You know out of all the shows now on Animation Domination, it's kind of weird and sad that American Dad is the only one still trying to stick to the whole "learn a lesson about yourself" mentality for it's plots. By this point the Simpsons characters have become so ingrained with themselves the only lessons they need to learn are when they're acting obviously OOC, Family Guy dosen't really care about it's lesson and is just there to give the plot a quick run around, and... well so far the Cleveland show feels like that as well. But with AD we're actually suppose to care about Stan realizing that he's pushing Steve too much and needs to let him be himself. That stopped working the 10th time they tried it but this time around they thought "hey maybe we can give Steve Nam flashbacks and that will be funny"
Except that didn't really work out. Yeah I get that the whole thing was that he was taking a reenacemtn so seriously and pretending it was Nam when it obviously wasn't but here's the thing. Besides everyone playing along at first (with how they imagined helicpoters, flamethrowers, grenades, etc) that got very stale very quickly. It just became grating when they were pushing it into the third act. I mean part of me thinks they just had Steve had nam flashbacks was because it was the only way they could think of how to do a third act. And really by that point it became old. I litterally rolled my eyes the second time they had to play that old Nam song track in the episode. Really did they have to cram the symbolism so far down our throats we couldn't even breath? That's what it felt like and in the end it's not like anyone really learns anything they'll carry with them anyway.
Not that it was all bad. I did like the idea of the kids/Roger being excited with news in the beginning (though that only proves the point I made in the Cleveland show review that no one knows in the MacFarlane verses to really write for female teens thus why they're usually tossed aside), and Roger wanting to see a Streisand concert with her singing Celien Deon songs made for a good subplot. Hell I would of liked to see more of Roger trying to get the code from Stan (since even Roger knows the formula by now pointing out that crazy shennigans will occur if Stan dosen't give him the numbers), or even of Francine and the singing bird, or of Hayley wanting to see it go free, or even of Roger's fantasy while watching the concert. Yet another case where the plot of Stan and Steve is far weaker then the subplot where interesting more surprising things end up happening. That alone raises the ep a few point but the rest of it is well... pretty mediocre to tell you the truth. Hell I even started getting bored at some parts, something even The Ripoff- I mean Cleveland show failed to make me feel.
BTW here would be my ratings for last week's Animation Dimination line up:
The Simpsons: 8.4 out of 10.
Family Guy: 7.2 Out Of 10.
The Cleveland Show: 6.0 Out of 10
American Dad: 5.6 Out Of 10.