8.9/10. Well, it's official. Bob's Burgers is the king of Thanksgiving episodes. I'm certainly can't think of another show that's so consistently put out such great Turkey Day shows, and this year is an especially fun one.
It goes with a familiar formula for Bob's Burgers, with an A-story featuring the kids getting into some kind of misadventure at the school and a B-story with Linda, Bob, and a minor appearance from Teddy dealing with some bit of weirdness back at the restaurant. I think the show goes back to it so often because it very clearly works, and the adult/kid divide, with their respective natural habitats, gives everyone lots to do.
I loved the A-story, which featured Louise scheming to get a half-day before Thanksgiving, and deciding to supersede Mr. Frond's annual Turkey Day play with one so bad that he'll have no choice but to shut it down and let them out. She picks her sister's "The Quirky Turkey" fable, which Tina doesn't know until the end of the second act was chosen for its ruinous potential.
The whole Producers-esque plan to put on a play so bad it'll get them out of school is, as Mel Brooks proved twice over, rife with comic potential that the episode capitalized on. The effort to put on the play gave the denizens of Wagstaff plenty of ways to make the (real life) audience laugh, from Louise buttering up Frond by making him the Executive Producer (her cutting off his speech at the play was a big laugh), to Jocelyn explaining that she thinks harmony is "when I sing louder than you," to Zeke referring to Tina as "Tina-see Williams" in a bit of typically stellar Bob's Burgers worldplay. There's lots of laughs here (including Louise's line that it was hard to get people to sell bags of gizzards and giblets to a nine-year old) that keeps things light.
But the emotional contingent of the story, while not overwhelming, is very effective as well. You feel for Tina trying to tell her story and realizing her sister only wants to use it for shock value. (Her line "I feel like my soul has diarrhea" is appropriately graphic in describing that feeling.) And while Louise's change of heart after spraying the audience with turkey entrails is rather rushed and only mildly motivated, her eventual sticking up for her sister, and Tina winning over the crowd with her heartfelt song about having the (literal and figurative!) guts to be yourself is a nice way to end it. The episode captures the ramshackle school play feeling in every moment, and the slightly more polished version at the end is a treat as well.
There's nothing really emotionally potent about the B-story, which in a bizarre but perfectly Linda twist, is about the Belcher matriarch discovering a potato that has the face, and to her thinking, spirit of her grandfather, but it's hilarious nonetheless. Bob and Linda work well as a comedic pairing because Linda is so out there, and Bob is kind of bewilded but generally supportive of the lunacy, which adds up to something sweet but random every time. Teddy's guileless support for all of Linda's wacky theories is always welcome, and Bob rejecting the potato but then bringing it to the performance is an obvious but nonetheless funny and kind of cute way to end it.
Overall, it's another Bob's Burgers instant Thanksgiving classic. Keep 'em comin', Bob!
Who would have thought a retro super-gory fun-fest would be so sweet!
Giant robots fighting each other? Sign me the fuck up.
Yet can't help but feel annoyed about Kendra choosing a possibility to un-brainwash one of the numerous reincarnations of the man she barely knows and who's not even from her timeline over millions of other people and the future of their entire planet. Come oooon.
I've finally gotten around to watching this show and needless to say, I loved it. I don't tend to pick favorites with anything and while I thoroughly enjoyed this show, I'm a little baffled how so many people are calling this the greatest show of all time. It has great cinematography, in-depth meaning to the episode names, foreshadowing or symbolism in unique ways, but shouldn't how much you enjoy the show also play a factor in whether or not it's the 'greatest show of all time'? Just because a majority calls something the best of its category doesn't make it the best. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the show. I just think that even if a show is bad to a majority's standards, there's still someone out there who considers that show the greatest show of all time. It doesn't matter if more people think a show is the greatest show of all time, it doesn't automatically make it true. Everyone has different tastes. Just like how there's also a majority who don't like or hate this show and aren't a fan of it, and that's completely fine. I liked this show even though it was pretty slow multiple times, but I wouldn't consider it the greatest show of all time. Everyone has their own 'greatest show of all time.' This show just isn't mine.
