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Description
This season was kinda disappointing. I figured after season 3 the show would immediately enter its golden era, but this season was actually a step down, mostly during the last two-thirds. There were some really great episodes this season early on, but the second half of the season only had one episode I genuinely loved, with most of the others ranging from good to average. There wasn't anything truly bad this season, like the previous, but most of the episodes didn't impress me past "Phantom of the Telethon."

I think my main issue with this season is the lack of creativity, and the fact that the show still hasn't quite mastered its sense of humor. I'll start with the latter, because if there's one thing I really like about American Dad it's that its style of joke-telling is unlike any other show, with the way the show handles its dialogue in a way that's extremely layered, with a lot of jokes that often I end up missing on until I see them again. I can see glimpses of that in this season more than any other, I think "Phantom of the Telethon" is a perfect example of that and its why it's my favorite episode of the show so far. Not only did it have such a fun premise but the gags were so well-placed and well-timed, making for a consistently enjoyable episode from start to finish. I unfortunately cannot say the same for most of the other episodes this season.

As for the former point I made, something I noticed again is my favorite episodes tend to go out of bounds and do more interesting and unique stories. That's basically why all the top 5 episodes ended up there. Meanwhile, a lot of episodes in the latter half had pretty standard plots, and while they did their best to make them more interesting through the CIA and the unique characters of the show, toward the end the show started to have a bit of a tired feel to it. I noticed an immense amount of episodes focusing on Stan and Steve's relationship this season, as well as Stan and Roger episodes, but compared to season 3 this season didn't do such a good job making these episodes stand out compared to all the other episodes that fall under these categories.

This season is just placed so weirdly in the series. I don't understand why after season 3 showed so much potential that they'd randomly slow down with this season. The first half of the season is about on-par with season 3, but the second half might actually be weaker than season 1, which is unfortunate. That being said, this is still for the most part an enjoyable season with enough decent jokes to elevate most of these episodes. Not to mention that my issues with the characterization have pretty much vanished, everyone is pretty much in top-form now, and the subplots also continue to be great.

Next is season 5, which hopefully will mark a true improvement after this (slight) misstep of a season.

Description
This season was kinda disappointing. I figured after season 3 the show would immediately enter its golden era, but this season was actually a step down, mostly during the last two-thirds. There were some really great episodes this season early on, but the second half of the season only had one episode I genuinely loved, with most of the others ranging from good to average. There wasn't anything truly bad this season, like the previous, but most of the episodes didn't impress me past "Phantom of the Telethon."

I think my main issue with this season is the lack of creativity, and the fact that the show still hasn't quite mastered its sense of humor. I'll start with the latter, because if there's one thing I really like about American Dad it's that its style of joke-telling is unlike any other show, with the way the show handles its dialogue in a way that's extremely layered, with a lot of jokes that often I end up missing on until I see them again. I can see glimpses of that in this season more than any other, I think "Phantom of the Telethon" is a perfect example of that and its why it's my favorite episode of the show so far. Not only did it have such a fun premise but the gags were so well-placed and well-timed, making for a consistently enjoyable episode from start to finish. I unfortunately cannot say the same for most of the other episodes this season.

As for the former point I made, something I noticed again is my favorite episodes tend to go out of bounds and do more interesting and unique stories. That's basically why all the top 5 episodes ended up there. Meanwhile, a lot of episodes in the latter half had pretty standard plots, and while they did their best to make them more interesting through the CIA and the unique characters of the show, toward the end the show started to have a bit of a tired feel to it. I noticed an immense amount of episodes focusing on Stan and Steve's relationship this season, as well as Stan and Roger episodes, but compared to season 3 this season didn't do such a good job making these episodes stand out compared to all the other episodes that fall under these categories.

This season is just placed so weirdly in the series. I don't understand why after season 3 showed so much potential that they'd randomly slow down with this season. The first half of the season is about on-par with season 3, but the second half might actually be weaker than season 1, which is unfortunate. That being said, this is still for the most part an enjoyable season with enough decent jokes to elevate most of these episodes. Not to mention that my issues with the characterization have pretty much vanished, everyone is pretty much in top-form now, and the subplots also continue to be great.

Next is season 5, which hopefully will mark a true improvement after this (slight) misstep of a season.