*Make sure to check out my Listmania series, which is currently running for the next few weeks. Bob's Burgers recently made my entry titled "My Top 15 Favorite Shows of 2012." A lot of great stuff is happening to wrap up 2012, so please stay tuned for more.
Welcome to TV Recap, in which we look at modern shows and analyze them on an episode-to-episode basis. This one focuses on the cartoon sitcom Bob's Burgers, a very funny show that is capable of rivaling old school Simpsons in terms of irreverent humor and off the wall zaniness. With a cast of modern alternative comedian heroes, the story follows the Belchers as they run a burger joint. Join me as I take part in dissecting the show in its first full season. Check back on Tuesdays for the next exciting installment.
Welcome to TV Recap, in which we look at modern shows and analyze them on an episode-to-episode basis. This one focuses on the cartoon sitcom Bob's Burgers, a very funny show that is capable of rivaling old school Simpsons in terms of irreverent humor and off the wall zaniness. With a cast of modern alternative comedian heroes, the story follows the Belchers as they run a burger joint. Join me as I take part in dissecting the show in its first full season. Check back on Tuesdays for the next exciting installment.
We have come to one of my more anticipated episodes of Bob's Burgers this season. After what I felt was a very original take on the Halloween season (and better yet, their flawless Thanksgiving episode), I have eagerly awaited to see how they would skewer one of the most overplayed holidays in TV culture: Christmas. This would be our first time with the Belchers on such a holiday, and I have been looking forward to it for awhile. Luckily the show continues its winning streak with another great, bizarre, original episode that pretty much embodies the true meaning of the holidays.
The episode begins at Bob's Burgers as the family is standing around talking about the upcoming season. Bob (Jon Benjamin) and Linda (John Roberts) ask their children what they want for Christmas. Gene (Eugene Mirman) wants the sled from Cool Runnings, Louise (Kristen Schaal) wants an apartment (but not a studio), and Tina wants a dry erase board to write down her thoughts, which includes a picture of her writing "Penis fly trap." However, Bob tells them that he wouldn't be able to afford any of that stuff, which bums them all out.
Shortly after, Mike the mailman (Tim Meadows) comes in to drop mail. First he asks for his payment, which he thinks is a little low. Bob spots him more money, to which Mike states that if he didn't pay, he would have given him the mail a day later. However, because he cooperated, he gave Bob a letter. The kids think that it is involving a lawsuit with Santa, but as Bob reads it, he discovers that it is for a deceased store owner named Ernest G. Lombard, who owned Lombard's. The Belchers are now the owners of a storage facility, which contains what, they do not know.
Heading down to the storage facility, they ponder what could be inside. Could it be an old car? As they lift it up, they discover that among the boxes lies Chet (Zach Galifianakis), who used to work in displays at Lombard's. Through an elaborate conversation, Chet somehow gets talked into staying in the basement at Bob's Burgers despite Bob's disapproval. The kids see this as winning a cave guy. Also, because it costs money to keep the storage facility, they move everything out at the same time.
With Chet in the basement, the Belchers try to figure out what to do for Christmas. Upon waking up the next day, they discover that Chet is in a window display as a caroler. He doesn't move for hours on end and that ends up driving business. As a result, the Belchers talk and decide that it would be a great way to drive up business and get the kids nice gifts. This is followed by a montage showing the children and Chet making numerous window displays that mesmerize the town and even get them on TV.
When the day is through and everything is shutting down, Chet comes back to life and shares the secret to why he is so in love with the mannequin form. He used to be one at Lombard's, where he stayed in a window with Nadine, a mannequin who fell over, lost her hand, and now has two left hands. They fell in love and after wondering which hand to put the ring on, things seemed perfect. One day, Nadine was solid and Chet never saw her again. It devastated him, especially as he became a real man. Linda and Bob yell over whether or not to keep him based on his fetish.
The next day they wake up on Christmas Eve to see that Chet's new display is a nightmare. He claims that it is the window into his soul. It is a bunch of desecrated holiday icons with ketchup bottles serving as throbbing blood veins. Bob tries to find a way to stall opening up the place and keep from offending the townspeople. Gene, Tina, and Louise decide to go on a quest to find Nadine with help of their father while Linda stalls everyone with bad Christmas poetry.
They track it down to a sex shop store. Bob stalls the Owner (Fred Stoller) as the kids turn on a series of vibrators that crawl across the floor. Bob grabs the mannequin and the kids spray lube on the floor to slow the Owner down. When Chet sees Nadine again, the two are madly in love and everything is forgiven. Chet quickly throws together a manger scene where Gene plays baby Jesus. Everything is saved.
Or is until the Owner tracks them down and sees the window display. He gets into a fight over Nadine, which causes the towns people to run away in disgust. With the sets ruined, it all comes down to who should get Nadine. Louise decides to reach into the cash register and pulls out money to give to the Owner for the mannequin, which is roughly $271. Bob and Linda are scared, because that was their money for gifts. However, as the kids all say that they're fine with giving the Owner the money to make Chet happy. In an odd twist, everyone is happy and Chet can stay until New Year's. The episode ends with the kids getting random junk from the storage facility. They are of course enthused.
Rating: 4 out of 5
In some weird way, I found the ending to be very sweet. Giving money to a sex shop owner so that a man with a mannequin fetish can have a happy Christmas? It may seem like a strange concept, but it actually feels like Bob's Burgers found a way to turn the "give to others" concept and turn it into perverse genius. Even if it turns out that Nadine's head pops off at the end and Chet is basically kissing the head, there is something that brings home the concepts of Christmas fully. Even the lousy gifts at the end show some form of sacrifice that makes this surprisingly heartfelt.
