Review: American Dad “Saving Face”

Overview:

The endless sands of time send Stan down an existential journey as he relishes and then soon laments that he’s finally reached “peak prime” after 42 years on this planet. Stan couldn’t be more excited to reap the benefits of his perfected physique, but his free-range arrogance puts Stan in a unique cosmetic predicament in which there may be no recovery. Wrinkles are suddenly the last of Stan’s concerns when he’s caught fighting for his family, home, and very essence through unconventional means.

Our Take:

Stan is frequently one of American Dad’s most egotistical and arrogant individuals, but his entrance into “Peak Stan” where his “faculties and experience are in total sync” brings out a whole new side of pompous, inscrutable behavior. Stan couldn’t be more excited to take advantage of his biological perfection, but “Saving Face” highlights how there’s a fine line between peak performance and being woefully obsolescent. Stan’s perfectly graceful journey into his mature years in life gets hilariously interrupted through the very same ego and hubris that makes Stan so obsessed with peak performance in the first place. “Saving Face” turns into an incredibly powerful lesson for Stan that exploits the character’s most vulnerable insecurities in order to push American Dad to one of the wildest places it’s been in years.

“Saving Face” is an episode that perpetually benefits from how it fully commits to the bit, which in this case corresponds to how ridiculous Stan’s face looks.  It’s really not necessary for American Dad to also change Stan’s voice, as if sounding like his former self would suddenly make this plot implausible. However, “Saving Face” becomes even stronger by going this extra mile so that Stan doesn’t even look absurd for nearly half of the episode, but he also sounds completely different. It’s an effective example in heightening that makes all of this just a little sillier on top of everything else. This same level of incredulity is present in Stan’s assailant and “Saving Face” even gives him a supervillain-esque backstory where he’s carefully been behind the scenes during many of Stan’s vanity-driven storylines over the past few seasons. It’s ludicrous, but even more so considering that he only proceeds down this incredibly long con because he’s jealous of the Smith family’s home of all things. The ability to ruin their faces through the strangest means possible is just the botox on the cake.

Outside of Stan’s face-swapping shenanigans, Roger finds himself consumed by the humble pursuit to enjoy a four-dollar apple in the most ideal of circumstances. Initially it feels as if “Saving Face” will draw parallels between Roger and Stan’s separate hunts for peak perfection, but this welcome symmetry really doesn’t amount to much beyond the initial ideas. American Dad sometimes does its best work with the most non-existent of storylines, but Roger’s apple quest really doesn’t go anywhere. The payoff, if you can call it that, only acknowledges the fruitless nature of this fruit-less quest. This B-story is so incidental to the overall episode that it’s not a major issue in “Saving Face,” but there’s enough going on with Stan that any of his material could easily be extended so that Roger’s material could be entirely removed.

The title “Saving Face” goes on to take a very literal meaning and this story of aging and identity benefits from how it doubles as both an episode about how Stan reclaims his old appearance, but also how he actively needs to fight to get his life back after his rogue doctor makes a bid for it all. It’s a smart, severe way to get Stan to be grateful for what he has, all while he experiences these cathartic, selfless epiphanies with the most ridiculous face imaginable. American Dad is no stranger to mixing bold emotional breakthroughs with absurd or graphic visuals and “Saving Face” treads new ground in this area rather than just feeling derivative of a past episode where Stan’s life and reputation lie on the line. The bloody conclusion where Stan literally slices his prize off of his antagonist, leaving him as a flayed mess, is a lot to take in.

 Bigger isn’t always better, but after 350 episodes American Dad knows exactly when to indulge like this so that it pays off best. In doing so, “Saving Face” is one of the most entertaining and memorable episodes in what’s already been a banner season for American Dad. It’s an excellent episode to end on as the season goes on a temporary hiatus and returns in September, hopefully with no one having undergone radical plastic surgery.