Review: American Dad “Yule. Tide. Repeat.”

Overview:

Stan attempts to have a traditional Christmas celebration with his family, but what’s supposed to be a quiet night out turns into one of Langley’s biggest tragedies. Stan witnesses his loved ones perish before him, yet he finds himself reliving the series of events and trapped in a seasonal time loop. Stan rushes to figure out exactly what’s going on and if there’s a way to save his family and pull himself out of this surreal scenario while there’s still time left to have a normal Christmas.

 

Our Take:

It’s a positive sign for the state of storytelling that something as niche as time loop narratives have grown in popularity and become more mainstream. It’s a compelling premise that’s so versatile that it works for comedy, drama, horror, and really any genre. Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, and Happy Death Day are completely different films and genres, but they all boil down to the same time loop structure. There are just as many television shows that have used time loops for creative fuel and in that sense, American Dad’s “Yule. Tide. Repeat” isn’t breaking any new ground, but it’s one of the better applications of the idea. At this point it’s a challenge to make time loop stories feel surprising, exciting, and that they’re not just spending half of the runtime on repeating elements from those time loop shenanigans. American Dad rises to the occasion in all of those respects and delivers a very satisfying holiday installment.

American Dad always makes a very big deal out of their Christmas installments and ever since the series highlight of “Rapture’s Delight” it feels like they work extra hard to make these episodes feel special. That being said, American Dad has done with their holiday episodes that they’ve run into tricky territory. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” is still a very high concept episode for the series, but it’s also about Stan’s efforts to avoid the crazy, supernatural hijinks that plague the Smiths every Christmas. Stan’s resolution to have a traditional holiday can’t ward off the situation that Stan gets caught up in. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” gives both the audience and Stan a fair bit of credit with their familiarity with time loops. This allows the episode’s structure to continually evolve so that it doesn’t get a chance to grow stale or repetitive, which is so easy in a story of this nature. As crazy it seems, none of Stan’s aborted attempts feel like throwaway and they all offer some hint towards this mystery.

“Yule. Tide. Repeat” cleverly takes advantage of the certain elements that recur and it knows just how far to push them so that they verge on becoming annoying, only for the episode to then pivot. So much of the joke writing in this episode is based on repetition and expectations, both from the time loop genre as a whole, but also what’s contained to Stan’s five-minute window. It’s difficult to make those kinds of jokes feel fresh and challenging, but there’s so much creativity on display here. It’s a wonderful development when it turns out that there’s also a body swap scenario going on within Stan’s time loop and how it can give Roy the Janitor a de facto reason for his investment in Stan’s plight. It’s easily one of the best time loop stories I’ve seen and it operates with a level of efficiency that makes it feel like one of the more rigorously structured episodes of Futurama.

Another smart decision that makes “Yule. Tide. Repeat” surprisingly suspenseful is that this time loop scenario puts dozens of lives at risk. Admittedly, Stan’s most concerned with the safety of his family, but it gains the edge of a sci-fi crime drama with the number of lives that are at risk. There’s not a tangible killer or an individual for Stan to apprehend, but it works even better that this becomes more of a personal journey where success comes down entirely to Stan’s abilities and not anyone else. American Dad combines the ideas of Christmas and time loops and it’s interesting to contemplate Jesus caught in such a scenario until he’s able to prevent his crucifixion, especially since Stan continues to die and get resurrected for the good of those around him. These parallels are never made explicitly clear, which is likely for the best, but it’s hard to not draw comparisons between the two as Stan slowly becomes more like a Christ-like figure with each repeated sequence of events.

