[8.6/10] Now that’s more like it! Revisiting Season 2 I was starting to think that the whole (abbreviated) season might have been a dud. But this is classic Bob’s goodness. Even this early in the game, the show had important facets of the characters’ personalities nailed down, with Louise being a complete schemer, and Linda being a complete dreamer. Setting the two in opposition to one another like this was a great way to go about it.
The entire notion of Louise faking that her mom is teaching them synchronized swimming as a P.E. independent study, and then Linda finds out and actually teaches synchronized swimming is a bit sitcommy, but it’s also done pretty perfectly. Louise manipulating Mr. Frond, and taking advantage of her mom’s pliability is very much in character, and leads to some interesting conflicts. And the show plays out Louise playing on her mother’s good nature for a while before Linda gets fed up, which makes the eventually blow up more effective.
Plus, the fact that after spending the whole episode telling Linda she shouldn’t help the kids so much, Bob is enlisted in her place when the threat of the kids having to go to summer school (and thus not be able to help at the restaurant) is a nice little reversal that fits everyone’s motivations. Heck, even Linda’s pre-natal exercise routine comes back! And the pool having to be drained is one of those uniquely weird Bob’s Burgers details.
Otherwise, the B-story with Bob getting a soft-serve ice cream machine didn’t amount to much, but did lead to a number of funny moments, especially the scene where Bob was overwhelmed by the rush and demand for various forms of soft serve. And there were a surprising number of dream sequences and cutaways, from Bob’s soft-serve beach bit, to Tina getting hit by various sports balls, to Linda’s various fantasies involving Tom Selleck.
Overall, it’s a very funny and well done episode that feels like you could deposit it anywhere in Bob’s Burgers’s run and it would fit.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-02-20T04:48:53Z
[8.6/10] Now that’s more like it! Revisiting Season 2 I was starting to think that the whole (abbreviated) season might have been a dud. But this is classic Bob’s goodness. Even this early in the game, the show had important facets of the characters’ personalities nailed down, with Louise being a complete schemer, and Linda being a complete dreamer. Setting the two in opposition to one another like this was a great way to go about it.
The entire notion of Louise faking that her mom is teaching them synchronized swimming as a P.E. independent study, and then Linda finds out and actually teaches synchronized swimming is a bit sitcommy, but it’s also done pretty perfectly. Louise manipulating Mr. Frond, and taking advantage of her mom’s pliability is very much in character, and leads to some interesting conflicts. And the show plays out Louise playing on her mother’s good nature for a while before Linda gets fed up, which makes the eventually blow up more effective.
Plus, the fact that after spending the whole episode telling Linda she shouldn’t help the kids so much, Bob is enlisted in her place when the threat of the kids having to go to summer school (and thus not be able to help at the restaurant) is a nice little reversal that fits everyone’s motivations. Heck, even Linda’s pre-natal exercise routine comes back! And the pool having to be drained is one of those uniquely weird Bob’s Burgers details.
Otherwise, the B-story with Bob getting a soft-serve ice cream machine didn’t amount to much, but did lead to a number of funny moments, especially the scene where Bob was overwhelmed by the rush and demand for various forms of soft serve. And there were a surprising number of dream sequences and cutaways, from Bob’s soft-serve beach bit, to Tina getting hit by various sports balls, to Linda’s various fantasies involving Tom Selleck.
Overall, it’s a very funny and well done episode that feels like you could deposit it anywhere in Bob’s Burgers’s run and it would fit.