at the same time. The jokes in this episode were really funny, the entire Smith family all had really funny moments. Some of the guest cast were pretty good, not the most interesting part of the episode, but they were serviceable. We also got the return of the magical carpenter that doesn’t resemble any religious figure in any shape or form. There was a subplot in this episode that involved Stan and Francine needing a handy man, so Jesus comes and tries to help them out. The entire story is Jesus doing all of these impressive jobs for them, but Stan and Francine just get outrageously angry at him. It’s pretty funny stuff, I can’t say I’ve seen anything like it. There is also a crucifixion joke that really hit me the right away. It was timed perfectly. I liked how both of the stories wrapped up, Steve and Hayley’s was a little unexpected, so that was good.

There was only one thing I didn’t really care for in this episode. Towards the end of the episode there is a musical number, it isn’t really that good or even that funny. It didn’t even work as a montage to move the episode forward. Besides that song, I had a great time watching this one.

Overall, this was a great return for the show. Hopefully the show follows up well. TBS keeps teasing “edgier episodes”, and I don’t really know what they meant by that before, and I still don’t. Compared to shows like South Park or Archer, American Dad is pretty tame. Maybe it’s just a buzz phrase to bring people back next week, but it’s something that has bothered me since they started doing it a few months back. Anyways, great episode, I’ll probably watch it once more before erasing it off the ol’ DVR.

How did you guys enjoy “LGBSteve”? Enjoy it as much as I did? Not so much? Share your thoughts with us, and come back next week for the next American Dad review! Enjoy the rest of your week!