At least American Dad ends its run on Fox’s Animation Domination with a bang. With the network breaking up the long-running two-hour animated comedy block next season, I’ve been anticipating whether Dad—the best show not named Cosmos associated with Seth MacFarlane’s name for a good five years running—could go out on…
In the immortal words of Michael Eckman (David Krumholtz) from 10 Things I Hate About You:
Permanent Records is an ongoing closer look at the records that matter most.
“News Glance With Genevieve Vavance” is an episode of American Dad specifically designed for people as familiar with HLN shouting queen Nancy Grace as I am—that is, only from clips on The Daily Show, Onion News Network, and Saturday Night Live sketches. I’ve never watched a single installment of Nancy Grace’s show.…
The roster of Grimms in Portland is getting a bit overcrowded in the span of just a few weeks. First Trubel—a young girl bouncing from foster care to mental institutions to surviving on the lam—turns up unannounced like a grenade lobbed into an already crowded city. Nick has taken her under his wing since she’s a…
Since all of L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels are in the public domain, there have been countless continuations and adaptations of the series, with varying degrees of separation, from canon to apocrypha. Legends Of Oz: Dorothy’s Return—based on Dorothy Of Oz, a 1989 novel by L. Frank Baum’s grandson Roger S. Baum, and the…
Given the frequency with which American Dad puts Stan and Steve into father/son conflicts, it’s probably about time for an episode where the usual power dynamic gets inverted for comedic effect. It’s not a novel idea, nor is it a surprising one, but American Dad isn’t aiming for extreme originality here, just to put…
1. 24
It’s such a perfect idea for a TV series that it’s a wonder somebody didn’t think of 24 before its 2001 launch. Those willing to suspend disbelief far beyond normal expectations got a cracking good spy thriller, while everybody else could tune in to see how silly things got. With each real-time hour adding up to…
By introducing a completely new character that threw a wrench in every bit of the tenuous equilibrium Grimm built within the New Scoobies, there was hope for the show to jolt in a new, unexpected direction. But instead, almost everything followed easily predictable beats. Trubel followed Nick and Hank investigating a…
The album may or may not be obsolete, but the fact remains: Listeners have long obsessed over individual songs. The Single File is The A.V. Club ’s look at the deep cuts, detours, experiments, and anthems that make us reach for replay.
Podmass comments and suggestions for future coverage can be directed to podmass@avclub.com.
Let’s start with what is unquestionably the best part of “Rubberneckers,” a delightfully creative musical episode saddled with a lackluster central plot: Steve’s soulful musical interlude, singing about how hot his mother is and how ashamed his dad should be that he wants to look at other women. It’s undoubtedly…
Grimm has so many different plates spinning, from the royals to Nick’s mom to Adalind to the Fuchsbau coins to those hidden keys (speaking of which—what’s been going on with Bud and the other Eisbibers lately?) that it took me a while to remember that the show already sort-of went to the “Nick deals with another…
Podmass comments and suggestions for future coverage can be directed to podmass@avclub.com.
In the 1980’s, the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics rules the NBA, combining for 13 Finals appearances during the decade. The 90’s belonged to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who racked up six titles across two three-peats. But between the fierce coastal rivalry and Air Jordan’s dominance (let’s just ignore…
1. Bunnicula, Bunnicula (1979)
There’s nothing less likely to be evil than an adorable, fuzzy little bunny—or is there? Every year, Easter rolls around and providing both person-sized rabbits giving out candy and animated bunnies twitching their noses. But something about all that fuzzy innocence has inspired some…
In We’re No. 1, The A.V. Club examines an album that went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts to get to the heart of what it means to be popular in pop music, and how that concept has changed over the years. In this installment, we cover AFI’s Decemberunderground, which went to No. 1 on June 18, 2006, where it stayed for…
Podmass comments and suggestions for future coverage can be directed to podmass@avclub.com.
Hayley Smith has been stuck in a consistent rut ever since American Dad had Roger send her husband Jeff into space in his place. She’s always been stuck in arrested development to the extent that she hangs around at home, but “She Swill Survive” starts from a lower point, as she gets up in the late afternoon and…
The first 10 minutes of “The Law Of Sacrificed” had me convinced this was going to be the best episode of Grimm all season. Adalind and Renard reunited, convinced by seeing their child (who has a name now!) to suddenly shift into protective parent mode. Nick and Kelly trying to parse out who they need to protect from…
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