Tv.com News

Bob's Burgers S03E03: "Bob Fires the Kids"

So thanks to a really quick World Series (good job, team that won! Better luck next year, team that lost!), Bob's Burgers came back a week early! Hurrah!

When I was in school, I was one of those kids who didn't particularly like summer. I was fine to be out of school for a bit, but did I really need three months of unstructured time? The anxiety of summer weighed down on me. How much could I read? How much swimming and Yoo-Hoo drinking could I really do? As Gene so eloquently put it, "There's too much pressure to enjoy yourself! It's like New Year's Eve for kids!"

As a result, "Bob Fires the Kids" spoke to me on a very base level as the Belcher kids struggled to find something to do with all the free time they suddenly had when Bob, due to the arrival of a box of old toys from his father's old restaurant, fired the kids so they could have the summer vacation he never had. And so the kids set out to experience days full of ruined bicycles, faulty water balloons, the dangers of ants, and getting smacked in the face with ocean diapers.

Some of that was fun for a while, but it wasn't long until boredom set in. So when the kids stumbled upon a blueberry farm owned and operated by an old married hippie couple (voiced by real-life married awesome couple Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman), they went to work for them ($10 a day!) picking blueberries, harvesting marijuana, and delivering the marijuana in blueberry boxes with false bottoms.

While class is only occasionally explicit in Bob's Burgers, like in the Halloween episode a month ago, it's still an undercurrent in a lot of episodes, and "Bob Fires the Kids" was no different. The kids didn't know what to do with the sudden influx of leisure time, and were happier when they'd found new jobs to replace their old ones. Certainly the money made a difference, but I suspect they would've worked at the farm for free since they're fine working at the restaurant for free.

There's a definite "always need to be working" mentality that feels unique to this show. Most summer stories for kids focus on crazy hijinks, and while this episode was no different in that the kids ended up involved with pot dealers, the plot was still connected to labor and work. Is that mentality so ingrained in the kids that they can't see outside of it? And what sort of an ideological message should we be taking away from it?

To round out the episode, Mickey the robber from the Season 2 episode "Bob Day Afternoon" returned—free after the prosecutor was discovered to be on meth—and after driving into a peacock sanctuary, he began to work in the restaurant. There wasn't much meat to this particular plot, as the point of Mickey's presence was to serve as a vehicle for Bob to realize the error of firing the kids and allow Mickey to lead the Belchers to the blueberry farm. At least we got a solid Shawshank Redemption joke out of it.

– The Burger of the Day board was really busy in this episode: the Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Zucchini Burger, the Summer Thyme Burger, the Beets Me Burger, and the We're Here, We're Gruyere, Get Used To It Burger. There was also some burger served with butter and lettuce, but I couldn't quite make it out.

– "If you think about it, any box could have vibrators in it."

– "What is this feeling I'm feeling right now? It's like I'm sad for another person? Is that a thing?! AM I GOING CRAZY?!"

– Teddy fondly describing his imaginary kids made me both sad and a little creeped out. Obviously he's not over Francis yet.

– "Why are you guys stronger than me?!" "PILATES!"

– I would never have thought of calypso music to mask tunnel digging. Thanks for the tip, show!

– "They smell like a music festival."

View the original article here

COMING BACK FOR MORE

... Bob's Burgers is keeping pace with The Simpsons as Fox has ordered a fourth season of the animated series. The pickup is for 22 more episodes. The series has done okay in the ratings, but it's done better with critics and even picked up an Emmy nomination this year. [Fox via press release]

... The CW has unsurprisingly ordered another cycle of America's Next Top Model, its twentieth. And this time MEN will be able to compete! BRB, gonna do some deltoid lifts and leg extensions and pectoral electrical stimulations. [The CW via press release]

