User Reviews

I liked the random Jeff side story here, but the alien and future stuff was weird.

Stan telling bad jokes fits right into his character. Everything there was well-done.

Before I get into my review of this episode, I'm afraid I must go on a rant. This is in response to the episode's opening scene.

(BEGIN RANT)

I often cringe during episodes of the newer seasons when the show opens with a member of the family, or the entire family, getting super excited about something really weird that has never been mentioned (or even implied) as one of their passions or dreams, or sharply deviates from long-established personality traits.

A recent example is last season's forgettable Lumber-jerk episode where it opens with Stan getting really excited about getting to see "hot lumberjacks" at the fair. This is not Stan Smith, the archetype evangelical neocon who once kidnapped a baby so it wouldn't be raised by gay parents. Sure, his character has evolved, but not THAT much. And if it has, make the episode a deep dive into his deeply repressed homosexuality and not just a lazy setup for an episode.

It's not that I don't appreciate the weird and abstract (I'm a millennial...if anything, I appreciate it too much) as this show is often at its finest in it's weirder moments. But you gotta work for the weird. When it's dropped on the audience as nothing more than an episode setup, it comes across as someone trying way too hard to be funny or not trying hard enough to be a decent writer.

I was worried for a moment when the Book of Fischer leads off with Steve announcing he has found his first gray hair and couldn't be happier. He apparently has always wanted "that silver fox look." (Yeah, we get it...what a weird thing to happen to a 14 year old and for that 14 year old to be happy about it... *insert canned audience laugh track*)

Basically, they needed to get Stan and Steve to the barbershop to hit the main storyline and this weak irony was their vessel of choice for Book of Fischer. Booo!!

I'm sure there were plenty of ways to compel someone like Stan to take Steve, the boy they should have named Tristan, to his first proper men's barbershop.

The drawn out point I'm trying to make is "random" and "irony" are fun in small doses, but it's been happening a lot in recent seasons and at the expense of the characters core personalities.

(END RANT)

Okay, I'm sorry I had to say that to people from the AD production team reading this (because I KNOW you do lololol). I actually really liked this episode.

Let's continue:

Once we get through our cringy setup, we end up at the local barbershop and Stan is excited to demonstrate his ability to "chomp it up" with the fellas (Principle Lewis, Tuttle, the local news producer, and the barber).

And unless this is somehow your first time watching AD, Stan is the exact opposite of how he perceives himself. Steve delivers this bitter dose of reality and Stan unravels in unhinged fashion, reminiscent of early-season classics like "Homeland Insecurity" and "Failure is not a Factory-Installed Option."

The best Stan episodes are ones where he retains some of his original personality quirks and is hilariously insecure and reckless. Book of Fischer manages to deliver us this Stan, who nearly gets Steve, Tuttle and himself killed in the process.

Now had this been the sole plot of this episode, I would have knocked its score down to a 5 or 6.

But this episode is "the Book of Fischer," and the writers cooked up a welcome and delightful framing device in the form of Jeff's diaries.

Early in the episode, Jeff is getting on Hayley's nerves with his child-like commentary and over sharing. When Hayley confronts him, Jeff admits that he has to tell her things right away or he'll forget because he smokes too much pot.

The solution is Jeff starts a diary. Jeff begins documenting everything, including the events Stan and Steve are involved in. Of course Jeff being Jeff, he eventually becomes distracted and leaves his diary in the kitchen freezer and forgets all about it moments later. This is the setup for a delightful plot twists. (See AD writers-random worked here because you worked for it!)

In the latter half of the episode, we learn the story about Stan and Steve is actually being told to a group of children in the distant future and being read to them from the Book of Fischer, which has become a sacred text for a religion that coalesced around Tuttle.

There's something hilarious about Jeff's nonsense and Stan's major personality flaws being interpreted through the lens of organized religion, where every detail takes on significance. It was a risk for the writers to take this path but they stick the landing, providing us with a fun glimpse of a future where Tuttle and the Smiths are religious icons, while also pointing out the obvious plot holes and absurdities of the Book of Fischer's origins (which of course is a riff on today's religions).

To top it off, we're treated to a brief cameo from future Roger, who is still alive and well in 1000 years' time.

All in all, Book of Fischer had a rough opening but recovers beautifully. It manages to blend the characters' core personalities with a delicious helping of the absurd...at least it does from around the two minute mark.