Was this episode superb?
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Oh well … what can I say
"This hospital, huh!?"
There were so many great scenes in here - it's hard to mention all.
BUT there was one scene standing out!
When Rebecca was on the phone talking to the hotel, the focus moves very slowly from Rebecca to the background. While the unsuspecting Rebecca makes her call (in real-time), the background moves in slow-motion.
Then the focus moves back to Rebecca again, now she is calling Miquel, then the focus goes slowly back to the background again, once more in slow motion.
AND THEN … (at 24:55) right before she put the money into the machine YOU CAN HEAR JACK's VOICE CALLING "Beck!?".
Which must have been shortly after Jack had left his body! She even turns around!
DID YOU GUYS NOTICE THAT?
(please share!)
I also LOVED how they did not show Jack's body, but only the reflection of him in the window, together with his wife now realizing the situation. And then these split second shots of younger Jack … Awww man - why are you doing to us!???
Ugh - What a freaking masterpiece!
What can I say … I just love this show!
{Honorable Mention:} GREAT performace by the doctor talking to Rebecca, amongst everybody else on this show!
[9.0/10] Welcome back to Neptune! I am glad to report that Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell, and the rest of the cast and crew haven’t missed a beat since we left them. If anything, this re-pilot episode feels more like the classic Veronica Mars than the 2014 film did.
We’re back to the outstanding (and winkingly modernized) banter, back to the great father/daughter dynamic, back to the haves vs. have nots, back to dealing with the treatment of young women, back to an intriguing mystery to motivate the season. In brief, I was shocked at how true to form this thing feels, as though there were no time at all, rather than a decade-plus gap, between seasons 3 and 4. This is Veronica Mars, back in all its wondrous glory.
But a few things are different though, and they’re all good things (or at least promising things)! Most importantly, we have a new cast of characters involved in a mystery, from a douchebag law bro and his friends, to a nerdy crew trying to get by on Spring Break, to a young party girl and her coterie, to the brother of a congressman, to a middle class hotelier and his daughter, to a harried pizza guy played by none other than Patton Oswalt! While I’m sure that some familiar face will be involved in the bombing incident somehow (most likely Dick Casablancas’s dad), it’s nice to see a new set of whodunnit candidates that feel new and yet of a piece with the show’s milieu.
We also have the involvement of some kind of cartel boss, with scenes in Mexico that feel like something straight out of Breaking Bad. It’s new and different territory for Veronica Mars, and I’m curious to see how it intersects with Mars investigations.
Speaking of which, the show has advanced Veronica and Logan and Keith and even Wallace to create new challenges and storylines which all feel unique and, again, promising in the early going. Wallace’s part isn’t really a storyline, but it’s still nice to see him with a wife and a kid and the irony with which Veronica calls him an 09er. Keith’s possible alzheimers is an interesting hook for someone who makes a living on their wits, and has the potential to show Veronica having to confront what happens when a parent starts to slow down, which is fruitful territory.
And, of course, for you LoVe-rs out there, we get some good Veronica/Logan material. The prospect of the two of them making a life together over the past five years, one that Logan wants to make permanent, but which Veronica is wary of given their respective families’ marital histories, is a strong one out of the gate. It gives both of them someplace to go without an arbitrary break-up and get back together, and roots the challenge in something true to the characters’ pasts without regressing them to their teenage selves.
All the while you have interesting spectres and echos of things from the series’ past. You have money troubles versus justice creeping in as a theme, as Veronica winces at who she’s working for in the cold open, while Keith is taking jobs for nice shopkeeps who may not be able to pay the going rate, as both think about the future of their P.I. firm. You have a rough and tumble bartender who goes after assaulting dudebros and challenges the uptight well-heeled entrenched interests much like Veronica herself did. And in the show’s most fun sequence, you have Cliff sashaying through the hospital, handing out business cards, and rustling up business for our heroes.
The laughs are there. The character dynamics are there. The mystery is there. The class-consciousness is there. The black velvet heart of it all is there. In short, Veronica Mars is back. There’s still seven episodes for the show to go off the rails from here, but the hardest thing for a revival is to make the proceedings feel like they once did, to recreate the alchemy that made a show so memorable and worth bringing back in the first place. At least in its first episode, season 4 of Veronica Mars has that down.
I loved it. I laughed more than ever. It felt straight out the comic. The lighhearteness and goofiness of this show is back. The past two seasons were dsrker but this episode had season 1 vibes.
That couple's therapy scene was beyond amazing and I should have laughed that much when Barry said "My Dad died too". That's got to be one of the best scenes on the show. Seeing Barry dancing and making breakfast had me rolling on the floor. This guy is a treasure. Grant Gustin is just way too good. That "You have a collect call from GUYS, HELP ME!" was pure gold
I don't like Iris' attitude so far. She really told Barry to throw a lighting bolt t himself over two scientists? The only thing I like about Iris is that she's finally tough. I love Candice Patton but I'm not digging her character this season. I get hoe she feels but she's mad at Barry for leaving her to save the world? For real? That sentence was Season 4 Felicity's dumb. And the "We are the Flash" thing makes sense in context. Not that she's gone through the same emotional breakdowns Barry has, but that they need to be on the same page and carry their burdens together.
4 seasons in and I got the goosebumps every time I hear "Run, Barry, run". Cheesy, but it never gets old.
Cisco had some killer lines today. "Look at the badge. It means it's official" and "The curls were not cooperating this morning". God bless you Cisco. But my favourite was "It seemed like a great idea at the time". That's me. Barry's Jarvis is Cisco, lol. I loved his Schroedinger's cat t-shirt. His "I'm sorry, have we not faced an evil version of Barry before?", hilarious.
