American Dad, Season 8, Episode 10: Blood Crieth Unto Heaven, Review

Last night’s episode of American Dad brought the series into the strange and, uncharacteristically, NOT funny. We can appreciate Seth MacFarlane’s love for theatre, but I don’t know if he realizes who his audience is. American Dad fans took to twitter with their opinions and they were harsh…very, harsh.  

I won’t be as harsh with my opinion of last night’s show, although I did participate in the Twitter rage during the actual airing of “Blood Crieth Unto Heaven.” We understand that the episode was a tribute to the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, August: Osage County, but it just felt out of place for the American Dad target audience.  I tune into American Dad to enjoy the overall silliness of it all; an alien living with a C.I.A. agent and his family, who after 10 excellent years, each have their own place in my heart.  I don’t want anything more than that. I don’t want anything different than what happens in the every day environment of the Smith family.  So, please stop attempting to do something your audience doesn’t want to see.

The episode was hard to watch and it was seriously lacking in humorous moments (although there were two, which I will go into a bit later). The entire episode was in a live action play format, but set in a cartoon world. Francine invites Stan’s formerly incarcerated father to Stan’s Birthday party and reveals a dark secret about the Smith family, a secret that turns out to be just a misunderstanding. Also in the episode, Roger plays the Smith’s maid who nurses Hayley and Bullock’s love child.

The first of the only two funny moments in the show was when Roger (who is playing the role of the Smith’s maid) and Bullock, played by Patrick Stewart, started making out. Viewers don’t  mind that Roger is really a male when it comes to actions like this (and they shouldn’t), as we have seen Roger do similar things while in disguise over the years. The only other funny moment of the entire half hour was when the term “clown pound” was thrown around and it was only chuckle worthy. 

I know not all fans will agree with me on this one and I’m okay with that. While some fans did Tweet positive things about the show last night, the majority was clearly not feeling last night’s episode. Some people even turned the show off halfway through. It was the first unpleasant American Dad episode of season 8, a season in which every other episode has been incredibly funny. I’ll forgive the only hiccup in the so far this season, but check out the Twitter backlash, below.  Ouch!

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