I also love it when the show gets the entire family together for an episode. While there are moments when the show can get by just having two or three together, having them all work out weird situations causes the family dynamic to strengthen and therefore not only push the plot into weird, interesting directions, but make us believe that this is a dysfunctional family as well as a loving one. Bob's desire to get rid of a weird man seems like a normal concept, but bring in the family choosing sides for which parent is the better one is almost genius.
Chet is also an interesting character, as there is no word on when he would snap. True, he has a weird fetish, and nobody knows if this guy actually evolved from a mannequin (though based on the show's somewhat continuity towards realism, probably not). In some ways, the mythic aspect makes him a Santa figure, who saves Bob's Burgers by driving in business and making everyone happy. However, when he snaps, he snaps hard. Chet may be one of my favorite psychopaths that have appeared on the show just because he has simple desires that don't bother anyone, but cannot accept when people criticize him. Even the sex shop owner was a nice touch in turning the traditional Christmas meaning wrap-up into some perverted fetish commentary.
This is overall one of the better holiday episodes that I've seen so far this year (another solid one is the Spongebob Squarepants stop motion special) and continues to make Bob's Burgers one of the superior cartoons currently airing on TV. At very least, this episode could have been an extended montage of random Christmas window displays, and it would have been a great episode. I put in two, but see the episode to see more brilliant little pieces. This show went all out for their Christmas special, and I can only hope that they manage to knock out all of the holidays before they get cancelled (hopefully not for years to come).
When the day is through and everything is shutting down, Chet comes back to life and shares the secret to why he is so in love with the mannequin form. He used to be one at Lombard's, where he stayed in a window with Nadine, a mannequin who fell over, lost her hand, and now has two left hands. They fell in love and after wondering which hand to put the ring on, things seemed perfect. One day, Nadine was solid and Chet never saw her again. It devastated him, especially as he became a real man. Linda and Bob yell over whether or not to keep him based on his fetish.
The next day they wake up on Christmas Eve to see that Chet's new display is a nightmare. He claims that it is the window into his soul. It is a bunch of desecrated holiday icons with ketchup bottles serving as throbbing blood veins. Bob tries to find a way to stall opening up the place and keep from offending the townspeople. Gene, Tina, and Louise decide to go on a quest to find Nadine with help of their father while Linda stalls everyone with bad Christmas poetry.
They track it down to a sex shop store. Bob stalls the Owner (Fred Stoller) as the kids turn on a series of vibrators that crawl across the floor. Bob grabs the mannequin and the kids spray lube on the floor to slow the Owner down. When Chet sees Nadine again, the two are madly in love and everything is forgiven. Chet quickly throws together a manger scene where Gene plays baby Jesus. Everything is saved.
Or is until the Owner tracks them down and sees the window display. He gets into a fight over Nadine, which causes the towns people to run away in disgust. With the sets ruined, it all comes down to who should get Nadine. Louise decides to reach into the cash register and pulls out money to give to the Owner for the mannequin, which is roughly $271. Bob and Linda are scared, because that was their money for gifts. However, as the kids all say that they're fine with giving the Owner the money to make Chet happy. In an odd twist, everyone is happy and Chet can stay until New Year's. The episode ends with the kids getting random junk from the storage facility. They are of course enthused.
Rating: 4 out of 5
In some weird way, I found the ending to be very sweet. Giving money to a sex shop owner so that a man with a mannequin fetish can have a happy Christmas? It may seem like a strange concept, but it actually feels like Bob's Burgers found a way to turn the "give to others" concept and turn it into perverse genius. Even if it turns out that Nadine's head pops off at the end and Chet is basically kissing the head, there is something that brings home the concepts of Christmas fully. Even the lousy gifts at the end show some form of sacrifice that makes this surprisingly heartfelt.
I also love it when the show gets the entire family together for an episode. While there are moments when the show can get by just having two or three together, having them all work out weird situations causes the family dynamic to strengthen and therefore not only push the plot into weird, interesting directions, but make us believe that this is a dysfunctional family as well as a loving one. Bob's desire to get rid of a weird man seems like a normal concept, but bring in the family choosing sides for which parent is the better one is almost genius.
Chet is also an interesting character, as there is no word on when he would snap. True, he has a weird fetish, and nobody knows if this guy actually evolved from a mannequin (though based on the show's somewhat continuity towards realism, probably not). In some ways, the mythic aspect makes him a Santa figure, who saves Bob's Burgers by driving in business and making everyone happy. However, when he snaps, he snaps hard. Chet may be one of my favorite psychopaths that have appeared on the show just because he has simple desires that don't bother anyone, but cannot accept when people criticize him. Even the sex shop owner was a nice touch in turning the traditional Christmas meaning wrap-up into some perverted fetish commentary.
This is overall one of the better holiday episodes that I've seen so far this year (another solid one is the Spongebob Squarepants stop motion special) and continues to make Bob's Burgers one of the superior cartoons currently airing on TV. At very least, this episode could have been an extended montage of random Christmas window displays, and it would have been a great episode. I put in two, but see the episode to see more brilliant little pieces. This show went all out for their Christmas special, and I can only hope that they manage to knock out all of the holidays before they get cancelled (hopefully not for years to come).
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