Bob's Burgers

It was nice. But it was also hard to feel sympathy for Gene. He's so stupid he sleeps on a record. Gene is one of those characters who ruins everything with his laziness and carelessness. I am not surprised one bit when it caused HIM to suffer for once. That's what happens to stupid people.

I love that Teddy likes the plaque. Bob sure doesn't though.

I did like the ending of Gene fixing up the clearly terrible remake of the album the family made. Which leads me to believe they should have asked the one musical member in the family for help all along.

Gene is a very tough character to take pity on. He brings all his problems on himself. ***.

Louise never fails to unimpress me with her lack of intelligence and common sense. It never occurred to her as she was filling out that evaluation of how horrible it actually was? She only realizes it in hindsight? Louise would be easier for me to forgive for something like that if she WERE the sociopath she pretends to be. Since she does actually care, that just makes her stupid. And that aspect of Louise is very realistic for a kid. But it's not helping out Bob's Burgers.

To be fair, the plotline ended right with Louise learning the lesson that the teacher pushes her because she's smart. But for an actual smart person, something like that should be self-evident.

At least Miss Labonz got the parking space at the end.

The lack of firm resolution to Bob and Linda's burial drama made me feel that entire plot was pointless. I don't think I'm wrong.

It had a nice ending, and I like the nuance it gave Miss Labonz. But while I think Tina is the most maddening character on the show, Louise might be second. She really shouldn't be. Linda and Gene should be more annoying and less sensible than she is. But every Louise spotlight leads me to believe this supposed criminal mastermind simply isn't very bright. **1/2.

I didn't like most of it but I like how it ended. I like that it ended on Bob and Linda entering the restaurant but we didn't get to see how it went. I like that very much.

I also thought it was kind of cool that the kids helped Jen with her weird romance with the notary. She's babysitted them how many times and she supposedly didn't know they have a bathroom? And she's dumb enough to believe a family of five doesn't have one in their apartment? I'm half thinking if Louise had actually blackmailed her after all, somebody this dumb would have deserved it.

I didn't enjoy that for the most part, but it ended right. **1/2.

Man, what a great ending. The idea that those guys always looked up to Teddy and considered him their friend is this show at its best.

I liked Louise's twisted monkey thing.

For the record, when Linda is finished telling her story, it reminded me why I would never be friends with that character for any reason. She makes Melania Trump look classy in comparison. She is so freaking gross.

I liked the guy having to explain the knot to Bob as if he's a little kid. Him finally being able to do it is not the moral victory the characters think it is.

That was great, but I'm subtracting half a star because Linda makes me want to puke. ****1/2.

I very much like the idea that Gene objects to the video for reasons of artistic integrity. I feel like the show often does wrong by Gene in the way they portray his musical aspirations as shallow and lazy. That was the show doing right by them for once.

And Teddy goes to Bob for the hug. Because of course he does.

I am with Bob in only being freaked out upon learning the briefcase is filled with walnuts. That is outright weird. We are in the presence of death.

Return of "Lick it like you like it." NOT a catchphrase I've missed.

Pretty good. Not great. ***1/2.

I will say I hated about two thirds of the episode (literally the first two stories) but I'm giving it a passing grade for three reasons.

1. Popular culture can never talk about smack about The Giving Tree. It is literally the worst children's book of all time. That needs to be pointed out more.

2. Pop-Pop's actual story and talk with Bob at the end were quite sweet.

3. I need to actually give it up for Eric Bauza. I could not tell it was him. As far as voice actors go, Bauza is really the only one I can think of who can voice characters that sound nothing like each other. For Seth MacFarlane, for Mel Blanc, there's ALWAYS a little bit of them in each voice that makes them recognizable as one of their performances. Bauza magically disappears completely into his roles. He is a freaking ghost. There is no Bugs Bunny OR Daffy Duck in Big Bob. No Baby Fozzie. No Splinter. No Stimpy. It's insane what a chameleon this guy is with his voice. I'm not going to call him the greatest voice performer of all time (I haven't seen him do enough dramatic acting to declare that) but he's definitely the one guy I often need to check the credits to find out who he voiced.

Most of that sucked but the last act was super interesting for multiple reasons. ***.

I liked the episode, but I have to say I especially liked that at the beginning of the episode Louise learned people actually dislike her dangerous behavior, and that they think that it's unusual and weird. It's interesting that fact actually had an effect on her, and was the reason she was protecting the spider, but the truth is that is not a moral her parents should have bought back at the end. I think Bob is a great parent. But he's doing Louise no favors by normalizing the crazy and destructive things she does. They aren't interesting. They're obnoxious.

Who sees a free mirror and thinks about smashing it? Linda of course, but Linda sucks. Her fart story to Tina reminded me that she's also totally gross.

Bob suggests it's wrong to smash a mirror that never hurt anybody, and Louise says his mirror hurts him every day. That is a great joke. It's a smart joke you have to think on a bit, so you aren't apt to belly-laugh at it. But it's still great.

