Bob’s Burgers fills the huge, dark hole in my heart that The Simpsons created (by, you know, overstaying its welcome since season nine). True, Bob’s Burgers has totally different characters and a different formula than The Simpsons, but it has the same warm-and-fuzzy family sentimentality underneath all of the snark, just as The Simpsons did in its golden days of yore. This is a strikingly rare trait in sitcoms nowadays, as most have surrendered to a more cynical, ironic edge, with shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Family Guy. While the cynicism certainly has a great deal of comedic value (what is comedy without darkness?), it’s always good to settle down to a sweeter show where you’re sure everyone loves and supports each other, no matter how weird they are. This is why I’m thrilled with how little Bob’s Burger’s changed in its sixth season.
The show follows the Belcher family, who own a small burger restaurant on the East Coast. The parents (long-suffering Bob and his enthusiastic wife Linda) and their three kids (jokester Gene, mini-supervillain Louise and awkward tween Tina) deal with the outlandish shenanigans of their everyday life.
Let’s start with the season six premiere, “Sliding Bobs,” in which, after seeing that Bob is losing his mustache hair, the Belcher family speculates what would happen to Bob and Linda’s relationship if Bob never had his mustache. This episode strays a bit from the normal Bob’s Burgers shenanigans, instead, just having the Belchers sit around and think up crazy theories about how Bob’s mustache factors into Linda’s attraction toward him. There’s a reason I am very pleased with this episode as a season opener. It does what the show does best: show the clashing qualities of the characters, and keep the characters together in the end.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: isn’t that just what sitcoms are? A bunch of wacky characters clashing with one another until the big resolution?
Yes, but Bob’s Burgers is a little different. Instead of making the differences between the characters the source of conflict, they fuel the resolution. In the case of “Sliding Bobs,” there’s no real conflict involved, but instead, there is a lovely gelling of each character’s idiosyncrasies. It works not only as an episode, but as a 22-minute package of the best elements of the show.
The second episode of this season, “The Land Ship,” is a bit more standard fare in terms of what you find on Bob’s Burgers (though a little weaker than “Sliding Bobs”). The episode focuses on Tina trying to find her “bad side,” as the rest of the family deals with the issue of the addition of porta-potties in front of the restaurant for a parade. This episode is an example of how the show can play it safe in terms of episode formula (the standard a-story, b-story), but then fall flat in terms of character interaction. We don’t see much of the family interacting with each other, as it’s mostly just Tina and her thoughts. Ignoring the family’s dynamic makes for a pretty mediocre episode joke-wise.
It’s difficult to be too disappointed, though, because Tina’s mere presence on screen is usually comedic gold. But this is one of those “too much of a good thing” situations. Her character works best when she’s working off other people. For example, in a previous season when Bob tries to teach her how to drive a car, Tina’s monotoned “uhh” as a response to her father’s panicked screams as she drives dangerously is what makes the whole scene. The attempt in “The Land Ship” to make her more of an individual character is pretty weak, even if it does allow for some funny moments.
The third episode, the Halloween-themed “The Hauntening” is a welcome return to form. When Louise claims that she can no longer be scared by haunted houses, Bob and Linda make their own haunted house out of an abandoned home in an attempt to scare her. When their attempt fails, the family decides to head home, but they find that they have a flat tire and get stuck at the abandoned house, where terror ensues. This episode combines the wacky antics of the family with the joke-a-second dialogue that results from the interactions between the characters. The show’s ability to create snappy dialogue while maintaining the sentimentality that makes the show so loveable really shines through in this episode.
The sixth season of Bob’s Burgers is looking pretty solid so far. The series is not doing anything new, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s always been a consistently funny, quirky, animated sitcom and a spiritual successor to The Simpsons, thanks to its sentimentality. When it stays true to the characters and their interactions, it’s great. Breaking up these characters, despite adhering to the otherwise successful episode formula, makes for mediocrity. The current season of Bob’s Burgers is worth watching, whether you’ve seen the show before or not.
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