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.

Do We Really Care About Mort?

Family Guy, S10E15

This week's episode was about Peter and Quagmire helping Mort commit insurance fraud while Joe tried to get to the bottom of the "accident."  I have nothing against Peter and Quagmire adventures (and even Joe as long as he's in the background), but I have no desire to watch any story that deals mainly with Mort.  He's just annoying and not in a good way where he bothers others to hilarious rage.  Of course, I was even less happy with this setup because I knew that it wouldn't involve Stewie at all (yes, I know--I just love those Seth MacFarlane babies).  The little guy only had 2 scenes in this episode, and it wasn't enough to compensate the boredom I felt through most of it.

If I had to pick the part I disliked the least, it would be when Peter was trying to interrupt Joe's investigation by texting him about dinner arrangements.  Joe's frustration over the endless messages about each detail of it were easy to relate to; who hasn't gotten to the point that they wanted to throw their phone after being beaten by an array of texts?  As a joke it wasn't bad, but wasn't that good either.

Another thing that almost had me smiling was Joe wondering if Chris might be his friend.  However, Peter didn't think it was possible since Chris would be afraid of him:

He thinks you're a transformer that broke halfway through.

I like that only because I like anything that will poke fun at Transformers, a show I've disliked since childhood.

I guess this show doesn't want to always do things so typical, because Peter did, for once, buy something random that wasn't insane (Lois yelled at him for his superfluous spending habit, but it was nothing like the "Petercopter") like a lawnmower.  That led to a steak bone getting stabbed into Quagmire's forehead, but nothing too incredible by Family Guy standards.  I don't mind if they want Peter to act a little normal and then have something extraordinary happen to him, but this time it was almost a story you could see on another show and could be done in the same fashion.  I come to this show for stories that go down roads that you would never think.  Sort of how I used to depend on The Simpsons for that before they got too old.  Where am I supposed to go now if FG ain't gonna bring it?

FOX Sunday night was a let down this week.  After being without them for a week, I was ready to be entertained with some of my favorite current animated shows.  Now I'm wondering if I'll like these shows better if a month went by before I watched again.  I might just have too much on my plate at the moment to appreciate the gems in front of me.  However, I'm tempted to give Napoleon Dynamite another chance if things keep going like this.  Perhaps, watching that crap will have the same effect as when I gave Allen Gregory a go.  I was happy to get back to The Simpsons and Seth MacFarlane world after that.