[8.2/10] I really enjoyed this one. The A-story has all kinds of humor and heart. Linda and Gene have such a close relationship (weirdly close, to be quite honest), and I like both of them reaching epiphanies about it when Linda joining a six-week “women in business” group disrupts her spa-turdays with Gene.
For Linda, it’s the realization that she needs to do some things that are just for her. As Bob puts it, Linda needs time to be things other than a mom, and I like Linda getting over her guilt of not spending every minute of every day with Gene and Bob supporting and encouraging her to have a life apart from the family when she wants to. Likewise, Gene understanding that he too needs to “grow and change” is a good beat for the kid, who’s especially needy and unreasonable here.
Despite all that, the jokes in this portion of the episode are very funny. There’s a lot of cute gags about Linda and Gene’s various weekly (daily?) plans together. Bob subbing in for Linda as part of “Spa-turday” is really funny. And the women at the business conference get plenty of yuks too, especially Edith. (Her grousing about being too nice cracked me up.)
The B-story was less substantive but even more hilarious. I love Tina and Louise getting fixated on “Ham & Egger”, a shameless Rocky knockoff. The absurdity of the spoof tickled my funny bone (especially Ham-n-Egger punching giant spools of string). Tina and Louise’s interactions as they try to get into boxing are a hoot. (I loved Louise aspiring to get out of their house and Tina responding, “It’s modest, but it’s ours.”) Bob was in rare form there too, lamenting that his kids are more invested in the knockoff than the better film series and trying to teach them to box after his one week of lessons more than a decade ago. And their efforts to rise to the challenge like Ham-n-Egger to make Teddy the world’s sorriest looking burger was a hoot.
All-in-all, I’m impressed that Bob’s Burgers is still putting out episodes of this quality in its eleventh year, with a sincere but funny Linda/Gene story taking center stage, but a hilarious lark of a comic relief subplot occupying the rest of the cast. Another winner.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2021-02-13T07:25:19Z
[8.2/10] I really enjoyed this one. The A-story has all kinds of humor and heart. Linda and Gene have such a close relationship (weirdly close, to be quite honest), and I like both of them reaching epiphanies about it when Linda joining a six-week “women in business” group disrupts her spa-turdays with Gene.
For Linda, it’s the realization that she needs to do some things that are just for her. As Bob puts it, Linda needs time to be things other than a mom, and I like Linda getting over her guilt of not spending every minute of every day with Gene and Bob supporting and encouraging her to have a life apart from the family when she wants to. Likewise, Gene understanding that he too needs to “grow and change” is a good beat for the kid, who’s especially needy and unreasonable here.
Despite all that, the jokes in this portion of the episode are very funny. There’s a lot of cute gags about Linda and Gene’s various weekly (daily?) plans together. Bob subbing in for Linda as part of “Spa-turday” is really funny. And the women at the business conference get plenty of yuks too, especially Edith. (Her grousing about being too nice cracked me up.)
The B-story was less substantive but even more hilarious. I love Tina and Louise getting fixated on “Ham & Egger”, a shameless Rocky knockoff. The absurdity of the spoof tickled my funny bone (especially Ham-n-Egger punching giant spools of string). Tina and Louise’s interactions as they try to get into boxing are a hoot. (I loved Louise aspiring to get out of their house and Tina responding, “It’s modest, but it’s ours.”) Bob was in rare form there too, lamenting that his kids are more invested in the knockoff than the better film series and trying to teach them to box after his one week of lessons more than a decade ago. And their efforts to rise to the challenge like Ham-n-Egger to make Teddy the world’s sorriest looking burger was a hoot.
All-in-all, I’m impressed that Bob’s Burgers is still putting out episodes of this quality in its eleventh year, with a sincere but funny Linda/Gene story taking center stage, but a hilarious lark of a comic relief subplot occupying the rest of the cast. Another winner.