[Bob’s Burgers] "Full Bar" Recap

[Ubiquitous]

by Rowan Kaiser

This is the first fall television season for which Bob�s Burgers has
been live. That would seem to be irrelevant except for one important
difference between the fall and the spring: holiday episodes. More
specifically, a Halloween episode, because most of those other holidays
do very little to warm this cynical critic�s heart (sorry, TV Club
Advent Calendar; I wrote the one about poop). This is because Halloween
is comedy gold.

The visual palette for a TV show is important, and Halloween alters it
with its costumes. It�s easy to pick up on in cartoons, because their
characters are almost always drawn in the same fashion each week, so any
deviation is notable. But it�s still there in live-action shows. You
don�t necessarily see it until there�s something drastic, like
Community�s Britta in a squirrel costume. But sometimes, those drastic
changes can reveal important aspects of characters� personalities, in
the same way that donning a mask can help non-TV people perform and
reveal different parts of themselves. It�s a convenient way to do
something new with the characters, both externally and internally.

Or, to put it in a simpler terms: The Bob�s Burgers kids get dressed up
in Halloween costumes and go trick-or-treating on the rich people
island. If that�s not a fine premise for an episode of this show, I
don�t know what is. I mean, it has Gene dressed as �Queen Latifah from
her U.N.I.T.Y. Phase.� Louise and Tina, dressed as Edward Scissorhands
and a Mommy Mummy, are still basically Louise and Tina. Gene, on the
other hand, feels just slightly different. Maybe it�s just how he looks,
maybe it�s a nudge from the writers, maybe it�s a few lucky lines, or
maybe it�s projection on my end, but Gene�s a little more free. He�s
happy and witty (in his own way) and has most of the episode�s best
lines, like �What just happened!? How does this not topple your
economy!?� when given full chocolate bars.

The kids get those full bars when, trick-or-treating alone for the first
time, they get dragged by Louise to King�s Island, where they believe
that the candy will be better. They�re right, but at what cost? A bunch
of teenaged boys start to chase the trick-or-treaters as part of a
tradition called �Hell Hunt.� This shifts the episode into an 80s
adventure movie mode, starting with The Warriors. It�s fun, but it�s a
little predictable, especially given that Bob�s Burgers has gone to this
well before. Still, giving the kids their own adventure is never really
a bad thing, especially when it involves Louise using a cell phone to
control teenaged boys.

On the other hand, the parents� plot never comes together. Bob and Linda
end up at Teddy�s Halloween party. I theoretically like the idea of
giving the ever-present, rarely-examined Teddy more of a role, but in
practice, he�s much less funny. His guinea pig ends up dead at his
Halloween party, which turns the story into a murder mystery. But
instead of utilizing that format for character development and jokes
based on all the people there, it�s mostly Teddy being somewhat crazy
and Bob itching to leave, and it ends up slightly disappointing, given
the potential for greatness that a Halloween murder mystery should have.
Still, the entire episode has a can�t-miss premise, and it doesn�t miss.

Stray observations:

�I�d Hit That Boxing Gym
��We�re born alone, we die alone, and in between, we trick-or-treat
alone.�
��Mmmm. Taco on the toilet. Why doesn�t everyone do this? AGHHH!� wins
the best line of the evening.
�Maybe it�s just me, but �killing someone�s beloved pet� is a pretty
high degree of difficulty for a comedy to cross. It could have been
worse, but I�m not sure why�d you go there for a B-plot.

--
"Re-electing Obama is like backing The Titanic up and hitting the
iceberg a second time."