Exposing Edison's Elephant

Bob's Burgers, S03E16

Louise's new science teacher and head of the science fair refused to let Louise use her recycled volcano as a project and forced her to do a new presentation about Thomas Edison.  Thanks to some hints from the librarian, Louise learned about a controversial experiment that Edison conducted that she could use in her project to crush her teacher's pride in Edison.  Bob and Linda also argued about who made the better spice-related invention.

There's nothing more I like than Louise scheming to get back at someone, eseicially if they are an authority figure.  Once I saw Dinkler crush her volcano, I knew that Louise would stop at nothing to teach him that you just don't do that to her without paying the price.  I liked how hard Louise pushed to expose Edison's cruelty to animals, even while endangering her own sister.

I particularly liked that the librarian first suggested that Louise look up Topsy, but he kept being really secretive about it.  He would whisper things to her that contradicted what he said in his normal voice.  He sounded really crazy and made it seem like the Topsy incident was this big conspiracy that only Louise could expose.  However, when Louise later accused him of being responsible for her trying to speak out about Topsy, the librarian wouldn't help her escape the principal's room and said that he was blameless because he always tells people about Topsy.  I don't know what his real reason was for wanting to lead her to that topic, but I liked that he got her riled up yet kept himself on the sidelines from all the trouble.

I think the best part was when Louise finally escaped and got Teddy to set up the sparks again during the musical performance Gene and Tina were doing.  Although Tina had been freaked out that the yoga mat melted the first time they did this, she still went through it.  She had me fooled too when she was knocked out on the floor after the lights came back on.  I liked that everyone was worried about her, even Louise who had been too blinded by her revenge to notice that she had nearly killed her sister.  Tina turned out to be just be acting very well, and Mr. Dinkler was indeed crushed by performance of Topsy being killed by Edison's experiment.  He spent the rest of the night crying in the bathroom--mission accomplished.  Also, I liked when Bob told Teddy that he nearly killed Tina and Teddy casually apologized for that.  It shows that Louise was just thinking of destroying Dinkler if she thought asking a screw-up like Teddy to handle the electrical aspects of her project was a good idea.  He could have killed all of them.

One other thing I liked was when Bob was watching Gene and Tina sing.  He noticed right away that it was Mr. Fischoeder and Gayle's voice coming out of their mouths.  He was the only one distracted by that.  It did look sort of weird seeing Gene and Tina prancing around with a different voice coming out of their mouths.  I was glad that Bob mentioned that.

As far as the "spiceps" and "spice rack" inventions, I agreed with Gene who said that they both looked ridiculous.  It's weird that Linda thought she could improve on Bob's creation instead of just trying to discourage him from talking about it in the first place.  Making her own version of his thing only made Bob more convincned that he needed to prove that his idea was good.  It was really childish that they both took their inventions to the fair and set them up along with the other kids.  I don't know how that was even allowed, but with Dinkler in charge, he was probably mostly concerned with shutting Louise down.  The craziest thing is that either Bob or Linda's invention won the science fair.  I don't really care which one it was, but that must have been some kind of horribly low-caliber fair if that was the best project.  I mean, second place was Andie and Ollie's counting of hairs on the head--what?  It's not unreasonable that two middle-aged people could have become the winners, I guess.

This was a pretty good episode.  It's always good to see Louise going after someone for revenge.  She's really good about becoming obsessed with making someone pay and making sure that the payback has enough sting to it to make her oppressor regret crossing her.  The funniest thing is that the librarian convinced her to do the Topsy expose, yet he refused to take any blame in all the trouble that Louise had caused.  It was great to see her take down Dinkler, even if Tina was in a little danger.  All of her scheming and Teddy's shoddy electrical work made the story interesting from beginning to end.  The spiceps and spice rack weren't that interesting, though, but it's strange that one of them was able to win the science fair.  It really shows that Louise and the others go to a rather stupid school.

Ya'll All Need Part-Time Jobs

Bob's Burgers, S03E14

Linda took a job at a grocery store to help the family with finances, but Bob failed to encourage her and show that Linda was crucial to the restaurant.  She started off part-time, but when Bob gave her a bad employee review, she took the full-time job as shift manager. Tina also met a mysterious boy in the dairy fridge and used his band-aid to find him when the two parted without exchanging information.

