When it comes to Fox’s most recent American Dad!
And fittingly – unlike other volumes that begin at random halfway into each annual installment – this one adheres to the sitcom playbook by starting strong and finishing on a high note, kicking off the first disc (and simultaneously season five) with three hilarious episodes that rank among the show’s best.
Whereas MacFarlane’s pop-culturally referential Family Guy
Yet by blending together the two styles to offer a best-of-both-worlds plotline, Dad
Fortunately, the set standout is followed up with two more highlights including “Moon Over Isla Island” that finds Roger renaming a South American country Bananarama
Though Dad’s Francine fares infinitely better than her Family Guy
Yet this being said, in one of the season’s silliest but strangely believable turns of events, a surprisingly soapy subplot develops surrounding Hayley’s escalating flirtation with Reginald, the undercover koala voiced as though he's the Barry White of cartoon bears that's landed on Dad after escaping from a '70s cop show.
Nonetheless, given the writers’ knack for playing against the character’s surface-level angelic looks that enable her to say/do the most ridiculous things with the most hysterical of results and without the slightest risk of affecting her likability, in the end it’s Francine that remains American Dad
The go-to Gal Friday for great guffaws that by sheer proximity amazingly even allows us to tolerate Roger right up until that point when he inevitably crosses the line into unbearable creepiness, while she doesn’t control the narrative on the level of her husband, Francine is the heart of some terrific Volume 6 tales.
As such, she keeps her husband in line throughout whether she’s torn between the present-day Stan that takes her for granted and the cyborg version of the eponymous American Dad
Of course, Dad
And despite a few midseason Roger-related stumbling blocks that resulted in a feeling of déjà vu as the writers were forced to keep upping the ante of outlandish gags, when the right balance of creative alien antics and offbeat arcs coincide, Dad
From Roger’s decision to become a dirty cop just minutes on the force to a President Reagan approved Lord of the Rings
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FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.