REVIEW - American Dad S08E05

In 'Ad-Ventures in Hayleysitting', Amercan Dad! teaches us how to travel from place to place using only a bottle of lubricant and that horses are the best aphrodesiac ever.

This lesson is tacked on to a plot about Hayley trying to prove she's responsible while Steve tries to prove he's not a 'dweeb'. It's always a surprise to see the ultra-liberal take the forefront given her lack of focus over the years.

While she was once the foil to ultra-conservative Stan, we don't see as much of Hayley Smith-Fischer in the later seasons. I've never been sure if this is a good thing or not given the shift from political sattire to the bizarre family slice-of-life we love, but I have a hard time not comparing her to Meg of Family Guy.

Even though the episode has her name in the title, Hayley isn't as prominent as Stan and Steve. Yes, we see her searching town for Steve and trying to prove she's responsible, but most of the screentime is allocated to Steve trying to prove to his sister he isn't a dweeb and Stan and Francine trying to get to a horse show.

It makes me wonder if maybe Seth MacFarlane should have written her out of the series via having her and Jeff move out upon getting married. It means they can still drop by and visit if they want to use her plus I'm not sure that many would notice her absence.

This said, we still get the screwball humour we know and love with plenty of heartwarming moments. This episode has Steve and Hayley together more than usual. It's rare to see them working together instead of against each other (or, more commonly, not interacting at all); this made the somewhat-predictable conclusion of the episode all the sweeter.

However, this is American Dad! so I have to answer this question: was it funny?

Yes and no - the sequences with the babysitter (particularly the conclusion of her mini arc) felt very tacked on and were more dragged out than the usual gags the series has. The humour in this episode is the strongest when either focusing on Roger (whose only purpose in this episode was getting Stan and Francine to the horse show) or Steve's attempts to rebel against Hayley. I couldn't help but snicker as Steve proudly declared that he was making pasta sauce from scratch.

Also, in my unprofessional opinion, any episode where Jeff's around is bound to make you chuckle at least once.

This episode might be a bit hit and miss at points, but it's still worth a shot. I feel that Hayley didn't see as much use as I might've expected in an episode focused on her, but it's good to see the Smith children trying to understand one another.

Review by Greta Rehak