I can't believe that with the way that Linda has to bounce so many checks with their debtors that Bob thinks that they hadn't gotten to the point where they needed another income from another job.  Seriously?  They should have had Linda (hell, even the kids selling newspapers or something) working a long time ago.  I think that Bob was just too proud to admit that his restaurant simply doesn't do well enough to keep his family afloat.  After all, he has a wife and three children to support.  It's no time to be prideful.

Anyway, Bob could have had Linda back at the restaurant sooner if he only realized how much Linda does for his business.  One of the most interesting things she does is keep the restaurant at the perfect temperature.  I think that Teddy was overreacting when Bob was adjusting wrong, but he definitely doesn't have the thermostat finesse that his wife has.

Speaking of Teddy, the only part of this story that was really funny was when Bob had to close his restaurant down because of lack of meat and electricity and Teddy refused to leave.  Bob was treating him like a cat and shouting at him to go, and Teddy just wouldn't leave.  What the hell does Teddy even do?  He always seems to have time to lounge about Bob's restaurant all day with unwanted and dubious advice.

One other thing that was sort of funny was when Linda told the customers that she didn't like them.  One guy commented that of course he could hear her because she was on a microphone.  I liked that Louise sort of made that guy feel bad for making her mother look a little dumb:

[Louise] She told me that she hates you the most.
[Customer] Whaaat?

It was sort of sad that Linda thought she was showing Bob a lesson by leaving the restaurant to himself (which she was), but she ended up showing that she is not management material.  She usually manages her own kids, who have good reasons to listen to her orders, unlike employees who will use any old excuse to get out of work.  I can't believe that she actually gave everyone the day off and was left alone in the store.  It was strange to me that people didn't start rioting and leaving with free stuff sooner than they had.  I feel a little bad for the boss who had to come back and find his store in ruins, thanks to Linda.  Bob couldn't run his restaurant too well without Linda, but he didn't exactly destroy the business.  Linda probably put Fresh Feed out of business.

Tina's story was so weird.  Not surprising, but still.  That was completely gross that she kept that kid's band-aid and was using it like a glass slipper on some random kids that showed up to the restaurant.  And who the hell are these kids who were enticed by that flyer she put up?  I can't believe that she got that many people in the first place.  Must be nothing else going on in that town.

I guess her nasty efforts were fruitful, though.  She met the boy again, learned his name, and got a kiss.  I don't know if it will develop any further than the dairy aisle, but since it's Tina, who cares?  That's a victory for her no matter how she got there.

This episode wasn't too bad.  It was sort of nice to see Linda out of the restaurant for a change.  It showed that there is a worse place to work than Bob's restaurant.  This story also showed that Bob would be shut down in a second if he didn't have Linda handling the banks and such.  He really is thick-headed sometimes.  Tina's band-aid version of Cinderella was a little gross, but at least it had a cute ending.  Tina could use a boy in her life to concentrate all of her weird affections on.

Tina's Poop Scoop

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.

Mommie Daughter Disaster

Bob's Burgers, S03E10

Linda was trying too hard to bond with Louise, forcing her to take a mother-daughter seminar against her will.  Louise eventually broke out and escaped to the nearby laser tag place while Linda and the other adults were trapped in a locked room.  Bob also helped Tina get rid of some unwanted leg hair since Linda was too busy to help Tina shave.

I hated how aggressive Linda was being, but I loved Louise's resistance.  I never noticed that the two didn't exactly see eye to eye, but it was made really clear that Louise prefers dealing with her father more than her mother.  I really liked how this has always seemed to get under Linda's skin.  I can't imagine a child not getting frustrated with a mother like that at some point, so this story made a lot of sense to me.

There wasn't much to like in the story, but I was disturbed by the seminar activities.  It was beyond weird that they were feeding kids with tubes tied to their mouths to symbolize the umbilical cord.  That was topped by this "vagisack" the kids were forced to exit out of like they were being born.  I can't imagine that doing anything to a child except traumatizing them.  How was that supposed to bond mother and daughter?  It was ridiculous and made the guy running it lose a lot of credibility.  It was too bad Linda was obsessed with bonding and "winning" as a mother that she didn't see that sooner.  I was happy when it all ended and Louise made Linda chill out a bit.

