Bob's Burgers: Advice Things Are Ad-Nice (15x10)

Going to rapid-fire this one, I'm on a bit of a time crunch today.

Cons:

I wasn't particularly interested in the Teddy subplot this week, it felt very paint by numbers to me... Teddy gets in too deep with some shenanigans, and then succeeds at the last second but only kinda sorta? I guess I wanted to see more of this secret society and maybe meet some fun and wild side characters that populate that world. Maybe we'll circle back to this concept another time and get some of that.

Pros:

The core plot this week involves Tina being volun-told to run an advice column in the school paper. She immediately tells her siblings that she's the anonymous advice-giver, but her big secret doesn't really lead to much at first, because nobody writes in. Then Louise, feeling bad for her sister, steals Tina's journal and uses it to fabricate messages from an insecure eighth grader. Linda gets roped in to making the messages sound more authentic.

I just thought the central conceit of this one was delightfully insane. We get a scenario where Tina is writing heart-felt messages with sincere advice to a person who ends up being, not only her sister and her mother, but actually a fictionalized version of herself, because it's her own insecurities being parroted back to her. And the loving and charming dialogue between them ends up capturing the hearts of the whole school, as people hear their insecurities aired out in the open and responded to with kindness. And then Tammy claims that the anonymous advice-seeker is herself, wanting to ride high on the attention of the moment, but then immediately doesn't want to lay claim to all of the gross things this anonymous person was confessing.

I love episodes that allow Tina to be the winner, and this one totally qualified, as she not only got to be the secret star of the school for a while, but also got to stand up to Tammy and take back the credit for something that's rightfully hers. I love the "I am Spartacus" thing that starts up, saving the Belchers from humiliation. Such silly fun!

That's all I've got for now on this one, see ya for the next!

8/10