Review: American Dad “Flush After Reading”

Overview: 

Everyone loves a good book, but Francine and Roger take this old adage far too literally when the two of them end up inserting themselves into famous pieces of literature. This radical escape plan puts Francine and Roger up close and personal with some very prolific fictional characters, but their descent into classic writings has more to do with a secret that Francine has kept from Stan than any passion she has for brushing shoulders with Elizabeth Bennet or Sherlock Holmes.

Our Take:

The certain tenets that define Francine have become a comfort to the Smith family, so “Flush After Reading” begins in an exciting place of tension when certain paradigms of the character are suddenly in question. No one believes Francine’s innocent claims that she’s off to the library because, of course, she’s Francine. Her family’s predictions over what she’s actually up to are absolutely hilarious and representative of the strong character work that’s present in this episode, especially in the dialogue. 

American Dad hasn’t been too rigid over Roger’s various alien powers and perks, so it’s not out of the ordinary when his extraterrestrial status can be the catalyst for a story. However, the flippant and random nature of “I can use my alien powers to send you into this book,” really encroaches on Great Gazoo territory. It’s a little troublesome to have such radical powers get introduced out of nowhere. Or maybe it’s not. It’s American Dad. It just makes for an interesting device to get into the meat of the episode, which is an installment where the characters jump into different books. There are certainly other ways in which the episode could have reached this point, especially since the exaggerated capabilities of CIA technology have done equally incredulous things in the past. In this sense, “Flush After Reading” seems a little careless, but it moves through its introductory material so quickly that it’s clear that the episode just has different priorities.

Curiously, the trope of literally jumping into pieces of literature is something that’s reserved more for children’s programming, or in a figurative sense in anthology episodes where casts of series stand in for famous figures from literature. It’s a little surprising to see American Dad arrive at this territory and it’s definitely one of the broader episodes of the series, but naturally “Flush After Reading” applies a classic American Dad spin on the archetype, unfortunately it’s not exactly enough here. None of the pit stops to classical literature present gags that are particularly unique and the majority of them quickly turn into jokes surrounding how these different worlds from literature would burn. The most rewarding aspect of all of this is the different art designs that accompany each of the different books, all of which nail their respective styles and must have been a breath of fresh air for the artists. 

“Flush After Reading” doesn’t necessarily make the most out of its story, which doesn’t feel like it fits the show in the first place. The majority of time is spent in a memoir that Stan wrote, which then morphs into a mission to get his book unpublished so that they therefore can’t be stuck inside of it. The episode’s premise increasingly frays and there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief to reach the ending (The circumstances around Roger’s final gag would mean that he conceivably gets 1984 unpublished). It’s a big change of pace for American Dad, which is exactly what some may be looking for and all of these sequences may land in that case. It’s never a bad thing when American Dad takes risks, but “Flush After Reading” moves too quickly through its ideas and it’s the wrong elements about this episode that stand out. American Dad’s animation always looks good, but it shouldn’t be the highlight of the episode. 

“Flush After Reading” reaches a sweet place of understanding between Francine and Stan. It’s a comforting conclusion that accentuates their endearing bond, even if it’s arrived at in a fairly convenient manner. This episode is a unique entry in this season of American Dad, but it’s likely to be one of the series’ more polarizing entries. Not everything is well executed or comes together in the most satisfying manner, but there is still a lot of fun to be had here. At the very least, Omaha gets Dadded.

No one is safe.