The whole episode wasn't good, but I did find Bob spending time with Tina to be really cute.  In general, it was just adorable how much the kids like Bob, opposed to Linda.  He's just their big, goofy doll to play with. Particularly, I loved when he and Tina got their legs waxed together and were holding hands.  It was even better when Gene got jealous of the "special treat" Tina had gotten and Bob took them back to the salon to get his legs done too.  Bob is such a pushover with his kids--I like that.  Tina sort of ruined the moment by being Tina-like and thinking that her leg hairs were her friends (it reminded me of her sympathy for that mechanical shark--she'll befriend anything), but it was still good side story.  It even ended well because although Tina expressed her regret for the waxing, Louise was jealous of the good time they all had, and all the kids wanted to go to the salon again and make "regrettable" decisions with dad the next day.  It makes me happy to see that even though Louise bonded with Linda, she still prefers to hang out with Bob.

I guess this episode wasn't terrible, but I didn't like it much.  Anything that has to do with Linda trying too hard to do something that seems impossible (like getting Louise to think she's her best friend) is not one I'm going to like a lot unless it means that Linda learns an amusing lesson.  Luckily, Bob's time with Tina added some value to the overall story, but not so much I could overlook the main story. Still, thank goodness for Tina because I can't imagine watching this show without her.

Tina Needs To Chill Out

Bob's Burgers, S03E07

Bob made Tina lie about a car accident that she had caused so they wouldn't have to pay more insurance, but Tina's inability to live with the lie made the situation difficult.  When they finally decided to come clean, their insurance adjuster turned out to be a crook who wanted Bob to help him commit insurance fraud.  Mort also offered to drive Bob and his family around while Bob's car was in the shop.

It's nice that Tina has such a big conscience, but she is freaking ridiculous.  Essentially, Bob was the one at fault for letting someone as uncoordinated as Tina drive even in a near empty parking lot, so she shouldn't have felt so much guilt for him lying and taking the blame.  Burning down someone's house, on the other hand, is another story--I wouldn't feel great about lying about that.  Still, I wanted Bob to like tape her mouth up or something because she kept acting like her heart was going to explode if the truth didn't come out.

I can understand why Bob didn't want Linda to know what was going on because she is such a loudmouth!  I really hate that about her.  I hate it even more because she doesn't do it out of spite, but it's almost a natural thing she does without thinking.  And she finds it funny and doesn't take much remorse to the fact that she embarrasses Bob.  Hearing her sing that "diarrhea song," made me want to slap her.  Ugh.  And then they had her singing an extended version at the end.  I just hate hearing her sing (or talk, really, haha).

Chase was a scumbag, of course, but I still sort of liked him.  Maybe it was because before I knew he was doing insurance fraud, he just seemed like an agreeable guy who could believe the stupid story that Tina made up or could forgive Tina for burning down his house.  He really didn't do anything of these things, but still he wasn't that much of a jerk (especially to a lot of the regulars on the show that Bob deals with).  Sure he blackmailed Bob, but he was going to share the money with him.  And if Bob hadn't tried to lie in the first place, Chase probably wouldn't have taken Bob in as his partner in crime at all.

I didn't think they would be able to get rid of Chase, but it was nice that it was Tina who managed to outsmart him by recording his plan for the crimes.  It seemed only fitting that Tina should solve the problem when it was sort of her fault.  I mean, even a screw-up like her should have been able to avoid one car in that whole, big space she was driving.  And even though she barely caused any damage, it was her nagging that made Bob have to leave a note and eventually get insurance involved.  It was really the least she could do.

The little story about Mort wasn't that interesting.  Louise and Gene were driving him crazy, and Mort was feeling taken advantage of, even though he was the one dumb enough to offer his services.  It was good that it didn't turn into something dramatic, thanks to Bob and the others leaving him a gift basket.  There was enough drama going on with the insurance fraud thing.

