Bob's Burgers: The Show (And Tell) Must Go On (13x15)

A cute installment, for sure!

Cons:

I get that potty humor is central to Gene's character, but a plot line about how he ate a bunch of cheese and now he's backed up is just never going to be the funniest thing to me. There wasn't anything unique or clever about Gene's plot this week, I feel like I've seen it before and will see it again. Not bad, just not great either.

Pros:

Teddy is a character that has the power to really annoy me but also make me smile. This week was the latter experience. I love how earnest and intense he is about making his relationship work, but he's also got the attitude of like "wow this is boring and I don't like it" which is deeply relatable to me. Trying to force yourself to be interested in a type of content or entertainment for the sake of someone you care about almost never works. I like the way this was articulated, where it's okay for them to have different interests. And it can be exciting to learn about what your loved one loves, but you don't have to force an affinity for it if it's just not there.

I also love Linda and Bob just doing their thing, like Bob is irritated about Teddy's interference at the restaurant but he has that long-suffering attitude about it where it's just like... what are you gonna do, really. And Linda is pretty blasé about the whole thing, too. They work as a couple even though they have very little in common!

The highlight was definitely Louise and Tina putting themselves in legitimate peril on the beach, hunting down a cannonball for Louise to show at school for show-and-tell. I love stories about Louise on the cusp of growing up or leaving behind something that is important to her as little girl, and one of those is how fun and creative she is with her show-and-tell time at school. She wants something really big for her final one, since after fourth grade they stop doing it. So she and Tina try and find a cannonball that may have washed up on the beach. They end up in a cave while the tide is coming in, in serious peril of drowning, and while they do find a cannonball, it gets lost falling down a crevasse as they try and escape the waves! Louise is upset, but when she tells the story of her failure at show-and-tell, the class is enraptured and excited to hear her tale. This is a nice little lesson for Louise to learn, that it's fun to make up outrageous lies, but that the truth can sometimes be just as exciting as fiction.

I also love Tina as big sister trying to guide Louise towards this conclusion, while at the same time being her typical timid self, unable to assert her authority over whatever Louise wants to do at a given moment.

This was a cute one, probably my favorite in a while!

9/10