Post by The Human Being on Dec 4, 2013 23:07:54 GMT -6
2013 CZ Advent Calendar - December 4th
American Dad: "Rapture's Delight"
by The Narrator Returns
American Dad: "Rapture's Delight"
by The Narrator Returns
One of my first orders of business when I started commenting here was to, naturally, write a series. That series happened to be a review series for a show I love to this day. I started off going episode-to-episode in season 1, with the first day yielding four episode reviews alone. I then moved to a relatively more leisurely pace of one review per day. Still, while I maintain that season 1 is not nearly as bad as people say it is, it’s far from the show’s golden age. Going in strict chronological fashion through that season got to be really tiring, so I decided to switch up the format, and have the commenters decide what episodes I would review. Of course, the only one to bite was Evil Jeff, but he provided more than enough episodes to pick from, so I went on with the series. However, that format became tiresome as well. I grew bored with watching the episodes, pausing them to get the chance to write down funny gags, and then writing reviews immediately afterwards, following the rigid intro-summary-analysis format. Not to mention I didn’t have Google Docs at that point, which meant that I ran the risk of my reviews crashing the site and being lost in the process of writing them, which made the experience even more frustrating. When I was writing a review for a season 3 episode, I just stopped. I was going to write a review, but I didn’t. I said to myself that I was going to post it the next day, but I never did. That was the end of the series (I remain disappointed that I stopped before it got really good). At this point, the reviews are buried so far in the DEP board that the only reason you’d search for them is some kind of madness. They did teach me important lessons about allowing myself freedom and pacing myself for future reviews, thus providing a crucial dry run for my later Soderbergh series. There, I usually ran at a rate of one review per day, and during the commentary reviews, I often had to copy down things I found interesting, but I didn’t find it tiring anymore. That earlier aborted series helped me to become the dryly witty Soderbergh obsessive you know and love today (unless bumpcollege is reading this), and it’s all thanks to an underrated Seth MacFarlane animated series. Now, about that series…
Let’s go back to the beginning of the MacFarlane Reign. Specifically, 1999. That was when a cartoon series named Family Guy premiered on Fox. At the time, it was derided as a Simpsons knock-off, with tasteless jokes, crude animation, and unlikable characters. In ways, they were right. But as the show went along, the jokes got funnier, the animation became more intricate, and the characters managed to take on a life of their own. But Fox kept shuffling the show’s timeslot (much like how they treated FG’s fellow animated cult hit, Futurama), and Fox cancelled it after the second season. However, it was brought back at the last minute, only to be cancelled yet again in 2002. But a funny thing happened after that. The show became popular. It was secretly becoming a cult hit, with big sales on DVD and big ratings with reruns on Adult Swim. So, in 2005, seeing how it could be profitable this time, Fox did the unthinkable, and uncancelled it a second time, this time, for good. It was a success, garnering the biggest ratings the show had seen since its beginning. It should have ended there, with the show becoming an elder statesman on the network, sitting comfortably next to King of the Hill and The Simpsons. But we all know what occurred after. It got lazy. Real lazy. It was gradual. The season after it came back was pretty good. But after that, it became rough sledding. Cracks began to show in the show’s profile. The writers decided that simply saying a racist joke was funny enough on its own. The characters morphed into cardboard cutouts of themselves, with Meg becoming a straight punching bag for the rest of the characters (and seemingly the writers). The lone bright spot became the occasional episodes with just Brian and Stewie, and even those weren’t guaranteed to be quality (just look at the bank vault episode, with its atrocious “shit-eating” gag). And now those are gone too. But enough with the depressing shit. This isn’t about that Seth MacFarlane show. It’s about another. And it’s not The Cleveland Show.
Right around the time of FG’s revival, a DVD called The Freakin’ Sweet Collection was released. It contained four of Family Guy’s best episodes up to that point, but the big feature on the disc was an unfinished sneak peek at Seth MacFarlane’s upcoming show, something called American Dad!. It was to be a political satire; an All in the Family riff with Stan Smith as the gruff CIA all-American in the lead. The similarities to FG were really obvious. Dorky and awkward son Steve was obviously the counterpoint to dorky and awkward son Chris on FG. Hayley, the hippie daughter, was a Meg, somebody for the rest of the family to barely tolerate. And Roger the alien and Klaus the fish were meant to be the double-team of things that don’t normally speak intelligently, much like Stewie and Brian. That early sneak peek at the show can be seen here, in all of its crude antiglory. The character designs were clearly rough sketches, especially Steve, who doesn’t look or sound anything like the way he does on the actual show. But this wasn’t too far off from the finished product. That sneak peek was really a less refined version of the first act in the actual pilot, which aired in the very plum post-Super Bowl spot in 2005. It got the biggest ratings the show’s ever received, even now, and that’s how most people knew it. That’s a damn shame, because the pilot is awful. It is a transparent attempt to knock off Family Guy, but with politics this time. There’s even cutaway gags (not good ones either), which the show would root out completely soon after. There are a few decent gags stuck in there like pieces of corn in a pile of manure, but they’re completely upstaged by lame jokes and dumb attempts at grossout gags. It’s no surprise that it’s the only episode of the show that Seth MacFarlane was involved with beyond voice acting. After that, the show got much better, but with fewer people watching. By the beginning of season 2, it had really found its voice, and by season 3, it had settled into a groove, beginning the show’s golden years (which might even continue to this day). However, that bad first impression stuck in many people’s minds, and even as it became one of the best shows on TV, people assumed it was still a bad Family Guy knockoff. It’s frustrating to see people immediately write it off based on its creator, which isn’t fair, because the only thing Seth MacFarlane does on the show is voice acting, and some damn good voice acting at that (if you didn’t know, would you believe that Stan and Roger are voiced by the same person?). Still, it has devoted fans, enough of them that it’s managed to run 9 seasons on Fox, before it gets shuffled off to TBS for the 10th.
