Review: American Dad “Men II Boyz”

 

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Viva Las West Virginia! Klaus prepares for his upcoming wedding (that’s right) and as the date looms closer he’s determined to have a memorable bachelor party over the weekend. Stan, Roger, and Jeff are reluctant to dedicate a whole weekend to Klaus, but they find themselves along for the ride and having a genuinely good time. That is, until they aren’t. Klaus’ chaotic bachelor party weekend also triggers a reckless time for Hayley and Francine, only their plans to hire a stripper also get wildly out of control.

Our Take:

Weddings are often treated as Big Event television when it comes to TV shows, but “Men II Boyz” is an episode of American Dad that tries to run contrary to that assumption and do its own thing. The news that Klaus is getting married should come as a serious surprise to everyone in the Smith family, but due to a potent mix of apathy and self-interest this engagement has been able to occur with no one being the wiser. Wedding themselves are tremendous, but “Men II Boyz” is a little more interested in a certain tradition that precedes the event and that some consider just as important: the sacred art of the bachelor party.

Klaus isn’t the most beloved character in the Smith family, but “Men II Boyz” builds off of an idea that’s nearly poetic in nature. Despite how Roger and Stan don’t want to spend time with Klaus, they still have enough respects for the arbitrary bonds of manhood—like bachelor parties—that they’re willing to come along for the ride. They are slaves to their gender. Steve shows enthusiasm towards all of this, but he’s unable to take part in the activities due to his age. Finding a way to work Steve into the equation could have been fun, but Jeff works as an even better substitute. Steve’s exclusion also builds to an entertaining development where everyone in the family has fun plans for the weekend except for Steve. His disastrous efforts to spend time with the women in his family lead to some of the funniest moments in the episode from Francine.

The freshly dubbed “Klaus’s Boyz” head off to have their hijinks in West Virginia because a deceased friend of Klaus got a blowjob there at a tourist trap and he wants to spread his ashes there. It’s an absolutely crazy piece of information that’s blown past and it’s perhaps the least bachelor party-like thing to do. These strange insights into Klaus’ apparently very busy life are always entertaining, but in fact I’d suspect that this is actually a dig at director Todd Phillips, who of course is not just responsible for The Hangover trilogy, but also Due Date which deals with a spreading of ashes plot. The episode gets a lot of mileage out of this perspective and thankfully tries to reserve their few references to more subtle gags. The Hangover has been done to death at this point and so I’m glad that the episode wasn’t gratuitous in that regard. That being said, I wouldn’t have hated to see Roger walking around with Rogu strapped to his chest.

A strong factor in this episode is that it lives in this complex place where Stan, Roger, and Jeff simultaneously care but also don’t care about Klaus, which can’t help but reveal itself as they try to support him. The same enjoyment is found in Jeff’s persistent half-baked opinions on Klaus being justified because he’s only a “supporting character” in all of this. “Men II Boyz” repeatedly makes the same joke that Stan, Roger, and Jeff have no idea that Klaus is even in a relationship, yet it manages to get funnier each time rather than wear out its welcome.

“Men II Boyz” begins in a normal place and then slowly ramps up the craziness. Klaus and his party embark on a distillery, barbecue, unsanctioned gambling, and a full itinerary of masculine activities due to how it’s a list of events that’s been compiled by Joe “Garrelli” Rogan. There’s a lot of fun banter around all of these events that mixes with the group’s embarrassment over being decked out in Klaus garb and so heavily associated with their loser friend. The first half of “Men II Boyz” is very much a “hangout episode” where the group just indulges in activities during the bachelor party, but it’s an enjoyable time. It’s genuinely sweet to see Stan, Roger, and Jeff find themselves having a great time and that it’s Klaus who’s responsible for all of this. The episode does reiterate that these people are all friends, whether they want to fully admit to it or not.

