Recap: American Dad – ‘Garbage Stan’

Stan and Steve start a garbage disposal business on ‘Garbage Stan,’ and American Dad‘s latest episode sees its story get bogged down by its ridiculous narrative. The entire premise of the episode can be explained in one sentence, but the episode still takes twenty minutes to go through the paces.

With this episode, Stan’s childhood comes into play, as he longs for the days he spent with his dad doing what he’s now forcing Steve to do with him. What could be done to draw this thin plot into a full episode? The garbage delivery route quickly becomes a sham for money laundering and drug smuggling. (Like last week’s ‘Kloger,’ American Dad continues to be unbelievable, or it just completely disregards Stan’s employment with the CIA.)

What’s sad about this episode is how boring it is; at least ‘Kloger’ kept a fast pace that worked to its advantage. ‘Garbage Stan’ is slow, but not steady, as its jokes fail to land, leaving the viewer desperate for the credits to roll.

The only moment of the episode that gets a semi-chuckle comes in Roger’s sidestory, where he gets Hayley to compete at bumper pool with South Dakota Slim, a character that eventually turns out to be none other than a Roger persona.

It’s a very brief moment in the episode, but one that gets a laugh when it turns out that all members of ‘Slim’s’ family turn out to be various Roger personas. Roger is delusional enough to have his own family, and American Dad knows its viewers will eat it up. It’s just a shame they didn’t follow a winning formula with the rest of the episode.