Like Family Guy? You'll like this too... (American Dad)

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	American Dad
Date:	05/07/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great comedy, good characters and writing

Disadvantages: Not quite as good as Family guy, too many political statements

American Dad is the second big animated comedy to come from creator Seth MacFarlane (the genius behind the fantastic Family Guy). The show focusses on the Smiths - an all-American family with a few fun quirks.

Stan is the head of the household who works for the CIA. He's a very proud American and will do everything he can for his country. He's built in the mould of Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin - he's loud and makes mostly silly decisions that result in often entertaining storylines.

Stan is married to Francine, a stay-at-home housewife who loves her family and is the butt of many of Stan's sexist jokes.

Stan and Francince have two teenage children: Hayley and Steve. Hayley is a liberal feminist who often clashes with her father over the government's policies and actions. Steve is a rather geeky pubescent boy whose life revolves around computer games, school and the hope of losing his virginity.

Also living with the family are Klaus, a goldfish with a German accent who has a crush on Francine, and Roger an alien who Stan rescued from a top-secret CIA base. Roger provides many of the comedy moments in the show and is a very likeable character - my particular favourite.

Like many animated shows, each episode is written individually and there are no real underlying storylines that run for the duration of a series. This makes it easy to pick and choose the episode you watch, meaning you won't be lost if you miss one.

I'm a big fan of animated comedies such as Family Guy, Futurama and The Simpsons (the first 10 years) and I like American Dad. The storylines are often irrelevant, but involving even if they sometimes do focus a bit too much on American politics - the whole show sometimes acts as a personal attack from Seth MacFarlane on American foreign policy... particularly Iraq.

If you're a fan of Family Guy, you'll like American Dad as the two are very similar programs. Both are aimed at an adult audience (more so Family Guy), and both have very similar characters and style of jokes.

American Dad is currently been shown on BBC3 (available on Sky, Freeview and Freesat) and FX (Sky only). Complete season DVD sets can be picked up for around £15 each.

Summary: If you like Family Guy, you'll like American Dad