Bob's Burgers

I was mostly annoyed by that. And yeah, Gene IS super annoying. And Louise is annoying. And Linda is annoying. You see my problem? Are you sensing a theme?

Sigh. Not great. **.

God, I hate every Louise episode. I don't usually hate the character, but when she's the focus of the episode I always do. She is SO freaking stupid and selfish and annoying and wants stupid and pointless things and doesn't care about anybody else. I'm tired of it and her.

When Bob's Burgers first came out I was little worried creatively. I feared Louise Belcher might be stealing a little thunder from my kid Gilda And Meek character Bernadette Anderson. That worry has evaporated. Bernadette is superior to Louise in every single respect. Just because of episodes like this.

I'll tell you what I liked. Jane Lynch voicing Carol. If there's one thing in particular we can hate Glee for (and there are a ton of things about it to hate) the thing I resent the most is the fact that because of it, Jane Lynch got typecast, and now almost exclusively plays b words and hardass bullies. She used to be a versatile player in Christopher Guest movies who could do pretty much anything. Now they have her hosting the Weakest Link, which is like the cringiest idea I could ever envision for a comedian / actor that talented. I like Carol because she's funny, and shocker NICE. And Lynch can play that no sweat. Screw Glee. Seriously. Lynch's career deserved SO much better.

Louise worked my last nerve this episode. *1 removed link

I loved it. What I appreciate most is that the people in the flashback were different characters with different voices. A lesser show would have had the Belcher family populating the story Bob tells. And maybe that specific thing impressed me because usually in situations like that they DO use the family for the stand-ins in question. It was felt like an actual piece of family history for that reason.

Also should point out the struggle in the climax was unusually exceptionally animated. They upped their game for that big time. Animation doesn't matter much on this show. But on a rare occasion it did, they just freaking went for it.

Great episode. ****1/2.

Linda is one of the most popular characters on the show but I have never liked her. Episodes like this are the reason why.

Invariably every week I will complain that either Gene, Louie, or Tina are obsessed with a stupid, pointless thing and suddenly the entire family has to be ALL about it. That specific character flaw is something all three learned from their mess of a mother. And it's not funny. It's uncomfortable and it actually makes me angry.

Not good. The Great North won the week of Fox toons. * removed link

I loved it. It was wonderful. I thought the ending was very moving and yeah, I did not envy that jerk Wayne having to follow Louise's amazing report. I especially love how straight the episode title is and how it's not a bad pun for once. Occasionally the show really decides to Go For It, and this definitely qualified.

Drool aside, Linda was being a good mom in this episode, which I liked because it's not exactly typical. And I felt Louise's struggle in picking a hero who actually failed. And she someone made the report about how that failure might have been a success and we just will never know.

The episode where Louise does a report that actually mattered to her earlier in the season was another great episode in this vein. I feel like from now on the show should focus on nothing but Louise doing reports. It brought the goods for both episodes. *****.

Mostly awful. I loved Linda and Louise's scene at the end where Linda assures her she'll be the toughest little cutie in prison, but I hate the fact that Bob and Linda can assign the kids chores, and they think they can veto the idea. I freaking hate that.

Part of me likes and respects how down-to-Earth and fair Bob and Linda are to these problematic kids. But there is such a thing as a parent being TOO cool and understanding. Bob and Linda let those kids walk all over them and it's annoying.

When I said the episode was mostly awful, I think that really came down to the Western stuff. Even for this show's fictionalized storytelling it was pretty bad.

Not good. 1 1/2 stars.

Kudos to the show for understanding Regular-Sized Rudy can carry an episode.

A lot of very very sad and moving moments before he gets the Belchers. What's cool is it makes you understand why the character shows up when he sees the Belchers places. Their dynamic is attractive to him. I'm wondering if that's why other characters show up too.

My favorite part was Louise saying she was going to walk Rudy back to the restaurant. I give Louise a lot of crap, but I love that she instinctively knows Rudy needs moral support and decides that's her role for the evening. Better yet, she doesn't make a federal case out of it which shows she's a good friend.

Pretty amazing episode, I think. 5 stars.

I can't stand Gretchen. It's not just that's she's annoying, or that she's a hindrance in everything she does. Her biggest problem is that she's gross. And it's kind of an ugly look to have that specific character voiced by a man. There is a transphobic element to that that I don't necessarily feel for Linda or Tina. Although admittedly, sometimes I do.

I love when Linda says older sisters make mistakes to show younger sisters it's okay, Louise says to Tina, "So THAT'S what you've been doing this whole time." Makes about much sense as anything else. Another great Louise line was her saying Tina looked like the dog locked out of the tennis ball store.

