Bob's Burgers: Dog Christmas Day After Afternoon (15x09)

Christmas chaos with the Belchers! I love it.

Cons:

It's another story where Louise has to learn not to be selfish, and give something up so someone else can have a good experience - I love this story, but I have seen it a bunch of times on this show. I almost wish Gene had been the one to bond with the puppy, since it was his chocolate misadventure that started the whole thing, and then we could have a Gene-centric plot, which almost never happens

Pros:

The basic conceit of this one is that the kids really want a handheld video game console of some sort, and Bob and Linda can't afford it, leading to a crestfallen Christmas morning. I loved the bit about the kids remembering all their super obvious hints to their parents, and then the parents remembering all their super obvious hints that it wasn't going to happen - but of course, Christmas hope rings eternal, and the kids don't listen to their parents when they talk...

I loved the kids being completely unimpressed by Bob and Linda's nostalgic toy without a screen, and the despondent way the parents responded to their kids having such a sad Christmas. It's tough when money stuff gets in the way of giving kids what they want - and it's tough when what kids want is something material that costs a lot of money! Not really a good way to solve that dilemma.

Going out to look at the Christmas lights is the distraction they come up with, and they end up taking Mort's hearse because their own car won't start. In the end, Gene feeds his dark chocolate, which he thinks is gross, to a cute puppy he finds in the neighborhood, which leads to a mad chase when the family realizes they only have a half hour to find the puppy and make it throw up, since chocolate is poison to dogs!

I do love an episode where the Belcher family all become united on a quest together, and this was a great example of that. In the end, Louise is able to crawl into a decorative igloo and befriend the dog, and they manage to get it to throw up, to the chagrin of the house's owners who now have a bunch of dog vomit in their yard. Louise and the other kids want to keep the puppy, but a man runs up and declares that the dog is his, a gift for his little girl who is devastated her new pet has gone missing. Louise reluctantly hands over her new friend, and the man hands over a big stack of cash as a thank you.

And so... the kids get their video game thing after all! It's a funny moment at the end where Bob is like... I guess money saved the day, but Linda insists it was Christmas magic, what with them going out and saving a dog (that Gene put in peril in the first place) and got rewarded for their good deed!

Also, just as a final note, that dog really was so stinkin' cute.

Fun episode!

9/10