Bob's Burgers: Don't Worry, Be Hoopy (15x18)

Another Tina-centric episode! Interesting to have two in a row.

Cons:

I could have used a punchline to Teddy's involvement in the episode. He's afraid of how steep and high up the bleachers are, and I kept waiting for him to fall, or for him to bravely descend the steps and make a big deal about not falling, or something. But instead, nothing really came of it? He stood up to wave his foam finger and then sat down because he was too scared. Not much going on there.

Pros:

I love the episodes where we go into each of the character's minds and get a different version of the story, they're always so fun. This one's theme was anxiety, about parenting and about doing hard things and being brave. It felt very realistic to me that while Bob and Linda were both stressing out that their bad pep talks had gotten into Tina's head, the reality was that she hadn't even really been listening to them at all, and her own stresses tied back to an earlier instance with ballet from when she was little.

Bob's Burgers: Wild Steal-ions (15x17)

Poor Tina! This was a really fun one.

Cons:

This so sort of random but is there... "discourse" about this show and how the Belchers used their children for unpaid labor? Like is it a little fucked up that they can't operate the restaurant without their three kids helping? I mean, I'm not actually mad at it or anything but it did occur to me that it's a little wild that these kids have to volunteer their time to the family business seemingly against their will. I think we think of that family business aspect when it comes to working on a farm or something but when it's a restaurant business it feels stranger to me, especially considering just how young they all are - Tina isn't even in high school!

Pros:

I did really love the joke where Bob and Linda debated having more kids so they could have some help running the restaurant. "Did they graduate? Are they in college? No... we can't afford that, right?" lol. I also liked Teddy roasting the restaurant by saying that things were starting to fall apart without the kids there to clean the menus and fill up the ketchups. Teddy is such a funny regular to have at the diner, he's so rude but you know he'd never ever consider going elsewhere.

Bob's Burgers: The Shell Game (15x16)

Aww poor Bob lol.

Cons:

As always I find myself noticing the things that I wish the episode had, more than having problems with what was there - I feel like we haven't had something Gene-centric in a while and I was noticing that he didn't have a ton to do here!

Pros:

Whenever Mr. Fischoeder shows up you know it's going to be a truly weird time for everybody, and this episode was the epitome of that. There's a tortoise, it needs an official guardian, for some reason Bob is in the running along with a bunch of other strange figures from Fischoeder's social circle. There's something almost... sweet? About Fischoeder wanting to choose Bob for this task and give him $10,000 a year, and we never really get a punchline where it turns out Bob was the choice for some degrading reason or anything. It's kind of nice and seems genuine, as much as Fischoeder is capable of that.