Everyone who watches American Dad knows that Stan Smith is a shallow guy. Heck, if it was your first time watching American Dad, you'd get that in about five minutes, because it's pounded over you head again and again and again and... You get the point, we ALL get the point. This is my biggest problem with the show, it's like a skipping record, we just keep seeing the same thing over and over. The occasions where the needle actually gets back on track are awesome, but the monotony is ridiculous. Speaking of monotony, on with the show!

American Dad suffers from what I'm going to call the "According to Jim syndrome". This is where the main character's (in this case, Stan Smith) negatives far far outweigh his positives, leaving you to wonder why his wife puts up with him, let alone is still with him. Sure, Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson are two complete idiots too, but in Family Guy's case, it's just so out-there that it doesn't matter, and Lois doesn't really seem to mind, and when it comes to Homer, both us as the audience and Marge realize that his heart is in the right spot. Fran Smith, on the other hand, doesn't really seem to like her husband very much, spends every episode fighting with him, and it's just very tedious.

This week we saw him wreck everything with Fran's 20th high school reunion, just so he could have a dance with the homecoming queen, someone he thought was his wife. This wasn't anything we haven't seen on the show since the beginning. As with The Simpsons last night, the sub-plot missed it's mark for me too. I think I can kind of see what they were trying to do with the "Pizza Jesus", Roger and Steve, but it once again, wasn't funny for me.

I think this show could be brilliant, and has been a couple of times in the past, but for the most part is just very "blah" for me. It didn't help that it followed after one of the funniest Family Guys of this season. If the American Dad crew can get themselves out of this rut, I'll be looking forward to it more and more. Let me know what you think.

Newspaper Headline of the Week:
Michelle Kwan finally dishonors family