Isn't Mort Bob's friend? Can't believe he wasn't even mentioned.

It was good, but I feel like Louise being empowered at the end is a bad message for her. If anything, she needs to be humbled, whether it makes her feel bad or not. So The Simpsons won the night of Fox toons. Pretty handily too. ***1/2.

I didn't like it. It was a bit of a trial. Linda is gross enough. The fact that Gretchen and Gayle are somehow even grosser made this a not fun night.

Nat's stuff's was more successful because I like Nat a lot. I like that the fact that she's gay is not made a big deal. Tina was annoying with her stupid drama, but I liked the things Bob said to calm her.

But the truth is it was a bit of a chore of an episode to endure. Kinda sucky. The Simpsons easily won the night of Fox toons. **.

Gene continues to be annoying.

Let me also also be honest about Tamagotchi. As far as fads go, that was also super annoying. I can't believe kids actually dug it. Someone tells you kids gravitate towards new and trendy things I'll remind them how Tamagotchi was once a rage with them at a time when actual good videogames existed. The thing that annoyed me most about those toys is how utterly pointless they ultimately are. It's asking a kid to put in an actual time and effort for something that isn't actually fun. For the record, this is the EXACT reason I stopped playing Free Cell on my computer. Wasting my time and energy on things I like is fine. Wasting them on things that bore me is not actually okay.

It was a lousy episode but I liked two things.

1. The time lapse sequence was good.

2. I laughed at the guy asking if it would be rude if he gently moved his son from the van, closed the doors, and drove away. Nobody on this show speaks like a real person, but I think real people would be better off if we spoke like the characters on this show.

But really, the only thing more annoying than Gene is Tamagotchi. **1/2.

I thought that was a pretty darn good one. The premise was funny, because as Louise pointed out at the end, the feud was SO damn stupid. The Kids really should not have needed to point that out. Linda's side of the family is utterly broken. Gayle is just the tip of the iceberg.

Their cousin who liked Buckaroo Banzai was cool though. Even though he didn't want to share his chicken.

There are two disturbing possibilities about the writers having Gayle say that it's 4000 times harder to raises cats than human children. The first disturbing possibility is that the writers don't understand exactly how loathsome that makes Gayle sound. The even more disturbing possibility is that they DO, and had her say it anyways. Crap like that is why I hate the character so much.

Great week otherwise though. ****1/2.

This isn't the first two-parter the show has done but they are hella rare. What I will say is that the stakes for this are FAR lower than for "Bob Saves / Destroys The Town".

One of my favorite previous episodes of the show was where it's revealed Tina is frustrated by her peer group and the fact that Tammy, Jocelyn, Jimmy Junior, and Zeke are all so stupid and boring. The fact that zeroes like Tammy and Jocelyn are trendsetters in Wagstaff's version of a cool kid clique says Tina was absolutely right to be upset all of her peers are so stupid and lame. I will be first to admit that Tina is not cool. But she shouldn't be made to feel that way if every single other kid who does is far lamer than she is.

Mr. Grant also once again proves that the adults in position of authority on this show (outside of Bob) are all sinister.

I very much liked the fact that Linda was there to smooth things over with the customers when Bob and Teddy went berserk over the insulting bathroom graffiti. Linda isn't great, but she DOES have some value after all, I guess.

The Blade Runner spoof sort of said something interesting about that film that I noticed, but didn't think it was a big enough deal to complain about in my recent review of the film. The soundtrack (specifically the score) SUCKS. And it's a problem with all sci-fi movies of that era outside of Star Wars (and, well, Star Trek: The Motion Picture). But depressing sci-fi 70's electronica sounds lame. And Blade Runner IS a great film. But this is the first thing to show its music isn't great. And I like that it lets us hear that for ourselves, instead of merely taking a shot at it through a wisecrack. It's a pretty cool and on-the-ball observation there.

The musical numbers on this show are always awful, especially compared to the great stuff The Simpsons, Family Guy, Futurama, and American Dad have come up with. I'm surprised the show still does them. They never, EVER work. I think the writers simply think listening to H. Jon Benjamin badly sing off-key is amusing in and of itself, but they couldn't be more wrong about that.

I don't think this was an episode that needed to be stretched into two parts, but I'll know for sure next week. ***1/2.

It was nice although it didn't need to be stretched to a two-parter.

I think the guy at the end trying to rush by the window of the restaurant was the graffiti culprit.

Aziz Ansari was credited as Daryll but he didn't appear in the episode.

Pretty good. ***1/2.

I love that they added to sinkhole to the grand re-re-opening part of the main title from the movie. It would be neat if that is a permanent change going forward.

I never liked the joke of Bob talking as the burgers. It makes him seem too crazy.

I love Teddy saying "I like it" before the trainwreck of a play even began.

Basically the same quality as The Bob's Burgers Movie. Which is pretty much the biggest reason the show never needed a damn movie to begin with. ***1/2.