Animation Domination Battle Royale #2 - 05/15/11

 I have a love/hate relationship with Sunday's. I love not going into work but I also hate that Sunday night dread of having to go into work the next Morning.

One of the things that helps me get through that unpleasantness of work is Fox's Animation Domination. It's a joyous 2 1/2 hours of primetime cartoon shenanigans. It starts off with American Dad!, followed by my all time favorite show The Simpsons. It then goes into Bob's Burger's then the Seth MacFarlane double whammy of Family Guy and the Cleveland Show.

Last week we saw American Dad! come out on top. Let's see who can win the last battle royale of this tv season.

American Dad! (Flirting With Disaster)

Sadly we don't get any Principal Lewis this week but we are treated to Roger acting extra sleazy. Roger notices that Steve has a knack for building bird houses. It doesn't take long for Roger to sell the houses and spend all the money on drugs and hookers. He even gets an awesome chest tattoo of Klaus. While doing this he gives Steve cheap parts which lead to a clip of a young family of blue jays who's home is destroyed because of the shotty home they live in. It reminded me of the "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" homage with squirrels in season 1.

Over in the main story Francine ends up taking a job at the CIA which pisses Stan off because that means he can't flirt with all the ladies around the office as much. Francine doesn't mind because the guys in the office start flirting with her too. This leads to a jealous co-worker throwing acid in Francine's face. She can't get a skin graph and comes back to work and is all upset that nobody is flirting with her anymore.

Show score - B+

The Simpsons (500 Keys)

I love The Simpsons. It's without a doubt my all time favorite show. I have two Simpsons calendar's in my cubicle at work and my wife and I can have entire conversations just quoting the show. A lot of people say that the show isn't funny and isn't as good as it used to be. Now I'll admit that the show isn't quite as good as say seasons 2-7 but even the worst new episode is better than most things on TV.  Well except for last night's new episode....

The show started off good as the family discovers that they have an entire drawer full of keys. Of course most of them are from Homer's old jobs like Mr. Plow and when he filled in for Smithers. After the keys are found which happens in the first 5 minutes the episode goes down from there. There's basically four plots as each of the main characters has a key that unlocks something important. Homer has a key to the Duff brewery so he flies around the Duff blimp for an episode and Lisa unlocks a secret room underneath the school. The Marge and Bart storyline's are small filler that don't go anywhere. There was a lot going in in this episode and it seems like when they try to keep it simple the episode works. This one really didn't.

Episode score - C-

Bob's Burger's (Lobsterfest)

The big annual event known as Lobsterfest is coming to town and Bob hates it. Not only is Bob allergic to lobster (really funny bit) but it also means that nobody wants to buy any burgers. He doesn't even let the rest of his family eat lobster.

Luckily for Bob a hurricane comes through and threatens to cancel the event. Bob stays open through the hurricane offering up free burgers and beer and declares that they should celebrate "Bobsterfest". After a hard night of partying he wakes up to find his restaurant has been trashed and his new friends have abandoned him because the weather clears and everyone heads to lobsterfest.

Tonight's episode wasn't quite as good as last week's but there is a funny part with the kids trying lobster for the first time and Jean having an allergic reaction to lobster.

Episode score - C+

Family Guy (Foreign Affairs)

Last week's episode was a dud but fortunately we're treated to a pretty good episode this week. Lois goes to Paris with Bonnie for a vacation. After getting there she admits to Lois that she's only there to have an affair with another man. She ends up sleeping with a guy names Francois who is also in a wheelchair. He asks Bonnie to stay there with him. She considers until Lois tells Joe and he show up to get her to come back home. In the funniest part he shows his love by standing up for her. It turns out that Quagmire is just taped to the back of him though.

The second storyline was also good by having Peter home school the kids while Lois is away. Peter feels that he should pull the kids out of school after a flu outbreak. Of course Peter teaches them nonsense and there's a great part that is similar to the Conway Twitty cutaway's as Peter said that in 1985 "was the year of the gayest music video of all time". I think Peter was right....

Episode score - B

Cleveland Show (Hot Cocoa Bang Bang)

Tonight in the second season finale, Cleveland creates his own comic book called "Waderman". He's so sure that everyone will the story of a hero who isn't afraid to go into shallow water that he decides to take the whole family to Comic-Con in San Diego. Nobody wants to go except for Cleveland Jr.

While at the show Junior because sour on the convention after the convention is filled with Twilight and crappy NBC sitcoms like Schwim-Team starring David Schwimmer. He then gets all the other geeks to get together and get rid of those terrible exhibits.

Meanwhile, it turns out that Donna had appeared in a Blaxploitation movie called "Hot Cocoa Bang Bang". Robert Rodriguez is screening the film and Donna tries to stop him. He ends up screening the movie after buying the rights to Cleveland's "Wadrerman" comic. They then end up trying to hunt down Rodriguez after the threatens to distribute the movie.

Overall pretty good episode to end the season on. Plus, we were even treated to a cameo from Comic Book Guy!

Episode grade - B+

We have a tie this week but since you can't have two people win a battle royale the winner for the second week in a row is:

American Dad!