It’s only Stan that’s caught up in this time loop problem, which turns “Yule. Tide. Repeat” into an entry that’s mostly a solo Stan outing. These can be abrasive and difficult at times, much like Stan himself, when he doesn’t have another character to bounce off of or balance out his stubborn nature. This is a difficult tone to properly nail down, but “Yule. Tide. Repeat,” is one of the better Stan episodes and it knows how to use the character to his strengths and when to modulate his hyperbolized arrogance. It can sometimes be easy to root for Stan simply because whoever is with him acts as the collective voice of reason. Stan is at his best when he can genuinely learn a lesson and better himself, even if it’s only in a marginally incremental manner. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” devotes itself to this improvement and it helps the audience get invested in Stan’s plight rather than celebrate his many grisly deaths for a lifetime of selfish acts.

The nature of Stan’s situation minimizes the use of the rest of the cast, but they all get a few moment to shine, including Jeff, who’s not even present through the time loop business. Klaus is the one that get the shortest end of the stick here and it’s also a little disappointing to not get to see Rogu celebrate his first Christmas. However, the episode’s structure and focus on Stan works. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” never feels like it would be better if Roger or anyone else was stuck in this time loop along with Stan.

The success of “Yule. Tide. Repeat” is due to Stan’s strong characterization, but also because it creates a mystery that’s genuinely engaging here. Stan perishes and troubleshoots his way through dozens of scenarios, but his repeated failure doesn’t stem from negligence. Stan attempts everything that the audience would consider as a possible solution and the episode uses that energy to give the final act even more weight. Sometimes in a time loop story there’s an abundantly obvious answer that the protagonist continues to overlook. That’s not the case here and the solution never feels telegraphed even though the episode pushes Stan closer to the idea that it’s his family that’s the key,

“Yule. Tide. Repeat” effectively subverts time loop expectations, but the episode is most successful when it uses this to execute Stan in a myriad of morbid ways. Much like in The Edge of Tomorrow, Stan gets a little more productive in each of his attempts, yet still can’t avoid painful deaths beyond the standard fire that’s already doomed to wipe everyone out. It’s a fine line when it comes to extreme violence and American Dad is one of the best shows when it comes to seriously pushing that boundary by turning horrifying sights into visual gags. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” contains some of the best examples of how to integrate excessive violence for comedic effect and the fact that Stan’s death montage is set to Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s electric version of “Carol of the Bells” is the icing on the gingerbread house. The ice skating rink set piece is fantastic, but it’s the glorious homage to the opening scene of Ghost Ship that’s the episode’s high point.

The final act twist that Stan needs to fix his family, not the tragedy that occurs, is a smart angle and it helps the episode build to a sweet place. Stan spends his final moments with his loved ones and caters to their needs rather than the other way around. All of these moments between Stan and his family are incredibly charming, but they also contain wonderful subversions that guarantee that they’re as funny as they are emotional. Stan and Francine’s stark talk about marriage is complimented with extreme visual gags about facial piercings. The bonding session between Stan and Hayley over basketball devolves into a celebration of dog cinema. Stan finds common ground with his son, but it comes at the cost of everyone learning his masturbation habits and affection for Allison Janney. Each of these vignettes are fantastic and are only made better by how they all culminate in fiery infernos. It’s also a brilliant gag that Hayley’s area of sensitivity is that she’s super into basketball just because it’s so random for her character. “Yule. Tide. Repeat” excels with its visual comedy and it makes sure that its cathartic conclusion also takes advantage of this.

“Yule. Tide. Repeat” really doesn’t spend any time on why Stan winds up in this predicament or the circumstances behind this magical fortune cookie, but it’s really not important. This is already a busy episode that accomplishes a lot and to devote several minutes to some supernatural impetus for everything would just be a waste of time. The episode finds the right balance for when to indulge in time loop rules and when to just have fun with it and let Stan’s manic rescue attempts speak for themselves.

Overall, American Dad continues its tradition of satisfying holiday installments and this makes for a welcome gift after the latest season has already ended. This series never holds back with its Christmas endeavors, but “Yule. Tide. Repeat” feels big in a different way than its predecessors. It’s the funniest holiday episode from the past few seasons and it hopefully indicates that the series is willing to experiment and take even more risks when it comes to these episodes

Happy Holidays and remember: Rosacea is totally treatable.