So, in case you’re reading this review and thinking “OMG Narrator, I’ve been having so much reading the history of these two shows!”, then punch yourself in the face, so that I don’t have to fucking find your house and do it myself. This review is about strengthened interest in the American Dad! community, and that isn’t fucking possible if you’re sitting around and reading about how these shows came to be. So, why should you, Mr. or Mrs. All-American (or All-Torontonian, All-Irish, or All-Newfie, if you swing that way), watch American Dad? It’s simple, really. Have you heard of Don’t Trust the B---- in Apartment 23? Yes, the much-missed ABC sitcom has a direct connection to Dad with its creator, Nahnatchka Khan, being one of the lead writers on Dad. And the Dad sensibility crosses over directly to Bitch 23, particularly with the bitch herself, Chloe (played by the wonderful Krysten Ritter). Chloe is pretty much the human female equivalent to Roger the alien on Dad, a sex-obsessed party animal always up to wacky business, with a wide array of beautifully ridiculous outfits.
But let’s say you never watched Bitch 23, in which case, you might as well be Walter White, because you just watched her die in front of you. Have you heard of a show called Community? Well, one of the writers on that show happens to be Chris McKenna. The man behind “Remedial Chaos Theory”, “Conspiracy Theories”, and “Anthropology 101”. Some of the most audacious and hilarious episodes of the show belong to him. Well, he cut his teeth with American Dad, and his skills were fully developed by the time he joined Community. Some of his Dad episodes include one where time travel with actor Hector Elizondo is a crucial plot point, another which culminates in Stan and Roger having the most disgustingly passionate kiss on the stage of a play, and an Ocean’s Eleven parody set at a bar mitzvah. Also, the episode I’m talking about today. Are you convinced yet? If not, there’s a c*nt punt with your name written on it.
So, I’ve just spend five paragraphs explaining the show itself and my own exploits reviewing it, with nothing about what this fine feature Affro has created is about; Christmas. I need to get on that.
One of the show’s early highlights was its very first Christmas episode, entitled “The Best Christmas Story Never Told”. On the surface, it’s a normal Christmas Carol tale, with Stan’s fairy godmother (voiced with winning exasperation by Lisa Kudrow) showing him why he’s so protective of his idea of a perfect Christmas, which he believes is being ruined by having it only be a part of a larger holiday. She takes him back in time to show him his childhood, but realizing he’s back in 1970, and that he has the opportunity to stop Jane Fonda, who he believes is responsible for Christmas being ruined, before she becomes liberal, he runs. He tracks her down to the set of Alan Pakula’s Klute (a great Christmas movie if there ever was one), and finds out that costar Donald Sutherland is the one who introduces her to liberal politics. But before he can stop her, he finds a shaggy-haired man in the bathroom next to him. The man introduces himself as Martin Scorsese. Scorsese takes out some drugs, which Stan demands that he throws away, if he wants to become a great filmmaker one day, not realizing that cocaine was about as important to Scorsese’s career as Powell & Pressburger movies. What happened as a result of Scorsese getting off drugs is too absurd to spoil for you here, so watch the damn episode. It’s really good.
Somehow, the show managed to top it with its next Christmas episode, “The Most Adequate Christmas Ever”. In that episode, Stan searches for the perfect Christmas tree, and in his search, he’s crushed to death by that tree, leaving the rest of his family to freeze to death in the car (is your heart warmed already?). When he enters the afterlife, he’s forced to pull a Defending Your Life, and argue for his entry into Heaven, with the help of a clumsy angel lawyer without wings (voiced by Paget Brewster). Once again, watch the episode to see the rest. It’s easily one of the best things the show has ever done. It’s not the best thing, however.
