[7.310] This was a...weird episode. Not just because of the subject matter. Linda getting caught for public defecation is a little odd, but not that crazy relative to some other Bob’s Burgers plots. What’s weird is the context.
I get that the tension is that Linda just gave a big speech to the kids, who just got out of detention, for not following the rules, only to find herself detained by the police (it’s her own detention, get it!) But it’s a weird comparison, because the kids were clearly making mischief, while Linda...had the runs and found that all local bathrooms and areas of privacy were either closed down or full of people? There’s something in the calculus of the aesop’s fable of the episode that doesn’t doesn’t work, and it makes this one play as pretty weird.
By the same token, there’s not a lot of laughs to be had from the kids fears of potential punishments or attempts to be extra good so they don’t get punished. The fear that the TV will be removed is relatable (it’s a punishment I dealt with as a kid), but it mostly plays like setup to the episode’s moral, which itself feels miscalibrated. Linda was worried that the kids wouldn’t respect her, and the kids were worried Linda would severely punish them, only for it to turn out that Linda’s brief stay in jail only improved their level of respect for her.
It’s...something? I don’t know if the moral about not being perfect but striving to follow the rules and do your best really tracks with the adventure we see here. But it’s OK I suppose. This one feels more like an excuse to tell a loopy story bent to fit a vaguely uplifting moral than one that organically emerges from it.
That said, what really lifts this one up is Bob’s story. I love the humor of him just wandering around town, trying to get the eighteen bucks necessary to pay Linda’s fine and spring her. His misadventures at the ATM, trying to cash a check at the grocery store, and trying to hock an old CD player are all reflective of the show’s hilarious sense of humor. His interactions with Teddy are just as good, between the cajoling over coming to see Teddy’s improv show in implicit exchange for a small loan, and Teddy’s assumption that Linda’s crime must have been something lovely like “stealing a cloud.”
Overall, this one feels strange, even by Bob’s Burgers standards, with a Linda moral that doesn’t quite add up, but the shtick with Bob helps win the day.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-03-24T23:44:17Z
[7.310] This was a...weird episode. Not just because of the subject matter. Linda getting caught for public defecation is a little odd, but not that crazy relative to some other Bob’s Burgers plots. What’s weird is the context.
I get that the tension is that Linda just gave a big speech to the kids, who just got out of detention, for not following the rules, only to find herself detained by the police (it’s her own detention, get it!) But it’s a weird comparison, because the kids were clearly making mischief, while Linda...had the runs and found that all local bathrooms and areas of privacy were either closed down or full of people? There’s something in the calculus of the aesop’s fable of the episode that doesn’t doesn’t work, and it makes this one play as pretty weird.
By the same token, there’s not a lot of laughs to be had from the kids fears of potential punishments or attempts to be extra good so they don’t get punished. The fear that the TV will be removed is relatable (it’s a punishment I dealt with as a kid), but it mostly plays like setup to the episode’s moral, which itself feels miscalibrated. Linda was worried that the kids wouldn’t respect her, and the kids were worried Linda would severely punish them, only for it to turn out that Linda’s brief stay in jail only improved their level of respect for her.
It’s...something? I don’t know if the moral about not being perfect but striving to follow the rules and do your best really tracks with the adventure we see here. But it’s OK I suppose. This one feels more like an excuse to tell a loopy story bent to fit a vaguely uplifting moral than one that organically emerges from it.
That said, what really lifts this one up is Bob’s story. I love the humor of him just wandering around town, trying to get the eighteen bucks necessary to pay Linda’s fine and spring her. His misadventures at the ATM, trying to cash a check at the grocery store, and trying to hock an old CD player are all reflective of the show’s hilarious sense of humor. His interactions with Teddy are just as good, between the cajoling over coming to see Teddy’s improv show in implicit exchange for a small loan, and Teddy’s assumption that Linda’s crime must have been something lovely like “stealing a cloud.”
Overall, this one feels strange, even by Bob’s Burgers standards, with a Linda moral that doesn’t quite add up, but the shtick with Bob helps win the day.