11x17 Fingers-loose

[7.6/10] I love myself a good noir takeoff. Bob’s Burgers has done this sort of thing before, and with Tina as a hall monitor no less. But it’s still a good setup and the show knows how to have fun with it. The dialogue is spot-on and just exaggerated enough to be funny while true enough to feel plai in what it’s spoofing. And Dan Mintz’s monotone-esque delivery creates an amusing contrast to the exaggeratedness of the lines.

It’s also, as my wife noted, a very weird story, but in a good way. The way the entire school gets into “Handy Prancing”, aka dressing up your hand as a character and doing a dance with it, is a strange concept to build an episode around, but a fun one. It’s a bit of a stretch that Frond knows something is up and worries that it will hinder the upcoming Wagstaff open house, but it’s a nice way to translate the underground speakeasy/femme fatale concept to, well, kids putting on shows with hand characters.

It’s also a nice character story for TIna. There’s a sense of her as a demure young girl who feels freed by her Handy Prancing character’s ability to cut loose. The metaphor is a little overstretched, but there’s a good “double life” vibe between Tina as a no-nonse hall monitor, and her hand-based avatar’s finger-tapping freewheeling energy. Tina being torn between the two makes for some nice low-stakes drama.

The resolution, with Louise mistakenly thinking that Tina ratted her out, and Tina putting on a show of her own at the open house to show support for her sister’s racket, is a pleasant one. It’s especially elegant that it inadvertently gets Mr. Frog the trip to the counseling seminar he was hoping for, absolving Tina of any wrongdoing. ANd I love the twist that Gene was the one who told Frond about the speakeasy, because he was tired of having to perform. It feels like a very noir answer to the mystery, and leads to a fun moment between siblings at the end.

Last but not least, I got some big laughs out of the B-story where Bob and Linda come up with competing ways for Teddy to sneak a burger into the movies. It didn’t always fit perfectly with the noir styligns of the A-story, and it had a lot of the same rhythms of the Spice Rack/Spice-eps competition. But honestly, I could watch Bob and Linda fight through low stakes inventions together for a hundred episodes, so no complaints here. There were plenty of laughs for Linda’s (apparently longstanding) armpit storage proposal and Bob’s confusing ingredient vest.

Overall, another quality episode for season 11, which seems to have found some of the show’s classic vibe!