That guy buying Oliver's apartment, though. Joe's my man "Has everyone lost their minds?"
I'm digging the Thinker as a villain. the ending scenes are intriguing. I'm curious to see these non-metal. Killgore's powers were great.
Two episodes in and we don't have a Wells. I need a Tom Cavanagh in my life.
The writers are still using Wally as a punching bag.
10/10. This is just peak Bob's Burgers. The episode has so many things going for it. For one thing the central mystery of the episode -- who is putting Bob's turkeys in the toilet -- is brilliant. It's an old premise (the holiday mystery, not as much the turkeys in toilets idea) but it creates a great sense of low-stakes intrigue throughout as Bob goes to more and more bizarre lengths to protect his Thanksgiving meal (which, as we saw in "An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal") is very important to him. It also leads to a great deal of amusing fingerpointing (Louise's attempts to solve the mystery being the best of them.
But then there's just the sheer comedy of the episode. For one thing, Bob's interactions with the guy behind the counter at the grocery store as he returns to buy more and more turkeys is great. The conversational style of the show really works in those moments, and the guy assuming Bob's hitting on him fits into that nicely. They're last conversation with Bob's "it would never work" bit is hilarious. It's just one of those little thrown in bits that doesn't really impact the story of the episode, but adds a lot of comedy and character to it.
The same goes for basically everyone in this episode who isn't Bob, Tina, and to a lesser extent Louise. This episode's laugh-per-minute ratio is amazing. Gail's general presence is welcome, and the sort of abbreviated C-plot of her, Linda, and Gene coming up with a song about the gravy boat (filled with gravery, savory sailor folk) is the exact kind of fun musical weirdness this show does well. The cats everywhere are a constant bit of visual fun. Gene and Louise's are great as the show's greek chorus through much of it. And the always hilarious Teddy is great too, between his not understanding Bob's sleepwalking and thinking he needs to grab (and eat) the mashed potatoes, to his hilarious yarn about a dream with a dolphin when his bed caught on fire (with both philosophical and very mundane explanations.)
But the rub is Tina's story. Initially, her desire to be more mature and sit at the adult's table seems like just a solid comic-relief B-story. And if that's all it had been, it still would have been great. It's a well-observed take on how kids ape adults as a badge of honor with only broadest of signifiers (see, for example, wearing pantyhose, tripping in high heels, and the very funny "not in this economy" runner). Instead, it becomes the emotional center of the episode and the great twist. Bob himself is the toilet turkey culprit, and he's mentally reliving potty training Tina as an emotional response to her attempts to be grown up. For one thing, it's nicely foreshadowed as a result of Bob's allergy pills. For another, it wraps up the episode's mystery in a satisfying and hilarious fashion. And most of all, it adds a firm but not overwhelming emotional contingent to a holiday episode, that deepens it without making it cloying.
It's a complete tour de force of an episode that captures so many things that Bob's Burgers does well. A solid central story, a great use of characters, conversational and throw-in line humor that amuses, and a subtle but strong bit of heart to tie it all together. It's one of the show's high water marks, but also a standard that all shows should envy and aspire to.
9.2/10. Leave it Bob’s Burgers to do a riff on a movie I’m not particularly fond of (Love Actually), and turn it into an episode that I love (this one!). Giving us 5 ½ stories of love in one half-hour episode is a pretty ambitious tack for an episode, but damnit if “Bob Actually” doesn’t pull it off. Let’s take them one-by-one.
Oh my god Louise and Regular Size Rudy! This was probably the meatiest of the stories, and the turn from Louise being oblivious to Rudy’s seeming affections, to being concerned that he likes her, to being subtly miffed that he likes someone else, is great. The show always does a good job with Louise’s characterization, keeping her commitment to the idea that love is stupid from her Boys-4-Now encounters, while showing that even if she’s not ready to confront those feelings yet, she cares about people, including Rudy. Her efforts to make Rudy’s actual crush stop exploiting him and deliver the kiss are, in that uniquely Louise way, very sweet and offer a solution to the problem that makes tons of sense from her perspective. And her confrontation, kiss, and slap with Rudy again speak very much to who she is and how she’d handle this type of situation. In an episode with no real duds, this was the best of the stories.
My next favorite was probably Bob and Teddy trying to learn to dance to impress Linda on V-day. This show returns to the well of Bob being surrounded by insanity and trying to keep his cool again and again, but it just works every time. The very white mom and son hip hop dance team were a hilarious touch, and the ensuing dance routine (which Linda loved, naturally) had all the charm of a bunch of middle-aged white people doing their best hip hop moves.
The rest of the stories were solid as well. Tina’s conflict between wanting to kiss Jimmy Jr. on V-day and having diarrhea was the kind of weird but delightful story this show does well. The wackiness of Jimmy Jr. wanting a “sky kiss” via trampoline, Tina coming clean, and then solving the problem via stilts, is the appropriately out there solution. And her “have to poop” walk was tops as well.
That just leaves Linda inadvertently counseling a stalker, with very funny lines (like “that’s not alarming) and the goofy but charming romance between the speedo guy on rollerskates and a mermaid on a unicycle. Both were short but sweet and eminently laugh-worthy. Throw in the running gag of a teacher stealing supplies, Rudy’s endearing but oblivious self, and the kiss montage, and you have one hell of an episode of Bob’s Burgers.
