Bob's Burgers

The sinkhole re-re-opening in the main title is here to stay!

I love that when Bob talks about the lake giving them bad diarrhea Louise asks him as opposed to good diarrhea?

The trip was hellish, but in fairness, that's only because the Belchers themselves did everything wrong. If they had put in a little planning, and selected a better place, and had a lick of common sense to them, it would have been fine. I'm less annoyed by the situation, than I am that Linda keeps a bag of dead batteries in the closet. This family is begging to suffer in everything they do.

I was kind of annoyed by the end of that to be honest. **1/2.

Bob's Burgers "What About Job?"

The trilogy episodes of the show are never very good. I'm not sure why that is, but they tend to bore me. This wasn't any different.

And you know Louise worrying about the future deserved a better episode. That is a very realistic and relatable fear and the episode isn't really about that because of the fantasies. I wish the show would stop doing both these and musical episodes. **1/2.

I don't think I've actually HAD kettle corn, at least not FRESH kettle corn.

I loved Bob's righteous rant to Teddy about how there are no signs and our lives are up to us. Which is why the episode having Bob change his mind upon seeing the seal pissed me off so much. Bob's moral was the right one, especially since Teddy was thinking of breaking up with his girlfriend and hurting her by doing that over his nonsense. Walking that idea back is wrong.

The funniest joke in the episode was Gene speculating on what the woman did with all the extra exploding paper. He said she would write her life story on it, and destroy it in front of the New York Review of Books, and tell them they wouldn't get it. The show thinks Gene is funnier than I do. But that was legit funny.

So-so week. I wish the episode had let Bob keep the high ground with Teddy at his most obnoxious. **1/2.

It's been a long time since we've had a great episode but that was awesome.

Tina's speech at the end was amazing, and the thing I love most is how concerned Zeke is throughout the episode. It's an entirely new facet to his character. And Tina is right that maybe back-up dancing isn't Jimmy Junior's thing. Maybe he's lead dancer material. Not in any real-life definition. But the class turning on the butthole teacher shows that there is truth in what she is saying, and after their week of abuse the students recognized it too. The daggy white dude in the bleachers was annoying until he expressed solidarity at the end. As a rule, the adults on this show suck. I like that this one was actually put in his place.

I think Teddy summed up the subplot best upon Bob's triumph: "It's sad how much he needs this." And I'm glad he got the minor victory too, but I have to find it ironic that Teddy of all people is able to recognize how much this actually doesn't matter.

The funniest joke for me was Linda saying she was going to burn the restaurant down, then she says, "Just kidding. I'll put it out." Perfectly Linda thing to say. I also liked hearing another reference to the mysterious Ginger. Like the top of Louise's dead, I would actually like to see Ginger at some point.

Best episode in a long while *****.

I liked it.

I was like "There is no way these kids know about either Twister or Helen Hunt" until Louise points out that the 40-something adults that answer the door on Halloween would go crazy for it and give them a ton of candy, and it suddenly seemed like a believable Louise scam.

I love Gene saying if a costume doesn't hurt, you aren't doing it right. I think all the actors who suffer through prosthetics on Star Trek probably relate to that statement.

I like that they brought back Louise and Jessica's friendship. I also like the dude saying at the end that he forgot kids are scared of stuff. Little late.

Pretty good. ***1/2.

I felt for Gene. I mean, $45 an hour for the VR place? Louise had it right. That was "Mom and Dad" money. I'd never spend that much as a kid for that. And of course the experience actually sucks. Bob's Burgers understands how bad being a kid is more than any other show on the air.

I did like that the episode was nice enough to give Louise and Tina the victory with the menu tower. And knocking it over is just as much fun.

I rewatched the opening, and sure enough the VR place is in the main title this week too. Nice touch.

Bob's Burgers is the one show on the air that doesn't sugarcoat how bad adults treat children. Once upon a time The Simpsons regularly went repeatedly went back to that idea, but the difference there is The Simpsons always was overly cynical and engaged in exaggeration for satiric purposes. Bob's Burgers' kid disappointments are worse because they're real and something all kids actually go through.

Not a fun episode to watch. But utterly authentic to how crappy adults tend to treat kids. ***1/2.

Episodes like this are why I strongly dislike Louise. She's a little too young for me to say I hate her, but she's a crappy person anyways. She has the absolute dumbest ideas and is fixated on the absolute stupidest, most pointless things, and she gets infuriated if everybody doesn't just drop everything at once to do her terrible inane idea that will obviously end badly. She values stupid things which is pretty much a huge part of the recipe for a bad, annoying person. The series tries to portray Louise as a criminal mastermind. I will never see her as such while she remains so GD stupid.

On the other hand, the ending resolution was kind of sweet. But that's because Tina made it so. But really, I'm tired of Louise's antics, and I'm tired of everybody humoring her over the fact that she is a slow-witted person, with a boring mind, and a mundane imagination, who only cares about trivial nonsense. Does that sound way too harsh? It's also 100% accurate. **1/2.

I confess I had some problems with it. The premise was a total downer. But I was glad the kids got some belly-sledding in, and the ending at the grave with Linda comforting Bob was beyond sweet. And I love that the time limit the groundskeeper gave them ultimately didn't matter with Linda climbing the fence like a total vulgarian. I thought that was great.

It was an episode that was bumming me out, that ended pretty much perfectly anyways. ***.

I value this show. This was the best episode in a long while.

