Bob's Burgers, S03E12
Tina started reporting about a serial pooper at school in her own newscast when the school news channel pushed her to the background as just a juice server. Gene also started dressing and acting like Bob when he saw that Bob once looked like Gene at his age.
I was reminded in this episode how much I hate Tammy. Not only is she dressing a little too flashy for her age, but she's the type of girl who doesn't want anyone to shine except herself. I don't know if the teacher would have given Tina the position of anchor if Tammy hadn't sabotaged her (since Tina isn't naturally filled with energy and celebrity appeal), but she might have been taken seriously instead of being looked upon as a burden.
I admired that Tina went after a real story, even though no one wanted to listen to her at first. She was genuinely interested in journalism and informing the student body about important events happening in their school. It's just lucky that it turned out to be something so disgusting and grabbing like someone going around the school dropping dukes wherever they felt like. I was really happy that Tina's reporting was making her popular enough that the news crew who had shunned her was jealous enough to try to frame her.
I don't know if Zeke has always had a thing for Tina or if he's just a nice enough kid to poop in public for her sake. Either way, it was sweet that someone else was on her side. Of course, Louise was one of her biggest supporters and even tried to get a little payback on Tammy at the end. That was one of my favorite parts when Louise pushed Tammy toward the poop. That would have been a really awesome ending, but unfortunately Louise hadn't pushed her quite enough. Damn. Still, I loved that Louise tried.
It was also sort of sad and cute that Tina had such a repertoire with the school janitor. Like, she is by no means overflowing with friends, so it's not that surprising that she would befriend a staff member. Still, I wish that she had someone around her age that would laugh at one of her jokes even if that person didn't understand it. Tina has a lot to offer as a friend, and it would be nice if more people noticed that.
As far as Gene was concerned, he was being his typical pain-in-the-butt self. I felt like I could feel Bob's anger with Gene imitating him in a way that wasn't cute at all. Of course, the rest of the family indulged him and made the whole thing much worse than it had to be. All Gene was doing, really, was insulting his father 24-7, and he looked sort of like an asshole doing that. At one point Gene said that the family was terrible, but he still loved them in what he assumed was a Bob-like fashion. Although Bob was mad he said that, I gotta agree that the family is terrible, but Bob does still love them all the same. I mean, he'd be terrible himself if he didn't love his own family (since it's not like they are murderers or spitting in his face), but I often think that Bob would be so better off if he ran off one day (not unlike Archer in that episode--the real Bob himself could use a spa day). Bob's just lucky that Gene doesn't stick to one annoying thing forever and can be distracted enough by poop to stop playing his father like a fool. And I'm lucky, too, because I couldn't stand to watch it much longer.
This episode wasn't bad. It made me like Tina a lot more and remind me of the many characters on this show who I wish would fall into a hole in the center of the Earth. Really, the writers are geniuses at creating characters who are so irritating. However, even though I generally like the shenanigans that the kids get into, I have to say that they can be pretty irritating themselves. This is particularly true of Gene, who takes his jokes on further than is necessary or funny. I'd love to see an episode once where him constantly making fun of his father brings him more unpleasant consequences. Sometimes someone needs to slap some sense into that boy.
