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Wow, this is quite a drop. I was really hoping this season would have been better than I remembered, and honestly the first half is fairly decent. Unfortunately the quality really drops in the second half to the point where I don't like a single episode after "LGBSteve."

Simply put, the issues with the writing I mentioned with last season only grew more this season. I've noticed an increased reliance on lazy twists, generic storylines, and just plain nonsensical plots. At this point, the main thing keeping the quality of the show up is the comedy, because the comedy is actually still pretty good and even brought up episodes such as "Seizures Suit Stanny" and "Manhattan Magical Murder Mystery Tour" which otherwise would have been bad episodes. I was actually really disappointed with the latter episode because I absolutely love Wheels and the Legman, but that episode was really lacking in any sort of interesting storyline and the entire episode felt reliant on Steve and Roger's banter, which, while good, isn't enough to make the episode good as a whole.

Speaking of Roger, I think he is the first character to truly experience a decline. He's a pretty boring character to watch most of the time now since they've already reached maximum potential with him, and now the writers are just recycling the same gags with him like how he's everyone the characters encounter. His dialogue also isn't as witty as in previous seasons. I will say everyone else is mostly still good, although I have noticed signs of Stan's stupidity rising which will becoming a much bigger issue in the upcoming seasons.

Last thing I'll note and its something most people don't tend to mention, but the subplots, which once were the crown jewels of this show and could often be the highlight of an episode, have severely declined this season. The subplots are a consistent issue in the post-FOX era since often next to nothing happens in them, and they often involve the characters acting oddly out of character. My least favorite subplot this season was the one from "Morning Mimosa," which involved Stan thinking he can make people invisible and most of it is just him being braindead. It literally lasts a minute in the runtime and I have no idea what the point of any of it was. I will say we haven't gotten to the point where the subplots are 100% a nuisance, since some of these are actually still good (the first couple episodes actually had decent subplots), but the weak subplots are easily the most notable part of the show has declined, at least in this season, since some of these are just as bad as some of the ones we'll get as we continue along.

Overall, this season was pretty disappointing, but honestly, it's still alright at the end of the day. It can still make me laugh and most of these episodes at least try to engage me, even if the writing has gotten much weaker since the golden age.

Btw, if you are wondering why I don't hate "American Fung" as much as you might have thought I would, it's because I see it more as an experimental episode than an episode played straight, and in that lense it isn't too awful. I still think it fails because its a mostly unfunny episode and they don't really try to make the Stan-Francine plot "ironically" bad, but I do appreciate some parts of the episode that had some of that weird meta humor and the parts with Fung-Wah himself and the subplot are the kind of ironically bad humor I can get behind. It's like "The Principal and the Pauper" from The Simpsons to me, it's an experimental episode that simply didn't stick the landing.

Description
Wow, this is quite a drop. I was really hoping this season would have been better than I remembered, and honestly the first half is fairly decent. Unfortunately the quality really drops in the second half to the point where I don't like a single episode after "LGBSteve."

Simply put, the issues with the writing I mentioned with last season only grew more this season. I've noticed an increased reliance on lazy twists, generic storylines, and just plain nonsensical plots. At this point, the main thing keeping the quality of the show up is the comedy, because the comedy is actually still pretty good and even brought up episodes such as "Seizures Suit Stanny" and "Manhattan Magical Murder Mystery Tour" which otherwise would have been bad episodes. I was actually really disappointed with the latter episode because I absolutely love Wheels and the Legman, but that episode was really lacking in any sort of interesting storyline and the entire episode felt reliant on Steve and Roger's banter, which, while good, isn't enough to make the episode good as a whole.

Speaking of Roger, I think he is the first character to truly experience a decline. He's a pretty boring character to watch most of the time now since they've already reached maximum potential with him, and now the writers are just recycling the same gags with him like how he's everyone the characters encounter. His dialogue also isn't as witty as in previous seasons. I will say everyone else is mostly still good, although I have noticed signs of Stan's stupidity rising which will becoming a much bigger issue in the upcoming seasons.

Last thing I'll note and its something most people don't tend to mention, but the subplots, which once were the crown jewels of this show and could often be the highlight of an episode, have severely declined this season. The subplots are a consistent issue in the post-FOX era since often next to nothing happens in them, and they often involve the characters acting oddly out of character. My least favorite subplot this season was the one from "Morning Mimosa," which involved Stan thinking he can make people invisible and most of it is just him being braindead. It literally lasts a minute in the runtime and I have no idea what the point of any of it was. I will say we haven't gotten to the point where the subplots are 100% a nuisance, since some of these are actually still good (the first couple episodes actually had decent subplots), but the weak subplots are easily the most notable part of the show has declined, at least in this season, since some of these are just as bad as some of the ones we'll get as we continue along.

Overall, this season was pretty disappointing, but honestly, it's still alright at the end of the day. It can still make me laugh and most of these episodes at least try to engage me, even if the writing has gotten much weaker since the golden age.

Btw, if you are wondering why I don't hate "American Fung" as much as you might have thought I would, it's because I see it more as an experimental episode than an episode played straight, and in that lense it isn't too awful. I still think it fails because its a mostly unfunny episode and they don't really try to make the Stan-Francine plot "ironically" bad, but I do appreciate some parts of the episode that had some of that weird meta humor and the parts with Fung-Wah himself and the subplot are the kind of ironically bad humor I can get behind. It's like "The Principal and the Pauper" from The Simpsons to me, it's an experimental episode that simply didn't stick the landing.