Title: American Dad Volume 6
Released: 27 June 2011
Format: 3 disc DVD box set
Rating: 15 (tbc)
Price: £27.99 (RRP)
Stan Smith, the most dedicated and disturbed CIA agent is back! American Dad Volume 6, the hit US show from Seth MacFarlane, arrives on DVD on 27th June 2011 courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
In the latest instalment of the hit animated series Stan Smith gets up closer and personal with a race horse in ‘Don’t Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth’, Francine hits it off with Jesus Christ in ‘Rapture’s Delight’ and Roger impersonates the dictator of a tropical island after Stan accidentally kills the previous ruler...
Stan Smith is a gun loving, bigoted, racist, homophobic, zenophobic, CIA agent. He is basically a complete arse. He’s unrelentingly cruel to his son Steve - a wimpy, nerdy but intelligent, highschooler and even crueller to his daughter Hayley - a peace-loving, eco-friendly, dope-smoking, promiscuous, college student. And to top it all he is totally unappreciative of his loving and attractive wife Francine.
Despite his faults he is still a lot nicer, kinder and more intelligent than his Family Guy counterpart – Peter Griffin - a retarded, joke of a man who is beyond help. I can’t watch Family Guy anymore, since American Dad hit the screens I just couldn’t stand to watch Peter Griffin or his pathetic, whiny family. I know that in many ways Stan Smith’s family are similar but Stan always sees the error of his ways in the end and makes things up with his wife and kids. Admittedly he always irritates them just as badly in the next episode. Well it’s only comedy I suppose. But I think that American Dad seems more genuine than Family Guy.
So admittedly all of the storylines are usually totally crazy but this is what we have, by now, become accustomed to as this is of course the sixth season.
There are plenty of special features to choose from and unlike on most films where the extras are sometimes a bit boring the extra features on American Dad boxsets are always very good. For instance there are over 25 deleted scenes, some deleted, some extended and whilst they may not have made the final cut they are still amusing.
LIST OF EPISODES
1. In Country...Club
2. Moon Over Isla Island
3. Home Adrone
4. Brains, Brains, and Automobiles
5. Man in the Moonbounce
6. Shallow Vows
7. My Morning Straitjacket
8. G-String Circus
9. Rapture's Delight
10. Don't Look a Smith Horse in the Mouth
11. A Jones for a Smith
12. May the Best Stan Win
13. Return of the Bling
14. Cops & Roger
15. Merlot Down Dirty Shame
16. Bully for Steve
17. An Incident at Owl Creek
18. Great Space Roaster
Two of the standout episodes that set the scene early on in this season, marking it as one of the crazier seasons storyline-wise are Shallow Vows and My Morning Straitjacket. I think these two episodes really go further than previous instalments in the sense that they are totally ludicrous. Mind you having said that there was an episode in a previous season that saw Francine moving to live in Africa for over a year and adopt an African child, plus there was also an episode that saw Stan pretend to be dead for about a year in order to understand that Francine really loved him and not someone else, so for me to say that these new storylines are anything different is not really true. You’ll just have to accept that American Dad storylines make no sense at all! Despite the fact that some progression in terms of the ages of the children have now started to appear, with Hayley applying to go to college and Steve getting old and becoming slightly less of a geek.
Shallow Vows sees Stan and Francine renewing their wedding vows. They both realise that when they first met that their love for one another was pretty much skin deep, but for different reasons. They put each other through hell, as always, before sorting things out.
My Morning Straitjacket sees Stan trying to re-live his un-lived youth when he realises that he can feel nothing but anger. He falls in man-love with the singer of Hayley’s favourite band and follows them around the county on tour, only to find that he can not meet the singer, until Francine, the real wild-child of the household turns up and pulls some groupie-tastic moves.
DVD EXTRAS
• Audio commentaries on ‘In Country… Club’, ‘My Morning Straightjacket’, ‘Rapture’s Delight’, ‘A Jones for a Smith’, Merlot Down Dirty Shame’ and ‘Great Space Roaster’
• Alternative commentaries on ‘Rapture’s Delight’ and ‘A Jones for a Smith’
• Deleted scenes
• The Making of ‘Rapture’s Delight’ featurette
• ‘Rapture’s Delight’ Comic-Con exclusive image
• ‘Rapture’s Delight’ script progressions
• American Dad Honors Its Four Legged Friends featurette
American Dad is consistently funny and amusing. It is literally laugh-a-minute stuff. I especially like the moments of perfect pitch-black humour, that pop up every so often. Stan Smith is so cruel to his kids and my girlfriend says that I’m the same to her. Naturally I don’t consider that a compliment but I do like the idea that I might be as creative or as funny as the characters in American Dad.
Emmy© Award-winning Executive Producer Seth MacFarlane once again delivers his unique brand of political and subversive humour with a surreal edge. This new season, featuring Patrick Stewart as CIA Deputy Director Avery Bullock, is loaded with fantastic extra features including extended, uncensored content, audio commentaries, deleted scenes and a ‘Making Of’ featurette.
Nothing short of comic genius, American Dad Volume 6 and will have you doubled over in laughter from start to finish! Get your copy on DVD this summer.
