The Tolera-beet-lity Index Bob's Burgers thread

Well I had a feeling you wouldn't be keen, Hippo - I really enjoyed it, but I'm also not surprised Dan Mintz wrote it.

I loved it to, but I'm a bit into MLP fandom so that might be part of it. In fact even as I type this I am looking at the Pinkie Pie figurine I keep on my temporary desk at work. 

On an unrelated note, can't wait to move into my permanent desk here and bring all the nerdy decorations I'm planning to bring! 

EVERYTHING.

Felt it was an overwrought emotion-tugger which didn't feel too earnest. I know, it gels real well with dog owners and those who don't simply come because it's heavily emotional especially near the end but I find it hokey.

It does have some great comedy but all anyone remembers is that fucking dog and that damn ending (which does include me).

Very good, one of the best this season and I always will be a sucker for Linda's easily led nature and Louise's criminality. Interesting that it was Fischoder's brother who made him blind in one eye though, right?

Tina eating the table in tryouts made this season worth it, that is all.

I definitely see your point, although I disagree. Tina's definitely freaky, and her inner life doesn't have a lot of boundaries. But the thing that makes her harmless (IMHO) is that it's an inner life that the audience sees, and her family has glimpses of, but most of her schoolmates don't - because she keeps a lid on it. She dreams about orgies of kissing and everyone touching butts, but she doesn't do anything about it - she's not forcing her fantasies on others.

And I think a lot of people respond to Tina's freakiness because it's a side of girls you really don't see often in the media. Even in YA, girls may pursue sex, but it's mostly because "I love X" or "I want X to like me" or "I'm curious about what ____ is like" or "I'm ready for adulthood and part of being an adult is no longer being a virgin". A girl who gets off (metaphorically and literally) on kissing and touching for the tactile, sensual pleasure, aside from the target/recipient/giver, is a rare thing in our media, and that Tina indulges in so many fantasies, spoken and unspoken about it, makes her rare and kinda fun. That it happens mostly in her head and she's pretty awkward and shy and nowhere near to acting out most of her fantasies, makes it more safe and gentle than it could be. That she's focusing on parts of the body that aren't sexual genitalia also helps lower the creep factor, at least for me.

That said, there is one aspect that does make it, and the character of Tina, more uncomfortable for me: having Tina voiced by a man can snap me out of the suspension of disbelief pretty quickly, and while it is funny (and the actor does a good job), it leaves me wondering if the show is trying to say something, that the two characters most in touch with their own sexuality are voiced by men. And there's my rant! Take it with copious grains of big, fat, Himalayan pink sea salt.

I think Tina may end up being a little bit more functional/high-functioning than Gail, and definitely happier.

I agree she's unique in that you never really see any female characters with those thoughts or dialogue, I think her hopelessly naive personality does make her much less perverse than she potentially could be too but it doesn't really change that she is the things I find unlikable in her. That those attributes aren't much worse or unique to her gender doesn't really ease the issues I have with her but I know it's just who she is, an incredibly skeevy girl I don't want to know but whose redeeming aspects even with all.... that up in her head brings still make her one of the breakout characters for the show and if anything represents a lot of the Bob's Burgers underlying ethos. She might end up slightly higher functioning than Gail but I've got to know how that zombie butt stuff shakes out for her (no pun).

It's a two-parter so I'm holding off on my horrible scorn until next week along with a nice appraisal of the fourth season overall, I hope you'll join me and counter what I'm saying.

And yes, that song is great but nice things are nice.

So, there is one thing that truly bugs me about the show, and last night, I realized what it was.

The scene where Bob points out that both Felix and Fanny tried to kill him and Fischoder, so they should both go to jail, and Fischoder attempts to bribe him, only Linda and the kids interrupt and nothing comes of it. I had such rage. Some of it over Felix getting away with it, but more about Linda and the kids' interruption and what it means for the financial health of the Belcher clan.

Lots of cartoons/sitcoms vary on the economic status of their characters. They can't afford to pay the bills this week, but come sweeps, they're able to go on expensive vacations to tourist traps on and off the continent. But Bob's Burgers seems to be firmly straddling the lower class versus the lower middle class. Bob seems to worry about money a lot. He can't afford to pay anyone else to help run the joint. He seems to be struggling to make ends meet.

And time after time, the kids will blow opportunities for Bob to get ahead, even a little. Sometimes, it's on principle - and that I can get. It's the random 'let's frustrate Dad from making any more money' thing that gets me. Although each of the Belcher children being monsters of the id - it's not totally unreasonable.

That Linda is as bad as the kids in this regard - that breaks suspension of disbelief. How can she not care? How can she be as sabotaging as the kids are and still be seen as a decent mom and a decent wife?

Unless it was established in the first season that the restaurant actually does a good deal of business, but Bob is so miserly that he complains about money troubles out of pure anxiety/personal foible -- I really don't get that aspect of the show, and most of the episodes where this type of situation occurs ends up being very off-putting to me.

I was okay with that more because I get Bob's Burgers is never a show where the characters really ever win. Bob will always futiley struggle with his finances and run his little burger shack. But the family's apathy can get wearying, yeah.

Also? I love the Pesto twins (not just because of Sarah Silverman but that helps.)

Bob's Burgers is back and unfortunately so is this thread. Hi, I'll be guiding you through season five with very thin reviews, barely informed opinion and harping about characters I don't like.

Okay, so first episode of the season, "Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl", is pretty good. Gene is a great character to hang an episode around because in some ways his earnest creativity helps to show exactly the sort of thing I love the show for; it's not cynical and calculating like a Louise episode nor just a perverted monotone drone of boredom like a Tina episode. No, a Gene episode is unbridled id and is wonderful for it. Even though there's no titles, just straight cold open it does set the scene for Gene and Courtney's competing musicals and what went down between the two. I like it due to the whole "past as retold by one character', not quite Rashomon as it's primarily one person at a time but you get the idea. The terrible musical pieces are kind of what keeps the show running and truly makes it a Gene episode as they're often far musically oriented and this is no exception, while "Electric Love" was an overrated pile of crap fans need to shut up about, this one truly captured the "bad school musical made in 25 minutes" feel they needed so yeah, I have no specifics about what I really liked, I just enjoyed it but it still gets the mark drop for Ollie and Andy appearing in the episode at all.

A-

I, for one, welcome the return of Bob Burgers and our new burger overlords.

I won't ask why or even how...