I guess this was sort of a good episode.  I stayed interested because I worried that Tina was going to blow Bob's cover, and there was a nice twist with Chase being the one trying to cheat the system.  I hope we don't soon see Tina in this kind of situation again--she is the worst person to collaborate with on a lie.  I'd rather her stick to what's she best at:  being creepy and awkward.

Tina Gone Wild

Bob's Burgers, S02E08

Tina became friends with a new girl named Tammy who began to have a negative influence on Tina.  Tina just wanted to get closer to Jimmy Jr., but Tammy was blackmailing her with Tina's erotic stories about their classmates and forcing Tina to hang out with her while breaking school and home rules.  Tina ended Tammy's terror by beating her to the punch and reading her stories to the whole school herself.  She was ridiculed only until Tammy stole the spotlight through her uncontrollable farts.  Bob also was obsessed with patty cake after seeing a Cake performance with Linda.

I don't know if I've ever watched someone be so unnervingly awkward doing their puberty.  Her stories of grabbing butts is just so uncomfortable to see.  I mean, I guess it's better than something truly erotic and nasty, but finding out that Tina has tons of stories written in this fashion is unsettling.  But I'm impressed by the way Tina could express herself creatively and didn't find anything wrong with her works until Tammy made her think that if Jimmy ever found out about it, he'd never speak to her again.  Leave it to another kid to undermine a person of an unique style or mind and make them feel like a freak.  But I'm glad that in the end, Tina did things her way and didn't turn into a Tammy clone.

As much as Tina makes me cringe, I would have hated to see someone like Tammy change her and take away what makes her special.  At first I thought Tammy would make Tina less of a pushover and build her confidence with Jimmy Jr, but she soon revealed that she didn't care about what was good for Tina at all and would have kept pushing her to steal bottles of margarita mix and cut class until Tina was a delinquent whore that Jimmy would probably hate.  Even though Tina was laughed at by the other students, at least Jimmy thought her stories about everyone she knew touching each others' butts was cool.  I was happy to see it wasn't a makeover or wild parties with fake highs from cocktail mixes that made Jimmy pay a little more attention to Tina. 

The part that was the funniest for me was the tension between Linda and Tina as she started to change.  She kept throwing random slang at her that Linda took offense to, but didn't understand what it meant.  I didn't know either what a "boob punch" was, but I loved Tina calling her mother that and Linda getting mad about it.  I think I may use that on someone and see if I can get such a rise out of them.

I quite liked this episode because it focused on how Tina handled peer pressure and maintained her individuality.  I don't know if she'll ever get together with Jimmy Jr., but I hope that no matter what happens that she won't try to change herself too much to impress him.  Her eccentric personality is one of the top reasons I continue to watch this show, after all.

Linda: Maybe Good Sister, Definitely Questionable Wife

Bob's Burgers, S02E06

Linda's sister Gayle came for a visit and volunteered to pick up Bob from the dentist.  He was high on the gas from the procedure and shared a kiss with his sister-in-law.  Instead of getting mad at Bob about it, Linda was excited and encouraged him to lead her on so that Gayle would have the confidence to find her own man.  This plan began to backfire when Bob took Dr. Yap's invitation to go skiing.  Bob hoped that Gayle would fall for the dentist, but instead she kept trying to get Bob until Gayle thought that Linda wanted Dr. Yap for herself.  Finally, after Bob had broken a tooth and gone through other abuse for Linda's plan, Gayle turned her attention to Yap.  Tina was also fighting for Yap's affections, but he hardly noticed her while he was after Gayle.  Louise and Gene competed in several different challenges to determine who would get a jawbreaker.

Ken Jeong as Dr. Yap was excellent.  His voice gave the character the suggestion that although the dentist seemed like an okay guy, he was definitely a little crazy underneath.  This was also indicated by how easily he was distracted when Bob wanted to keep him from stabbing him with the needle.  Also, what sane guy thinks that those persuasion techniques would actually work on women?  Either he's hit rock bottom with luck finding a decent woman or he's just crazy (I'd bet on the latter).  