Okay action. Terrible dialogue and meh acting
I still don't get it why people have not mentioned it as an absolute garbage!
One of the most frustratingly bad horror movies I've ever seen. The characters were all idiots. They deserved it.
the film is very good...
This show seems clinically incapable of disappointing. How much longer can it keep up this quality? I hope a long long time.
Fun comedy, both cynical and sentimental in the appropriate doses, just like a real wedding.
it was not what i expected but i liked it hh. really fun movie and you don't get the story at first but then u get really hooked on with the characters and their struggles and how they help each other throughout the movie. really fun,enjoyable movie.
The sound track is great and whoever did costume design for this must have been having the time of their life. It's gory as hell, cheesy at times and really sweet at others and a ton of fun overall. I really had fun with this film and i recommend it to anyone who even vaguely enjoys this kind of flick.
I'm at season one, binged watched almost all the season in one sitting. I find it very amusing
That's such a cute and with such a great message for children's and even for adults, all your dreams can be achieved you only need to want it.
The animation was really good, very colorful and with all the "historical" need for a movie in this category, jokes, crazy and cute characters and a really happy end.
I only remember the first few seasons from years ago when it aired on TV so I decided to do a rewatch/catch up beng watch.. and man do I regret it.
The last 2 seasons, it's like the writers gave up on the story, Sabrina barely uses her magic & don't even get me started on Harvey.. I wish I didn't do it, because now one of my favorite childhood shows was officially ruined.
I am not sure why I keep watching it
"In conclusion, you're ugly. I make money."
"I'm like a lollipop with a question mark on the wrapper. I don't know what's going on inside."
#OMG I l o v e d that punch! Hahaha'
Liv! Liv! Liv!
Destroy Rita, Gilda, fake b**ch one hahaha !
Hmmm. It is an OK movie. It is tense for sure, but in terms of what actually happens there isn't much let's be honest. As there really is no beginning and no end, it feels like a tv series episode in my opinion. There are also some questionable choices from the characters, one in particular, that do not make sense or have any logic. I'd give it a 5 out of 10, sorry.
I'm so in love with all of the three Snicket siblings
I do not understand the poor ratings for this season are for.
I mean yeah, TWD is changing its approach to their audience a bit by adding more drama and less action then usual, but if you cannot adapt to the very slight change to the show, then I feel bad for you.
Some people are just very good at deceit. For a moment I thought during the Dentistry scene alliances had altered. Fooled me again Red!!
Between Red's, and Tom's last scenes in the episodes... jesus-fucking-christ.
The only good thing about this episode is JAHA GOT FLOATED! FINALLY! HAHA!
[7.6/10] One of the best tacks a horror film can take is rooting its supernatural or outsized sense of terror in something real. That grain of truth at the core of a movie’s scares makes them more vivid and gripping than bare, spooky scenes or the usual collection of ghoulies.
It certainly works to the benefit of The Visit. The film tells the story of two young children, Becca and Tyler, visiting their estranged grandparents for the first time. “Pop Pop” and “Nana” behave strangely, rumbling and being ill in the middle of the night or sneaking out to a mysterious shed, in a way that unnerves their grandchildren.
The smartest choice the film makes is to walk the line between whether this is the sign of something sinister or wrong, or whether it’s simply a combination of dementia and unfamiliarity that’s disturbing the kids. It’s a horror movie, so it’s not hard to guess how things play out, but the film gains strength by playing with that ambiguity. Outside the confines of a Hollywood picture, kids can have trouble relating to their grandparents, understanding the physical and mental challenges their elders are going through. Using that natural anxiety, that natural misunderstanding, both serves as a means to muddy the waters of What’s Really Going On, and to elevate the frightening qualities of when Nana and Pop Pop are acting out.
