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American Dad! - Series 3 - Complete [2007]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

"I’m not beloved," CIA Agent Stan Smith is shocked to discover after eavesdropping on his mocking neighbours in the episode, "I Can’t Stan You". With all the resolve this "pig-headed" Red State poster boy and George "The Dub" Bush devotee can muster, he vows, "I will make these people like me." For those still on the fence about American Dad, this collection of 18 episodes ought to do the trick. These characters may not be as indelible as the Family Guy clan, but these episodes rarely flag. If the outrageous storylines don’t grab you, the rapid-fire random gags will. Like King of the Hill’s Hank Hill , Stan (voiced by series co-creator Seth McFarlane) is oft confounded by a world seemingly gone mad. Unlike Hank, he is the voice of un-reason. In "Surro-Gate," Stan’s dizzy wife, Francine (Wendy Schaal) agrees to be the surrogate for the Smith’s gay neighbors, prompting the disapproving Stan to kidnap the infant, as well as the brood of a lesbian couple. In "Black Mystery Month," Stan reveals a Da Vinci Code-like conspiracy involving George Washington Carver that’s plain nuts. In another episode, "Bush Comes to Dinner" for a night of drunken debauchery; some easy-target Bush-bashing is redeemed when the President makes peace between Stan and his "lost cause" liberal daughter, Hayley (Rachael MacFarlane). Some of the best episodes focus more on the Smith family than politics. In "The Vacation Goo", Francine demands a real family getaway after discovering that all previous vacations were artificially created memories. In "Haylias," it is revealed that the unwitting Hayley is a brainwashed sleeper agent, who is activated by Stan to stop her from moving to France. "The 42-Year-Old Virgin" reveals another shocker: trigger-happy Stan has never actually killed anyone!

American Dad revels in guy humour. As Stan tells an unamused Hayley at one point, "You don’t get a willy, you don’t get the silly." American Dad brings the silly, but while the series is not above (or beneath) moth fart jokes, it is also smart enough to reference, say, "Equus" or the touching "When Somebody Loved Me" number from Toy Story 2. Stan’s geeky son, Steve (Scott Grimes), bitchy alien Roger (MacFarlane), and talking fish Klaus (Dee Bradley Baker) are no Chris, Brian, or Stewie, but this set contains some of their more memorable outings. In "Frannie 911," it turns out that it actually would kill Roger to be nice. In "Surro-Gate," Klaus vows revenge on Roger and Stan following a waterslide prank. American Dad fans will salute this three-disc set’s generous features, including a riotous Comic-Con cast table read of the episode, "The 42 Year-Old Virgin," nearly a half hour of deleted scenes (deleted jokes would be more accurate), unrated versions (with unbleeped profanities) of certain episodes, and freewheeling audio commentaries ("Hey, aren’t we supposed to talk about the episode?" one participant tries to steer one digressive conversation). --Donald Liebenson

American Dad 3
Review date: 2008-09-13 Rating: 10 out of 10

As good as the first 2 series.I enjoyed it more after repeated viewings and it grew on me as i missed some of the jokes 1st time around.
I think American Dad is a bit cleverer than Family Guy and obviously more political but Family Guy is still the best IMO.
The Magnificent Steven is my favourite episode and i would have given this dvd 4 1/2* and not 5* if i could but wanted to boost the overall rating.

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Reviews


This might be Volume 3, but it's not the third series/season.
Review date: 2008-06-29 Rating: 8 out of 10

I won't go into the contents of this box or the quality of American Dad! as a series per se. I just want to point out, that the UK releases of American Dad! might be more or less chronological (box 3 leaves out the 8th episode of series 3, a christmas special), but are released not in a season-per-box way. Read: This "Volume 3" contains the episodes 10 to 19 of season 2 plus the first 7 episodes of season 3 and episode 9 of season 3. Basically all episodes (apart from the said x-mas episode) that were originally shown in 2007 in the US. Just to clear things up a bit.

Where are you going with this?
Review date: 2008-06-12 Rating: 4 out of 10

Loved the first two Vols, even though problems had started to rise. However, with Vol. 3, the creators seemed to have gone mental with one character. Stan Smith. He has always been a bit edgy making bad decisions, but in Vol. 3 turns into a fullblown terrorist, a monster of a person.

He started in Vol. 2, when he left his family in hunger and poverty to get back at a salesman, now he frames his wife for murder, leaves her to have casual sex with another woman, evicts his entire neighbourhood including his own family, forces his family to live in the woods because he won't admit to have made a mistake, just to name a few from the first disc.

Not only do these things make him totally unlikeable, worst of all, they're not even funny enough to justify all that. If you want horrible things done, let them be done by Roger, that would be in character. I know, it is a comic and not to be taken too seriously, still, I don't know how much more of this horror Stan puts all the people around him through without any consequence I can watch.

It looks they make the same mistake they made with Family Guy. Creating more hate in the characters, forcing new charactertrades onto existing ones that don't fit, effectively killing the sympathy we had for them. The humor goes down too. It's a shame, American Dad used to be fun at first, as did Family Guy, but as they say: The brightest flame burns quickest.

Not My Fave Series So Far
Review date: 2008-06-05 Rating: 8 out of 10

It's not as funny as the previous series, most of the time i can't really put my finger on whats wrong but i didn't laugh as much and a lot of the plots didn't really connect. The commentarys which are usually such a delight were mainly the people who don't normally talk (they were done during the writers strike) and you can tell. There are a huge amount of deleted scenes though and the ComicCon table read is joy to watch. Seth McFarlanes face when he's doing characters and the reaction to Francine/Wendy Schaals vibrator just kills me.

Something's missing
Review date: 2008-05-29 Rating: 8 out of 10

The third series of American Dad is nothing compared to the series two peak. It's not as completely insane and nonsensical, the characters, particularly Roger and Stan, have somewhat changed, and though still crazy to a certain extent, they don't have any of the killer lines of the earlier series. For some strange reason Stan has started learning lessons all over the place (N.B. Klaus' commentary at the end of 'Bullocks to Stan') - very dissapointing.
Politically it has taken a sharply liberal turn, and while I have no real problem with this, it comes off preachy and completely fails to properly represent the conservative point of view (which if it is intending to be preachy, it really should do).
It's not all rubbish, it still provides great entertainment and enough laughs, you just won't be laughing as hard as you used to.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Seth MacFarlane
Rachael MacFarlane
Wendy Schaal
Scott Grimes

Creators:
Seth MacFarlane (Primary Contributor)
Wendy Schaal (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036036924
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 3
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-05-12
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 401 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2007

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