I'm half in love with Tina Fey's substitute music teacher.

This season, the show has been focusing an awful lot on frustration and things not going the way you want them to. For the most part, I haven't enjoyed that theme. But it works for this episode because they gave us the happy ending, and with Tina doing the costume switch, it is doubly rewarding, because it's clever and half a surprise. And using the fixed xylophone recital's music as the montage for the touching, emotional supportive moment for Louise and Tina is something I wish this show did more often. I know it's capable of it. And I know doing episodes and endings like that need to be perfect, and perfection is a lot of work and effort. But it sure as hell pays off when they do it. And I actually love this episode's family drama far more than The Bob's Burgers Movie. It feels both more organic and more genuine.

I think Louise chose to read the good poem because the guy introducing it said he loved it. What a great spot of encouragement on a show not know for encouraging adults.

Wonderful episode. *****.

Tina always worries too much, and that's annoying, but I kind of dug her conversation with her hallucination of Accountability Billy. He raised some interesting ethical points that perhaps explained WHY Tina felt so defensive about this specific thing. But again, Tina worries too much.

I liked when Linda told Gene not to put her pillow on his feet, but she smelled it, and declared it too late. The funny thing about the Belchers isn't just that they are gross. It's that they seem to accept their own grossness as a matter of course.

Mr. Frond continues to be startlingly bad at his job. When Bob asks what is wrong at that school that's actually a DAMN good question.

It was pretty good. ***1 removed link

For an episode celebrating a milestone (the 250th episode) it felt a little frivolous. It was all right, and I like Gene's origami frog being hung up at the end, but I wasn't really into this week. ***.

This is one of those shows that can still surprise you on occasion, but this wasn't one of those episodes.

I guess the one line I really liked was Ms. Selbo asking Linda if she's never seen interesting things. It is both the wrong question (Linda is b.s.ing her), and considering Linda's interests and what impresses her, the most right question anyone who doesn't know her could ever actually ask.

The song sucked, per usual. The show needs to stop this. It feels like a cry for help at this point.

The show's done better but it's also done worse. ***1 removed link

Tina is an extremely frustrating character and I wish I could go through my TV and shake her and yell at her, and tell her what she is doing wrong.

First of all, she is absolutely right that that group of teenagers is cool. And they are some of the first cool characters ever seen on the show. There is a cool adult here and there, granted, but very few younger characters on the show.

Tina's problem and the reason she frustrates me is she misidentifies why they are cool. She thinks it must be the music or the clothing. They are cool and outside of the rest of the people at Tina's school because they are refreshingly normal and sane. That is the thing Tina is actually responding to, and I could have told her worrying about the music and the clothes is counterproductive. Those kids are cool because they talk and behave like real people instead of ill-mannered or gross cartoon characters. And stalking and hovering around that type of person is UNCOOL. Linda's means well in her advice, but she is missing the forest for the trees. Probably because Linda is so uncool herself. She can't be any help there for that reason.

I think Bob and Linda were acting TOO cool in this episode, actually. They are doing their daughter no favors by humoring her doing something this nuts. I would actually see the logic of indulging this if Tina were the type of kid who asks for so little and just this once NEEDS this. But Tina is constantly doing crap like this, as are Gene and Louise, and Bob and Linda are entirely too permissive and understanding. And that frustrates me too, especially because for the most part, Bob himself is a good parent.

Gene and Louise were revolting this episode. I give any episode where Gene creepily mentions his "wein" a negative grade on general principle. People LOVE this show, but I can't get over the fact that I seem to be the only one to complain about how gross Gene Belcher is. It's not funny or cute. It's creepy, especially with his adult voice.

So here's that negative grade for an episode that isn't terrible, but is still frustrating on every level. **1 removed link

Louise is so frustrating, especially when she puts other people in life-threatening danger for stupid narcissistic reasons. I'm sick to death of her.

But no lie. She had a good one-liner at the end about potentially selling the stinky seaweed to the government as a biological weapon. But Louise frustrates me SO much with her recklessness, selfishness, and stupidity. Not feeling this week. **.

I think Mr. Fischoeder's pranks suck. Yes, they are big. But they aren't good natured or fun. They all seem to involve dominance and fear. I don't like April Fool's because a lot of people feed into that sort of thing and it's unhealthy. If April Fool's were all sugar on eggs it would be tolerable. But a lot of people use it as license to be mean to people they don't like without consequences for it. Worst of all, the internet is absolute useless for that entire day. The holiday should be retired if only for that.

Speaking of suck, doesn't Jimmy Jr.? Can't Tina do better? I seem to keep asking this and I won't stop until she realizes she can.

Bob's prank was all right, because it WAS personal and showed that Fischoeder DOES care about him. But it's still pretty asymmetrical warfare if you ask me. Ten seconds of Fischoeder being "Dear God, not Bob!" is in no way equivalent to the amount of suffering he puts him through every year.

It was a solid plot and mystery. But it was also frustrating. Bob doesn't deserve all this and I feel bad for him. 3 1/2 stars.

When the hawk got the dove it's one of the few times the show really got real. The show doesn't deal with actual death too often (outside of the movie) even though one of the secondary characters is actually a mortician. But that bordered on appalling and I was nearly as upset as Tina was. And I was mad at her too.

All right episode. Family Guy had the night off and The Simpsons easily won the night of Fox Toons. 3 1/2 stars.