If there’s a smarter choice, however, it’s in the casting of the two young leads who carry the film. Olivia DeJonge plays Becca, the older sibling who is a budding director, out to document this momentous and fraught family occasion, with a combination of precociousness and vulnerability. Ed Oxenbould plays Tyler, Becca’s colorful, freestyle-rapping little brother, who makes for an amusingly free-wheeling yin to Becca’s very deliberate yang.
Centering a movie around kids is hard, as the challenges of finding the core of a character and maintaining it from beginning to end can be difficult for young actors. But DeJonge and Oxenbould both give their characters a sense of realness in their childlike reactions to the world around them, but also deliver the emotional layers to that experience to make them compelling figures and not just props in this drama.
Much of that comes from the script penned by the famed/notorious M. Night Shyamalan, who also directs the film. He too captures the inquisitive, precious spirit of childhood, while making Becca and Tyler easy characters to become endeared to and fear for. The film also features one of Shyamalan’s tightest scripts. As much as Shyamalan takes time out to be a little loose and show the kids being kids, helping to establish character and tone, he also dots every “i” and crosses every “t” in terms of setting up the mystery and providing plausible hints, convincing red herrings, and a solid build to the truth about what’s happening with their grandparents.
If anything, the film’s narrative is a little too neat. Emotional beats or noted characteristics come back into play at just the right moment, to the point that the viewer can see the strings of why some detail or story was told in the prelude. The plot never feels too convenient, but at times it moves like it’s on rails.
The same cannot be said, however, for the cinematography. Shyamalan employs the “found footage” conceit here, and it gives him a chance to use perspective and the verisimilitude of that choice to accentuate his scares. More than anything, it allows us to better know Becca and Tyler. If we’re not literally seeing their perspective, hearing their voice and seeing their point-of-view from behind the camera, then we see them in confessionals, opening up in the piercing way only a camera lens can admit.
Shyamalan uses that choice -- having the kids “filming” almost all of the movie, for both terror and fun. The hand-held conceit turns a simple game of hide and seek, or a chance encounter with a bystander on a visit to an old high school, into terrifying episodes, filled with crawling figures or troubling confrontations. But it also gives Tyler the chance to goof off in front of the camera in the way a ten year old would, or for Becca to amusingly wax rhapsodic over not wanting to be too intentional in her zooms and cuts, with Shyamalan clearly having a good time poking fun at his profession through the eyes of the child.
The only problem, then, is that once Shyamalan has laid down that initial layer of humor and creepiness, the inevitable reveal leads to a bit of the air coming out of the picture rather than the terror being heightened. Once the scales fall and the ambiguity is no longer there to goose the scares, the film becomes more stock in its horror, and the emotional climaxes coincide with the horror climaxes a little too easily.
Still, The Visit isn’t content to merely offer a snootful of well-crafted horror and an endearing, if frightening kid adventure. There’s a heavily-underlined but potent theme about acceptance and processing anger for those who’ve hurt us, particularly family members. The film isn’t shy in the way it connects the feelings of Becca and Tyler’s mom (Kathryn Hahn, who makes a strong impression in just a little bit of screentime) toward the parents she hasn’t spoken to in a decade and a half, with Becca and Tyler’s own feelings about their absentee dad. As with the scary side of the movie, The Visit pays both of these internal challenges a little too easily, but still convincingly.
It’s hard not to draw comparisons with Shyamalan’s breakthrough film, The Sixth Sense, give both movies’ use of talented child actors and themes of making peace with difficult parts of our lives, but The Visit stands on its own. It’s a tidier film, more self-contained, more human and unvarnished, with its single-location focus and more conventional scares. And it finds the sweet spot between the real things that unnerve us, and the grander horrors of the screen, to make an effective vignette about two kids finding their way through one uncertain situation and resolving another.
This episode made me catch my husband crying. Good job Bob’s Burgers.
I agree with the other comments that the story is pretty flat, and I really would have liked to have seen more of the actual perfect dates, but the characters were charming, the touching moments relatable (if sometimes cheesy), and most importantly, the jokes were hilarious.