Honestly, it's a Gretchen episode so it's gross and annoying. Shocker, I don't love that. 2 stars.

Bob's Burgers usually tends to be responsible for some of my shorter reviews so I will note that it IS unusual that I will have a LOT to say this week. Some of it actually about the episode.

I am the King of lucid dreamers. Like the fact that I see letters and numbers in color because of my synesthesia, I've been able to have them all my life, and always assumed everyone else did too. I didn't realize it was rare until later in life. I never trained myself. I'll tell you a few things about the experience for those of you who don't have them.

That journal idea? That strikes me as unnecessary. How do I lucid dream? When there is something in a dream that I find weird or unbelievable, my dumb dream self will often believe it anyways. Not always though. When I don't, I suspect I'm dreaming. How can I prove it?

The trick for me is to find a book or a sign and read it. Batman: The Animated Series' "Perchance To Dream" claimed that you can't read in dreams, and while that's technically incorrect, it's HARD to read in dreams, and if you attempt it, you'll automatically know if you are dreaming or not.

I find I can read something in a dream fine ONCE. The trick is looking away from the book / sign, looking back, and rereading it. The words and letters will be jumbled. If they aren't, it will still read something different. Every damn time. You don't need to put in the work of a journal by your bed every night. Try reading the journal in your dream. Then you'll know.

For me, even when I know I'm dreaming, dreams are often VERY hard to control. I am also very susceptible to night terrors, and lucid dreaming always eases them because I know what I'm experiencing isn't real. And if it's REALLY bad anyways, I can wake myself up. As for controlling non-nightmares? My record there is spotty, as are my dream sexual conquests. I have more control over what I do, but I don't necessarily have control of the dream itself. Once in awhile I do, and those are good nights (and some of them are sexy). But knowing I'm dreaming is only half of it.

What else can I tell you? As a writer of fiction I can confirm Gene's horror that a work of creativity (like in my case a story) being thought up during a dream, that you believe is brilliant upon waking, but instantly put to paper is always without fail, terrible. No matter how entertaining it was when you were asleep. Your sleeping self is beyond lowbrow. It's not just that your subconscious has low standards. For your subconscious standards don't actually exist. That is strictly a waking world phenomena. If you are dreaming of coming up with a great story or song, and if you inevitably ARE stubborn enough to write it down before you forget it upon waking, it's gonna suck. Every damn time.

What is there to say about the episode? I have mentioned how much I dislike Gene before, but I don't think the writers understand why I dislike him as much as I do. They give him flaws to make him seem funny but I find they make him contemptible instead. Like the whole idea that he has an obsession with becoming a musician, but not only is he someone without any talent (which can be overcome with practice) but he's lazy and refuses to put in any work. He believes a musical career should be handed to him, despite him being unable to read music, not knowing the first thing about it, or even how to play a real instrument. Lisa's sax resonate because of the heart and soul she pours into it. Gene is obsessed with a thing he clearly doesn't give a damn about deep down. And I find it quite insulting to musicians who DO work hard and care about their craft and take it seriously, and play a more serious instrument than a farting keyboard. Gene's sense of entitlement about it works on my last damn nerve, and besides the fact that the little creep is always talking about his penis, is probably the other thing that I loathe most about him.

The cricket stuff was a subplot in search of a funny take. About the best that could be said was I laughed at Tina yelling out to it that she believes in it and it should follow its dreams. That is a weird-ass joke and the kind of weird-ass joke you'd only hear on Bob's Burgers.

For the record when Bob tells Gene he would take his father's advice about the perfect burger and just forget it, I don't know who he thinks he's fooling. He would do the exact DAMN opposite and throw an even bigger existential tantrum than Gene is having. Because Bob is actually a talented burger cook and Gene is a waste of space. He isn't kidding me.

Linda is a better parent than I would be. Every single time Louise tries to up her price, Linda calls her bluff and refuses. And maybe if Louise walked away from the table in a huff she'd have more room to negotiate, but they both know Louise wants and needs that five dollars, and they both DON'T know they exist in a world without pre-Covid inflation. What a nice world that must be. Also, fictional. Were I Linda I woulda haggled just because five bucks to save a hundred dollar exterminator visit seems a bit ridiculous. But again, she's a better parent than I would be, and is handling it like a pro, and treating her own child like the unforgiving slave-driven chattel successful parents always abuse their children as. It builds character! Fun!

Yeah, I don't usually spare that many paragraphs for this show. Oh, The Simpsons won Fox Toons tonight for those keeping score (Family Guy was a rerun and I don't watch the other show with "Crap" in the title because learning how to spell it correctly seems to be more effort than a show with that title would be worth). 3 1/2 stars.