IN DEVELOPMENT

... Gordon Ramsay had an extra few minutes to spare so he decided to develop a drama set in a restaurant for NBC. The Inferno would be set in New York and follow two restaurateurs as they bring on a loud-mouthed Italian chef. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Two writers, Dan Dworkin and Jay Beattie, who wrote for NBC's The Event (YESSSSS!) have a new project in the works at ABC. Supernatural drama Beneath is set in a small town and follows what happens when an energy company drills for natural resources but releases something horrible instead. ABC is also looking at High Maintenance from the Broken Lizard (Super Troopers) duo of Kevin Heffernan and Steve Lemme. The comedy follows the staff at a ritzy Manhattan highrise, and knowing these two, will include enough pot jokes for a contact high. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Fox is adapting The BBC's Gavin & Stacey, the popular British comedy about the romance between an English man and a Welsh woman with crazy families. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Veronica Mars head honcho Rob Thomas is also borrowing from Britain with an adaptation of Metropolis. And like most comedies getting the green light today, it's about 20-somethings adapting to adult life. [Deadline Hollywood]

CASTING NEWS

... Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Beyonce will be this year's Super Bowl halftime entertainment. Might I suggest the same outfit that Janet Jackson wore? [Celebuzz]

... The X Factor solved one of our national crises today when it announced that it had decided on its hosts for next season. And then it started an all-new national crisis when revealed its picks to be Khloe Kardashian and Mario Lopez. [Deadline Hollywood]

... Olympic darling swimmer Missy Franklin will guest-star on ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars, as is her right as an Olympic champion. Ever since the original Athens games, those who have gone on to stardom in "Da Games" have guest-starred on teen-oriented dramas. Who can forget Jesse Owens' appearance on the radio show Rowdy Teens with Cigarette Packs Rolled Up in Their T-Shirts? [EW]

... Ryan Hurst, last seen making me cry my eyes out as Opie on Sons of Anarchy, has landed a role in the TNT pilot King & Maxwell. The drama follows two private eyes who may have a thing going on, a la Moonlighting. Hurst will play an autistic serial killer who can see patterns in numbers like that kid from Touch. [Deadline Hollywood]

... ER's Ron Eldard is joining the cast of Justified's fourth season as an old military buddy of Boyd's. You might remember Eldard from Drop Dead Fred or Deep Impact or IMDB. [TV Line]

View the original article here

Bob's Burgers S03E02: "Full Bars"

Bob's Burgers did its first Halloween-themed show tonight, joining the long history of Fox's animated series celebrating the holiday with a dedicated episode. As far as first forays into the tradition go, "Full Bars" was a solid one, even if I have some quibbles.

Teddy's "Black and Orange" party was where the episode stumbled a little bit. I love send-ups of the "murder investigations at a party" scenario, but I never felt like "Full Bars" committed to it all that well. There were good bits to be had—I liked Teddy comparing shoes to the deceased guinea pig Francis, and the realization that Teddy and Francis essentially had matching costumes cracked me up—but they never amounted to a satisfying whole.

The biggest fault may've been with the climax, or lack thereof. The decision to shift the blame to both Bob rolling all over Francis and Teddy spray-painting her left the whole event feeling sort of wasted, without much of a punchline. Everyone just wandered off, and then Linda recounted the tale to the kids when they arrived home.

But with that said, it wasn't that big of an issue in the long run since the rest of the episode was such a treat.

After being thwarted in their own neighborhood (receiving oyster crackers, order numbers at the deli, and seaweed candy from Mr. Frond), the kids took advantage of their first solo trick-or-treating excursion and decided to head across the bay to Kingshead Island, where the upper-class families live ("Rich people are better at Halloween." "And skin care!").

I think it's really to the show's credit that it didn't engage in some intense class-warfare comedy. The episode was defter than that, painting Kingshead Island as a more complicated place than just "where the rich people live." Milo and Ned's costumes weren't particularly inventive compared to the Belchers', and they even recognized Gene's masterful Queen Latifah costume (while failing to identify Tina as a mommy mummy). These weren't snobby kids. Even Bryce and his gang weren't concerned with the fact that the Belchers were from the mainland. They just saw some young kids out past the Halloween curfew, prime targets for the Hell Hunt ("IT'S HELEN HUNT!!!").

Most of the humor was actually mined from the Belchers' amazement at full-sized candy bars ("How did this not topple your economy?!"), and they even came off in a slightly poorer light than Milo or Ned after they took more than one candy bar from the Wagners' self-serve candy bowl. While this sort of thing could come off as mean-spirited, making fun of blue-collar kids, I feel like the show has earned these moments over the course of its brief run—the strength of the family, and its neighborhood, has routinely been connected to its lower economic rung. The kids were be a bit out of place, and it was ultimately their outsider status that allowed them to turn the tables on Bryce's gang.

