8.9/10. Well, it's official. Bob's Burgers is the king of Thanksgiving episodes. I'm certainly can't think of another show that's so consistently put out such great Turkey Day shows, and this year is an especially fun one.
It goes with a familiar formula for Bob's Burgers, with an A-story featuring the kids getting into some kind of misadventure at the school and a B-story with Linda, Bob, and a minor appearance from Teddy dealing with some bit of weirdness back at the restaurant. I think the show goes back to it so often because it very clearly works, and the adult/kid divide, with their respective natural habitats, gives everyone lots to do.
I loved the A-story, which featured Louise scheming to get a half-day before Thanksgiving, and deciding to supersede Mr. Frond's annual Turkey Day play with one so bad that he'll have no choice but to shut it down and let them out. She picks her sister's "The Quirky Turkey" fable, which Tina doesn't know until the end of the second act was chosen for its ruinous potential.
The whole Producers-esque plan to put on a play so bad it'll get them out of school is, as Mel Brooks proved twice over, rife with comic potential that the episode capitalized on. The effort to put on the play gave the denizens of Wagstaff plenty of ways to make the (real life) audience laugh, from Louise buttering up Frond by making him the Executive Producer (her cutting off his speech at the play was a big laugh), to Jocelyn explaining that she thinks harmony is "when I sing louder than you," to Zeke referring to Tina as "Tina-see Williams" in a bit of typically stellar Bob's Burgers worldplay. There's lots of laughs here (including Louise's line that it was hard to get people to sell bags of gizzards and giblets to a nine-year old) that keeps things light.
But the emotional contingent of the story, while not overwhelming, is very effective as well. You feel for Tina trying to tell her story and realizing her sister only wants to use it for shock value. (Her line "I feel like my soul has diarrhea" is appropriately graphic in describing that feeling.) And while Louise's change of heart after spraying the audience with turkey entrails is rather rushed and only mildly motivated, her eventual sticking up for her sister, and Tina winning over the crowd with her heartfelt song about having the (literal and figurative!) guts to be yourself is a nice way to end it. The episode captures the ramshackle school play feeling in every moment, and the slightly more polished version at the end is a treat as well.
There's nothing really emotionally potent about the B-story, which in a bizarre but perfectly Linda twist, is about the Belcher matriarch discovering a potato that has the face, and to her thinking, spirit of her grandfather, but it's hilarious nonetheless. Bob and Linda work well as a comedic pairing because Linda is so out there, and Bob is kind of bewilded but generally supportive of the lunacy, which adds up to something sweet but random every time. Teddy's guileless support for all of Linda's wacky theories is always welcome, and Bob rejecting the potato but then bringing it to the performance is an obvious but nonetheless funny and kind of cute way to end it.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2016-12-08T02:43:30Z
8.9/10. Well, it's official. Bob's Burgers is the king of Thanksgiving episodes. I'm certainly can't think of another show that's so consistently put out such great Turkey Day shows, and this year is an especially fun one.
It goes with a familiar formula for Bob's Burgers, with an A-story featuring the kids getting into some kind of misadventure at the school and a B-story with Linda, Bob, and a minor appearance from Teddy dealing with some bit of weirdness back at the restaurant. I think the show goes back to it so often because it very clearly works, and the adult/kid divide, with their respective natural habitats, gives everyone lots to do.
I loved the A-story, which featured Louise scheming to get a half-day before Thanksgiving, and deciding to supersede Mr. Frond's annual Turkey Day play with one so bad that he'll have no choice but to shut it down and let them out. She picks her sister's "The Quirky Turkey" fable, which Tina doesn't know until the end of the second act was chosen for its ruinous potential.
The whole Producers-esque plan to put on a play so bad it'll get them out of school is, as Mel Brooks proved twice over, rife with comic potential that the episode capitalized on. The effort to put on the play gave the denizens of Wagstaff plenty of ways to make the (real life) audience laugh, from Louise buttering up Frond by making him the Executive Producer (her cutting off his speech at the play was a big laugh), to Jocelyn explaining that she thinks harmony is "when I sing louder than you," to Zeke referring to Tina as "Tina-see Williams" in a bit of typically stellar Bob's Burgers worldplay. There's lots of laughs here (including Louise's line that it was hard to get people to sell bags of gizzards and giblets to a nine-year old) that keeps things light.
But the emotional contingent of the story, while not overwhelming, is very effective as well. You feel for Tina trying to tell her story and realizing her sister only wants to use it for shock value. (Her line "I feel like my soul has diarrhea" is appropriately graphic in describing that feeling.) And while Louise's change of heart after spraying the audience with turkey entrails is rather rushed and only mildly motivated, her eventual sticking up for her sister, and Tina winning over the crowd with her heartfelt song about having the (literal and figurative!) guts to be yourself is a nice way to end it. The episode captures the ramshackle school play feeling in every moment, and the slightly more polished version at the end is a treat as well.
There's nothing really emotionally potent about the B-story, which in a bizarre but perfectly Linda twist, is about the Belcher matriarch discovering a potato that has the face, and to her thinking, spirit of her grandfather, but it's hilarious nonetheless. Bob and Linda work well as a comedic pairing because Linda is so out there, and Bob is kind of bewilded but generally supportive of the lunacy, which adds up to something sweet but random every time. Teddy's guileless support for all of Linda's wacky theories is always welcome, and Bob rejecting the potato but then bringing it to the performance is an obvious but nonetheless funny and kind of cute way to end it.
Overall, it's another Bob's Burgers instant Thanksgiving classic. Keep 'em comin', Bob!