[7.0/10] Not bad by any stretch, but lacking some of that Bob’s Burgers holiday magic. The story of the Belchers being stranded in a remote mountain cabin over Xmas has potential, but “The Nightmare 2 Days Before Christmas” doesn't do much with it.
Linda’s obsession with transporting the tree to their temporary new abode has precedent, given how gaga she goes over holidays and how fixated she gets on certain parts of them, but her willingness to risk life and limb for a tree is a little much even for her. There’s not a lot of comedy to it, and her driving on wet roads and spending hours trying to get a tree up a steep hill seems insane even by Linda Belcher standards.
Charitably, I think the intention is for the tree to be a metaphor for the Belchers’ first Xmas away from home since the kids were born. Linda’s used to having things a certain way, and that has sentimental meaning for her. Her struggling to push that tree up the hill, even knowing deep down that it's impossible, is a metaphor for her trying to make their mountain cabin Xmas the same as their usual home Xmas, even though that's impossible. So her being willing to say goodbye to the tree and spend time with her babies is a deeper acknowledgement. I can appreciate that.
In practice though, it plays as a little nuts, and we don’t really get enough connective tissue between inner thought and outward actions in my book. And given how unhinged Linda seems about this, and how real the dangers feel, there’s not a lot of humor to it either.
The other subplots in the episode are perfectly cromulent. Louise worrying that Santa won’t know where to find them and trying to spell out their surname in the snow is cute and worth a few chuckles. Bob trying to make the best of the situation, while managing the creepy insanity of the Fischoeders’ hunting lodge leads to some solid laughs as well. The episode does end on a note of sweetness, with the kids making Linda a substitute tree out of odds and ends in the lodge, and even covering up the creepy painting that'd been unnerving Bob in a cheeky, Belcher kid sort of way.
Overall, not one of Bob’s Burgers’ stand out Xmas episodes, but certainly one with a few charms to offer.
This episode was very stressful.
Shout by TikiWhoVIP 2BlockedParent2023-12-21T01:56:31Z
Surprisingly touching, but for some reason I had trouble buying Linda’s obsession with the tree.