Someone else acting crazy was Linda.  Who lets their sister think they are having an affair with their husband just to boost her self confidence?  Makes no damn sense.  I felt bad for Bob having to put up with all of Linda's craziness (must be love).  Gayle isn't sexy in the least, and he lost a tooth trying to avoid cheating on Linda with her.  Yet, Bob's reward for listening to his wife is a few slaps to the face and a gap in his mouth.  If Linda knew her sister as half well as she thought she did, she would know that Gayle just wants whatever Linda has.  Linda should have been pretending to want Dr. Yap all along.  Her stupidity that harms others really annoys me.

I basically ignored Gene and Louise's fights over who would have the jawbreaker.  It was just really gross (I don't care if they're siblings) that they were passing the candy back and forth after it had been in both their mouths.  If you think about it, they were actually sharing it without realizing it (the contests were utterly pointless).  What was slightly more interesting was Tina's advances toward Yap who was oblivious of her intentions.  Still, it was kinda funny to see her try to use the same dumb techniques to get with Yap that he was using on Gayle.  It might have been funnier for him to notice what she was doing and be grossed out by her or something.  Sometimes Tina (especially with her soft voice as if she is talking to herself) seems like a ghost because people don't pay enough attention to her.

I didn't care too much for this episode because I hate seeing Linda's moronic ideas punish Bob when he hasn't done anything wrong.  Unless you think that he deserved that horrible skiing trip because he accidentally kissed his sister-in-law.  I'm really starting to be annoyed by Linda, but since she is a main character, there's not much to do about her.  Just hope that they don't have too many episodes like this where she gets to make others miserable without having to pay her dues or apologize.

Bob's Burgers Is Back!

Bob's Burgers, S02E01

Wow, I can't believe that FOX picked this up for another season.  This was another of my secondary shows a while ago, but it wasn't anything too amazing.  What I like most about this show is that the characters are so weird, it's made by some of the same people who did Home Movies (one of my favorites), and that H. Jon Benjamin (voice of Archer, among many other characters) does Bob.  I've liked him as a voice actor ever since he did Jason and McGuirk.  Such a funny and distinctive voice.

The heart of this show is definitely the weirdo children.  You can't really determine which of them is the worst of the group.  Louise, who is the youngest I think, is incontestably the leader of the three.  This time she gets them all to hunt for gold at a taffy factory that will be closing the next day.  Despite that the guy in the restaurant tells them that the map to find it is just a joke (he draws a butt crapping--lovely), they figure it's real anyway and sneak out.  Meanwhile, Bob and Linda are trying to get their groove on in the bed.  No need to discuss that one any further.

Tina is probably my favorite character even though she creeps me out.  She continued her pursuit of Jimmy Jr. in this episode, by using tactics from some romance novel she found on the beach.  As weird and sexually awkward as Tina is, I'd still like her to get with the person of her choosing.  She failed to get Jimmy to notice her as a girl (he was too busy dancing and acting like a moron with his friend Zeke), but she did sort of denounce him and assert her own strength as a woman.  Go, Tina!  However, she probably will be back to chasing him like a puppy due to being hypnotized by Jimmy's butt.  Geez.

I also like Louise and how forceful she is, despite her small stature and bunny ears.  In fact, she was tolerating no shit from her siblings and the other tag-alongs that came with them to the factory.  It's hard to think she is a child because even when the walls were starting to fall around her and she was trapped with "Taff," she still had enough lip to talk back to Bob and speak sarcastically to him.  I actually thought her talking to Taff was cute.  Though, it does make me think that if Bob made enough from his crappy burger stand, he might be able to afford some therapy for her.  Louise is likely to become some kind of con-artist, if they are luckily.  I could also see her as one of those homeless people that shout nonsense at people on the streets.

When everyone managed to escape from the factory before it was completely demolished, it turned out the map was real and the gold had been hidden in "Taff" all along.  I didn't expect that map to be real, but I thought the gold would be in that ugly taffy man, especially since it got stuck to Bob's erection (eww!).  But if they had found that gold, it would have interfered with Bob's sucky business and their poverty.  We can't have that.

This is isn't the best show around, but it's not too bad.  I feel like it has the potential to grow on me, if they are able to come up with more interesting stories and funnier jokes.  They have the weird characters down, so that is not a problem.  Let's just see if they can survive long enough to finish out their second season.