The best thing is probably the actual subject of this piece, “Rapture’s Delight”. Aired in season 5 (season 4 did not have a Christmas episode), the episode won massive acclaim upon airing, although its subject matter didn’t win any fans at the Parents Television Council. About that subject matter…
It starts out like any normal American Dad episode. Stan is upset at Francine’s outfit for church, saying it makes her look like “a two-dollar whore” (“and keep in mind the dollar is weak now!”). When they do get to the church, they first can’t find a parking spot, and when they get in, they can’t find a seat. So, Francine decides to have a little side adventure in the slow janitor’s closet (“It smells of dead rats and moldy Highlights magazines”). Normally, with sitcom plots like this, a priest or someone else would walk in and see them, and there would be all kinds of wacky scenarios about it. Here, during their quickie in the closet, the Rapture occurs. All the good souls are lifted up to Heaven while Stan and Francine get naughty. Naturally, they’re both horrified, Francine because Steve and Hayley have been lifted up without them, and Stan because he’s lost his ticket up to Heaven. After being shown a quick informative video about what happens after the Rapture by Christian Kids Production (the kind of video that features high-pitched puppets, here voiced by Andy Samberg and Tom Kenny, informing us of the Seven Year War between Jesus and the Antichrist), they go home to news of the Second Coming of Jesus. Stan jumps at the chance to ascend to Heaven. And when he meets Jesus (voiced by Will Forte), he throws Francine under the bus by telling him she seduced him. This convinces Jesus to rapture him, in the seedy area behind the arena, with their clothes off. He isn’t the real guy.
Meanwhile, Francine meets the loveliest man in the diner (which neither normally frequent due to “the murders”) near the arena. He’s well-read, handsome, and they seem to be perfectly compatible. He’s Jesus, albeit without the beard or long hair. Francine leaves Stan, while Roger desperately searches for the parts of his spaceship so that he can leave the planet. And then comes the Apocalypse.
We cut to seven years later, and the episode morphs from a deranged, biblical twist on sitcom conventions, and into a straight-up John Carpenter movie. The color palette turns apocalyptic red, Stan basically becomes Kurt Russell in Escape from New York (with a missing hand standing in for an eyepatch), and even the score becomes throbbing and electronic, not dissimilar to Carpenter’s scores for his movies. Stan is a mercenary now, and Jesus comes to him with grave news. The Antichrist has captured Francine. Stan’s in, but he says only if he gets raptured. The two soon run into Roger, busy working on his spaceship. He needs one part for the spaceship to work, and Jesus found just that in Boca Raton, Florida; Roger’s golden feces. This was actually an odd bit of serialization that began all the way back in season one, where Roger pooped out gold, and those who found it went mad with greed, murdering those near them. You never thought Treasure of Sierra Madre-esque poop would come up in a Christmas episode, did you? Well, you should have.
Roger gets his spaceship working, and they head to the Antichrist’s headquarters, the United Nations, of course. When they arrive, they see Francine tied to the wall in an upside-down recreation of the Nativity. And then they meet the Antichrist himself. He’s pretty much the embodiment of his name. He isn’t some kind of hellbeast, he’s bald, high-pitched, and dressed like the Riddler (also voiced by Andy Samberg, whose voice must have hurt like hell after doing the voices of two obnoxiously high-pitched characters). He is the opposite of Jesus in every way. Instead of “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do”, he says “Condemn them Mother, for they know exactly what they do!” He locks Jesus, Stan, and Francine in a glass box and tries to see if Jesus can “swim in land”. And after the box shatters after a few seconds, he says “Jesus was a carpenter, and I’m not handy with anything!” He’s a truly inspired concept, making him even funnier just by how much he stands out from the otherwise grim and bleak setting. And it’s here that Stan finally admits that yes, he still loves Francine, and she does the same for him. We get a touching reconciliation before a massive explosion and a genuinely moving ending, where Stan finally makes it to Heaven, and he gets to see his own personal Heaven, which is eternity spent with his family. Awwww. Just don’t look at Klaus being mounted on the wall.
It’s really amazing that not only has Dad crafted five classic Christmas episodes so far (the ones I’ve mentioned so far, in addition to “For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls” and “Season’s Beatings”), but each episode manages to capture something different about the holiday. “Best Christmas Story” mostly uses the holiday as a backdrop for absurdity, occasionally making points about complaints about the holiday becoming liberalized. “Most Adequate Christmas” looks at the holiday as a time for families to come together. “Rapture” brings the holiday back to its biblical roots, using that as a backdrop for a holiday heartbreak. “Sleigh Bell” looks at the mythos behind the holiday, and mixes it with I Know What You Did Last Summer and Saving Private Ryan, with Steve accidentally killing Santa, the family burying him, and Santa coming back with an army of elves to kill the Smiths. And “Beatings” serves as a prequel to “Rapture” with Hayley adopting the future Antichrist. If you get the sense that I could have written about any of these episodes and done the same thing, you are correct. All of them are insanely good. Seriously, watch them. Watch American Dad! if you don’t. Do it for Chris McKenna. Do it for the Bitch residing in Apartment 23. And do it for me. Especially that last person, do it for him most of all.
Funny Things
- *Stan punches Jesus in the face*
*Jesus turns that side of his face away from Stan*
*Stan punches him on other side*
“My other cheek!”
- “It’s raining wise men. Hallelujah.”
- “He turned water into fiiiiiiiiiiiine.”
- The Antichrist's squeal after getting a cross in the forehead doesn't translate into text, but it's hysterical.
- “I hope I haven’t missed the part where the three Chinese guys give perfume to the star baby!”