So Bob's gave us a decent bag of candy for its first outing at Halloween, and hopefully it'll just be the first of many.

– "Maybe means maybe, Bob. It doesn't mean 'I'm too scared to say no.'"

– Specials board: The Jack-O-Lentil burger.

– "Right. Left. Kill. Kill." "You know it's a limp, Teddy."

– Bryce and his gang were so lame that they even made a tired The Warriors reference. Amanda was totally right to ignore him.

– "I can pee on myself. I don't need any handouts."

– Louise's slo-mo throw of Amanda's phone into her passing car and it missing? That's the sort of punchline that was missing from the Teddy's party plot.

– A quick programming note: Since it's October, that means it's time for the MLB postseason, and that means Fox's schedule gets a little wonky. There'll be no Bob's Burgers (or any Fox animated programming, for that matter) next Sunday, but it'll be back on Oct. 21.

View the original article here

Bob's Burgers S03E01: "Ears-y Rider"

Now in its third season, Bob's Burgers doing what it can to bring to build on its positive word-of-mouth and draw in new audiences. The show is, simply put, a delight (it wouldn't have been an Editor's Pick here on TV.com otherwise!), and "Ear-sy Rider" was one of those very funny season premieres that tells a newcomer what he needs to know while still rewarding those who've been watching for a while.

Mort's funeral home played host to the memorial for the leader of the biker gang the One-Eyed Snakes ("God gave you a halo cuz he couldn't make you wear a helmet."). The group then celebrated at Bob's Burgers, of course, and while they did wreck the place, they also left an IOU, to be redeemed at any point.

The same day, the kids encountered a group of high school bullies who controlled the corner of a street. Louise, never one to back down from, well, anything, confronted the leader, Logan, and they managed to sneak by once. The second time, though, Logan stole Louise's trademark ears.

Needless to say, it was ON.

While it was easy to guess how "Ear-sy Rider" would play out, with Louise calling in the IOU and having the bikers confront Logan, the episode made the journey to that destination into something hilarious. Louise's stalking of Logan—going to the high school, jumping at him from opposing escalators—was a nicely executed montage that culminated in tattling in Logan's house while Louise sipped on tea. It was a terrific way to round out the sequence and still keep the episode moving as Logan claimed to have tossed the ears away at a taco place. ("Which one, Logan?! IT'S A CHAIN!")

What I ultimately loved about the episode wasn't that Louise's life fell apart without her ears, as you might expect. Yes, Logan's did improve (he got a prom date and his test scores went up), but even in the absence of her signature headwear, Louise maintained her confidence and personality. So while the episode did offer a message about Louise's strength of character not being defined by the ears, it didn't overplay that. It still allowed room for Louise to grow and still be roughly where she was at the start of the episode.

And despite all this, new viewers were able to get a sense of the show Bob's Burgers is: Bob is kind of hapless but caring. Linda's a little daffy ("Why would someone steal the sign for Ball Street? Oh! Haha!") but protects her kids. Tina ("My hands smell like onions. It's nice."), Gene, and Louise are weird, random, and uncannily confident, respectively. "Ears-y Rider" was such that someone coming to the show for the first time could get an idea of everyone without having to worry about who the characters were, even though it was an episode about who one of those characters is.

Bob's Burgers draws its strength from wrapping the bizarre in the sweet, without allowing either to overpower the other. So when the episode's two conflicting forces—the bikers and concerned parents—came together over the birth of Mudflap's kid and realized that their neighborhood is just fine the way it is, the oddness of the bikers and the "white collar parents" being in one place felt completely earned.

– Tellingly, Bob's blue collar restaurant allowed two very different classes to meet and come together in a moment of unity. It's an in-between space where otherwise distant groups can meet.

– "Someone threw a Sno-Cone at my windshield this morning. I thought I drove into a rainbow. It was terrifying."

– Critter's buttons were great: "For tickling a cop." and "Fooooooor not being associated with the White Power movement." Oh, and they make meth. These are horrible, but perfectly nice people.

– "Hey, you don't want to mess with my sister. She'll wear down your self-esteem over a matter of years." I love you, Tina.

– On the specials board: ("Doesn't come with cilantro. Because cilantro is terrible.") It's not terrible. I love cilantro!

View the original article here