American Dad! - Season 3

It sometimes gets a little iffy figuring out seasons for animated shows with the fact that production, televised, and DVD "seasons" can all be different, so this is the third televised "season", from last September's "The Vacation Goo" to late this May's "Spring Breakup".

American Dad first premiered under the shadow of the return of Family Guy, creator Seth McFarlane's other, much more popular show. In the beginning, it didn't seem that great, just a retread with similar characters and some political jokes instead of pop culture tangents. It did grow a bit during the first season, and had some good moments. For whatever reason, I stopped watching and didn't pick it back up until newer ones came on Adult Swim. I completely missed the second season, but that doesn't really matter in a show where continuity is scarce. By now, it's come into its own as a show, only similar to Family Guy in appearance and some similar sensibilities, not in nearly every aspect. Usually the topic of each episode comes from a hot political issue, but the desire to make fun of the government doesn't take over or get in the way of them making an entertaining program.

To be honest, at this point I like American Dad a bit better than Family Guy. It makes me actually laugh more often. It's usually more artistically creative, with unique perspectives or tones that Family Guy would never tackle. A lot of the funnier jokes are pokes at themselves or the sillier contrivances of television, which is fine by me. You can't always pull excellence out of every subject so you get humor where you can find it. There's a point to be made that none of the characters are really that good but the parents and Roger are funny enough and Steve is like the boy version of Meg except he keeps getting screwed over as part of the episode's plot and not just in throwaway gags. Not many secondary characters have really jumped out, but the CIA angle makes more interesting situations a lot. It's a very watchable show.