Eric Bauza was the right choice to be the new voice of Jimmy Pesto.

Even if he only sounded a LITTLE like the character (and he actually sounded a LOT like him) I would have picked him anyways. I sort of mentioned this elsewhere but I think it needs to be said over and over again. I think Eric Bauza is the greatest cartoon voice actor of all time. Bold opinion, but I think it's true. Both Mel Blanc and Seth MacFarlane are legends as well, but I think Bauza has surpassed both them and every other voice actor that ever existed by doing a talent nobody else can (Frank Welker also is another rare voice actor who is irreplaceable, in his case for animal sounds). But while Bauza has voiced some characters that I can tell it's him (notably his Japanese Samurai-style characters) Bauza has the unheard of gift to so completely disappear into a role that just as often as not I only found out he was the voice from the end credits.

The mystery stunt recasting that nobody could figure out? Bauza or bust! His Jimmy Pesto literally sound nothing like him or his other characters. And this is a talent I have only ever heard HIM pull off. No matter how different the voices are for Blanc and MacFarlane's casts, I hear them in every single character they do. No matter who or how different they are, there's a baseline. For Bauza that baseline does not exist. He so perfectly is able to camouflage his performance nobody would have known it was him until they read the end credits. PERFECT person to recast in the mystery role. Because I'm willing to bet NOBODY guessed it was him because he sounds like NONE of his other characters.

As for Zeke being a former bully, I find it believable because Zeke is incredibly aggressive. I could imagine that being mistaken for that and Zeke being too much of a coward to do anything but roll with it. But despite him being aggressive, Zeke paradoxically has no ill intentions. Which is why his aggression is always so uncomfortable to me. I think it's a good plotline, because both of those ideas fit the Zeke as we currently know him. I thought that was really well done.

Bob would rather be him than Jimmy Pesto. Well, I'd rather Eric Bauza is Jimmy Pesto than Jay Johnston. So there. 4 stars.

It should be noted Linda is less an expert on what to do at a cocktail party, and more of an expert at what NOT to do. Each of these hot mess scenarios sound like something she's personally done at some point.

Mr. Fischoeder is an annoying character because all of the bad things he causes are always entirely unnecessary. Bob's reactions to them are funny, but it grates after a dozen seasons.

I'll tell you something. The horror movie stuff on the island was well-boarded and animated. I noticed that because the show almost never is.

I feel like this episode thinks it's funnier than it is. 3 stars.

Oh, Bob. If only all our Midlife Crises could be resolved that easily.

Andy and Ollie's thing about the potty parts tells me how weird those kids are.

I'm glad Linda saved the raccoon, but Linda is such a frustrating character to me because of how outright stupid she is. The raccoon she considers a mascot was injured, so she called animal control and thought that was the same thing as a vet. A lot of Linda's problems wouldn't occur at all if she weren't so stupid. This is a trait she's passed onto all three of her children, by the way. But it's most evident for Linda herself (although Gene is no rocket scientist either).

Pretty good week. 3 1/2 stars.

Louise again getting the kids in trouble because she's stupid. Gene does not help.

Also have to point out that when they are in trouble they can't stop acting weird and off-putting and scaring people away from helping them. Tina's creepiness is equally at fault there.

I like Pop-Pop. I loved that he suggested if they didn't find the kids he had dibs on the stuffed gorilla. Just the fact that he wanted it makes me like him.

I love the woman in the restaurant played by Merrin Dungey. She's shocked "the guy is right there" and then asks not to be left alone with Teddy. I don't take good pictures either (which is why you can't find pictures of Matt Zimmer on the internet) but that's a whole 'nother level.

The rides keep falling apart and Bob is maybe wondering if a potential ride ban for the kids might actually be a good thing. Seeing that? Yeah, probably.

It was good(ish) but the kids sometimes REALLY annoy me. 3 stars.

It is not lost on me that that was better than every single one of Brendan Small's movies on Home Movies. Brendan and Louise need to meet. NOW.

I thought they were going with an angle that this was a prank on Louise to get her to tell the truth about the scam archery videos. But it being a planned part of the movie instead was MUCH better. It shows the idea that Louise is able to turn her weaknesses into strengths. Which is good because I often feel the character is too stubborn and stupid.

I love the tone of voice Gene says about Bob, "This guy. You give him a role and he gives you notes." Man, I laughed at that.

Better than I expected it to be. By far. 4 1/2 stars.

Linda is her own worst enemy. I'd feel worse for her if she wasn't so stupid.

It's weird how moving Bob telling her over the phone how he doesn't want her to die is. He didn't intend the message to be that, but it was. Also, don't forget the flour.

Equal parts sweet and annoying. Classic Linda. 3 1/2 stars.