[7.0/10] Not a bad episode. The A-story was a little muddled. I get that Bob didn’t want to go to the restaurant liquidation auction because he was worried about it rearing up his own fear of failure, but meeting the guy whose family’s restaurant failed didn’t do much to dramatize that. It’s always nice to have Richard King on board, but it felt like we were waiting for the moment that Bob realized he was a good cook who liked his job and knew what to do, unlike this guy who wasn’t following his dream and wasn’t actually good at cooking. But that moment never really came.
Meanwhile, apart from the emotional arc material, the auction hijinks weren’t much to write home about. Trying to wheel a flat-top grill out wasn’t much of a story engine, and Bob’s little song didn’t do much for me either. There were some good comic interactions with the kids, and a few good lines and gags (I especially liked the “Pepper” swerve), but overall it never rose above “pretty good.”
I did like the B-story a little better though. Linda and Teddy going a little nuts with the food dye for St. Paddy’s day is the right type of low stakes side story to have fun with here. There’s a nice progression from them being unable to sell the green burgers, to giving them out as samples to the drunks as a last ditch effort, to bringing a whole heap of customers back to the restaurant because of it. It even ties together nicely with Bob’s story.
My favorite part of the episode was probably the St. Paddy’s day humor. The running gags about everyone just being glad for the excuse to turn things green and not really understanding the spirit of the day or anything about the Irish was a hilarious bit of small satire. And dumb gags like “erin go butt” and Tina’s “gone brogue” line got a laugh out of me.
Overall, the B-story comes out ahead on this one, but there’s enough chuckles in the A-story to pull it into being a good episode.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2020-03-30T01:01:18Z
[7.0/10] Not a bad episode. The A-story was a little muddled. I get that Bob didn’t want to go to the restaurant liquidation auction because he was worried about it rearing up his own fear of failure, but meeting the guy whose family’s restaurant failed didn’t do much to dramatize that. It’s always nice to have Richard King on board, but it felt like we were waiting for the moment that Bob realized he was a good cook who liked his job and knew what to do, unlike this guy who wasn’t following his dream and wasn’t actually good at cooking. But that moment never really came.
Meanwhile, apart from the emotional arc material, the auction hijinks weren’t much to write home about. Trying to wheel a flat-top grill out wasn’t much of a story engine, and Bob’s little song didn’t do much for me either. There were some good comic interactions with the kids, and a few good lines and gags (I especially liked the “Pepper” swerve), but overall it never rose above “pretty good.”
I did like the B-story a little better though. Linda and Teddy going a little nuts with the food dye for St. Paddy’s day is the right type of low stakes side story to have fun with here. There’s a nice progression from them being unable to sell the green burgers, to giving them out as samples to the drunks as a last ditch effort, to bringing a whole heap of customers back to the restaurant because of it. It even ties together nicely with Bob’s story.
My favorite part of the episode was probably the St. Paddy’s day humor. The running gags about everyone just being glad for the excuse to turn things green and not really understanding the spirit of the day or anything about the Irish was a hilarious bit of small satire. And dumb gags like “erin go butt” and Tina’s “gone brogue” line got a laugh out of me.
Overall, the B-story comes out ahead on this one, but there’s enough chuckles in the A-story to pull it into being a good episode.