Love, AD Style (American Dad!)

Love, AD Style is the 1st episode of Season 8 of American Dad! and the 134th episode of the series overall.

Plot
Roger opens up a Crooner’s bar in his attic and hires Hayley to sing in it, which leads to everyone at the bar, including Roger, becoming enamored by Hayley’s beautiful singing voice.

Why It's No Love

 * 1) Roger is at his absolute worst in this episode. He is stripped of all of his redeeming qualities and likability in one fell swoop. He has had despicable moments before, but this episode is where the writers’ apparent mission to turn Roger into an irredeemable sociopath reaches its accomplishment. This also marks the start of Roger's flanderization as well.
 * 2) * He is also completely out of character; he first acts like a total pervert to Hayley, shoots and abducts her, threatens to skin her alive, and skins Jeff instead at the end.
 * 3) This episode has a disturbing and dark tone to it that feels very off for an American Dad! episode. American Dad! is no stranger to dark humor and disturbing tones, but here it is taken up so high to Family Guy's level of dark that it comes off much more like a half-baked creepypasta than an actual American Dad! episode.
 * 4) This is a Hayley torture episode because she gets preyed on for her voice and looks, shot, abducted, and handcuffed to a dirty bed in a warehouse. She also almost loses her skin and is forced to watch her husband get flayed. The episode ends with her still cuffed to the bed too.
 * 5) The main plot of this episode is derivative of the Family Guy episode “Barely Legal” as that too focuses on a family member being infatuated by another to the point of obsession where they go as far as to kidnap said member.
 * 6) The episode recycles plot elements from “The Magnificent Steven” as that too focuses on Roger being attracted to Hayley with disastrous results. There are also previous episodes where Hayley had to work at Roger’s bar.
 * 7) The subplot, in which Stan commits a lot of crimes resulting in the deaths of three people and a lion all in an effort to sell his car, is not any better either.
 * 8) Stan too is unlikable in this episode as he neglects to help Hayley when Francine informs him that she has been shot and commits both negligent homicide on a father and daughter while leaving their bodies on the road with firecrackers to burn their bodies and involuntary manslaughter by putting an attractive woman in a situation where she gets killed by a lion.
 * 9) The subplot contradicts “Don’t Look A Smith Horse In The Mouth” as that episode has Stan go to great lengths to keep his SUV, which Francine wanted him to get rid of because it was wasting gas and money. In this episode however, he tries to sell it and goes great lengths to do that too.
 * 10) It constantly overuses dark humor and contains jokes concerning rape, abduction, and murder.
 * 11) Neither did Stan nor Roger get any repercussions for their actions in this episode in two separate side plots.
 * 12) The title of this episode is unfitting for an episode that is so dark and unfunny.
 * 13) The humor in this episode is borderline nonexistent and relies on only acting needlessly dark, edgy, and disturbing.
 * 14) There are too many scenes of animal abuse and animal killings and it includes a rat couple dressed in wedding outfits being crushed by Roger with a baseball bat for no reason, and a lion being whipped by Stan and then being burnt alive from an exploding car. This episode is very disturbing towards animal lovers.
 * 15) This episode was seemingly made in response to some fan concerns and criticism over Roger’s behavior and how was was being reduced to sociopathy and being stripped of all his redeeming qualities in the process by having him do more and more horrible things with each passing season. The way this episode turned out shows that the writers are not only refusing to listen to the criticism but are intentionally exaggerating Roger’s negative traits as it is very clear that the writers WANTED viewers to hate Roger.
 * 16) The episode's ending is really horrible and proves itself on how abysmal this episode already is. Instead of cutting off Hayley's skin, Roger cuts off Jeff's skin instead of Hayley's body and later tells Jeff, whom the latter was in a bloody blood bath, that he can return his skin, with Jeff giving in the thumbs up before the episode ends with him dying!
 * 17) *That should be noted that Roger literally killed Jeff offscreen when he did that!
 * 18) This episode started Season 8 on a sour note. Because of this, some fans stop watching the series after this episode (though the downfall of the series didn't start until Season 10).

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Hayley, Steve, Francine and Jeff are likable in this episode.
 * 2) The singing voice Hayley has is very fantastic, and just as great as Steve's and Stan's.
 * 3) Stan getting beat up by an inflatable man is the only good joke in this episode.

Reception
The episode received a 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb. However several fans have criticized the episode for its mean-spirited and dark tone, and some have even stopped watching the show completely after this episode. In fact, it also caused a lot of American Dad! fans to turn against Roger ever since with some fans stating that this episode completely ruined Roger as a character.[citation needed]

Trivia

 * None of the episode's events ever get mentioned again afterwards.