Similarly, it’s satisfying to see that Stan and company do try and do the responsible thing and get Klaus back home in time to meet his 9am wedding the following day. This isn’t an instance of sabotage or resentment and they’re not bad influences here. It’s in fact Klaus’ desire to hang onto this brief bond with Stan, Jeff, and Roger that ultimately fuels the trouble that hits them. Klaus’ desire to engage in a fight is all part of the plan, but things get a little out of control and they end up in prison. Despite how this throws a major wrench into Klaus’ impending nuptials, it’s an experience that firmly bonds them together as friends and has them ready to take on the impossible. With only five hours left until the wedding, the odds may not be good, but this “pack” is determined to keep Klaus’ life on track.

The events that follow the group’s escape from prison are grisly and ridiculous. They include rabid dogs, sausage links, and an elderly man, as well as a needle drop canine attack in a car, which is very well choreographed. The group is fleeing from one danger to the next, but through all of this excitement Klaus is able to reach a place of calm. His last minute doubts over marriage evaporate after Stan tells him that if he’s as good a husband as he is a friend then he’s got nothing to worry about. It’s a convoluted series of events to reach this point, but Klaus does get what he’ looking for.

The final act of the episode actually caught me a little off guard. I wasn’t expecting Klaus to actually have a wife by the end of the episode (although such a change wouldn’t really affect the show in a major way), but his admission that he was dumped and just came up with the ruse so he’d get some time with them as friends is a decent twist. It’s an emotional resolution and it pays back to the years of abuse that Klaus has seen on the show. It takes the “Boyz” some time to forgive Klaus, but they eventually come around and are able to bury the hatchet. Klaus is the character who goes through the emotional breakthrough in this episode, but Jeff also has a very morose line about feeling sad because he’s locked in a cage so he turns to alcohol to solve his problems. It’s treated as a segue way into a solution for how to escape from prison, but it’s a surprisingly heavy moment in the episode. Jeff is too pure for this world.

With Klaus and the boys letting their hair down in West Virginia, the Smith ladies opt to have a weekend that rivals the guys’ in debauchery. Francine and Hayley hire Rick Rod from Rod Hard Entertainment, but the experience is more soul shattering than it is arousing. Rick is a thorough disaster who’s fallen from graces in many ways from what was advertised. Hayley and Francine take pity on him, but he continues to pester them in increasingly pathetic situations. They try to acquiesce to the strange rules that Rick operates by as more of the Rod family find their way into the Smith household. Rick’s shtick is pretty repetitive, but it leads to some amusing stuff. Plus, it’s always nice to hear Patton Oswalt, even if this isn’t a huge role. It’s more satisfying than if Tuttle showed up at the door and he had made a fake stripper profile. Let’s hope that Rick Rod will get the opportunity to grow as a character over time.

“Men II Boyz” is a very natural episode that gets some great character moments out of the cast, both as individuals and in the groups that they’re separated into. This appears to be Alisha Ketry’s first script for the series after being a story editor on the show. Ketry’s script shows a deep understanding in the series and this doesn’t feel like someone’s debut effort. The script gets good use out of all of the characters and it’s a rather ambitious episode in terms of some of the places that it ultimately goes. There are a few meta gags that revolve around slapstick antics that amplify a cartoonish score and wink a little too hard at the camera, but they still work and they come and go very fast.

Any criticisms towards this episode also deserve a little bit of leeway due to how Stan spends half of “Men II Boyz” with a grotesque Two-Face-esque appearance after getting caught in an explosion. I was impressed when last week’s episode had Stan decked out in a goth outfit for a large portion of the installment, but this gag shows off a much deeper commitment to an even wilder joke. It could be argued that this constant intense visual gag is done to compensate for a weaker episode, but it doesn’t feel like that. If anything, it’s shocking how the image nearly feels normal by the time the end of the episode arrives. Stan’s obliviousness to his injured state is also a very funny gag that’s allowed to build throughout the episode.

“Men II Boyz” is an entertaining episode of American Dad that doesn’t overextend itself and while it may turn to familiar ideas and relationships for the series, it still reaches a real emotional catharsis along the way. It’s not the busiest or most complicated episodes of the season, but there’s a comfortable energy that pushes it all forward, just like how Klaus is determined to power on ahead and provide his friends with the most fun night imaginable. Klaus will still inevitably be the Smith family’s punching bag, but episodes like this highlight his unusual value.