[8.2/10] Four vignettes, each of them good, all set within the same location. We’ve seen Bob’s’ Burgers pull off this sort of trick before, but this was a superb rendition of the form.
My favorite of the four stories was Tgina’s While You Were Sleeping riff. The way her simple act of trying to sit next to a “mall doll” on a bench escalated into desperate efforts to convince and then unconvince people that he was her boyfriend was fantastic. It’s the sort of mundane lunacy that the series specializes in, and it paid of comic dividend. Tina trying to explain her and her “boyfriend” protesting a barbecue restaurant, or Tammy and Jocelyn trying to upstage her with 11-year-old arcade nerd mall boyfriends, or the return of Robert Smigel’s water-squirting, sneakers-planting security guard were all big laughs. This was an especially good Tina story, as her usual impulses to tell the truth but to also not be embarrassed and seem cool come into conflict in hilarious ways. There’s tons of great lines here, and the situation walks the line between bizarre and down to Earth in that perfect Bob’s Burgers fashion.
My least favorite of the stories was probably Bob buying pants on his own. It’s not bad,just kind of insubstantial. Him running into Sgt. Bosco as a grim reminder of what solo clothes shopping cn be like for a middle aged man is a solid bit, but the jokes only have one gear. Still, plenty of chuckles though.
Linda’s story is firmly in the middle. It too is fairly insubstantial (just her annoying a local mystery book writer), but the jokes are better. For one thing, we laughed like hell at the wordplay of “Death Cabernet for Cutie”. For another, Linda’s gasps and hiccups at the public reading of his latest novel were outstanding. And I love that for all Linda’s occasional spaciness, she immediately guesses the killers from the first chapter. It’s not much, but it’s still a nice little showcase for how hilarious Linda is as a character.
Last but not least is Gene and Louise’s Speed-like escapade on some animal-themed scooters. (Was this whole episode a series of riffs on Sandra Bullock movies and I just missed the references for Bob and Linda’s stories?) Gene’s one-liners and Louise’s sarcasm usually makes for a great comic mix, and this was no exception. At the same time, the runaway cat-a-gator situation made for a surprisingly exciting action set piece with Louise preventing it from running into a ceramics store. More thrills than you normally expect from this show, but they were amusingly low stakes and very welcome.
Overall, this is the show running on all cylinders comedically and finding great things for each of the Belchers to do. A definite winner in my book.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2019-12-01T18:58:10Z
[8.2/10] Four vignettes, each of them good, all set within the same location. We’ve seen Bob’s’ Burgers pull off this sort of trick before, but this was a superb rendition of the form.
My favorite of the four stories was Tgina’s While You Were Sleeping riff. The way her simple act of trying to sit next to a “mall doll” on a bench escalated into desperate efforts to convince and then unconvince people that he was her boyfriend was fantastic. It’s the sort of mundane lunacy that the series specializes in, and it paid of comic dividend. Tina trying to explain her and her “boyfriend” protesting a barbecue restaurant, or Tammy and Jocelyn trying to upstage her with 11-year-old arcade nerd mall boyfriends, or the return of Robert Smigel’s water-squirting, sneakers-planting security guard were all big laughs. This was an especially good Tina story, as her usual impulses to tell the truth but to also not be embarrassed and seem cool come into conflict in hilarious ways. There’s tons of great lines here, and the situation walks the line between bizarre and down to Earth in that perfect Bob’s Burgers fashion.
My least favorite of the stories was probably Bob buying pants on his own. It’s not bad,just kind of insubstantial. Him running into Sgt. Bosco as a grim reminder of what solo clothes shopping cn be like for a middle aged man is a solid bit, but the jokes only have one gear. Still, plenty of chuckles though.
Linda’s story is firmly in the middle. It too is fairly insubstantial (just her annoying a local mystery book writer), but the jokes are better. For one thing, we laughed like hell at the wordplay of “Death Cabernet for Cutie”. For another, Linda’s gasps and hiccups at the public reading of his latest novel were outstanding. And I love that for all Linda’s occasional spaciness, she immediately guesses the killers from the first chapter. It’s not much, but it’s still a nice little showcase for how hilarious Linda is as a character.
Last but not least is Gene and Louise’s Speed-like escapade on some animal-themed scooters. (Was this whole episode a series of riffs on Sandra Bullock movies and I just missed the references for Bob and Linda’s stories?) Gene’s one-liners and Louise’s sarcasm usually makes for a great comic mix, and this was no exception. At the same time, the runaway cat-a-gator situation made for a surprisingly exciting action set piece with Louise preventing it from running into a ceramics store. More thrills than you normally expect from this show, but they were amusingly low stakes and very welcome.
Overall, this is the show running on all cylinders comedically and finding great things for each of the Belchers to do. A definite winner in my book.