Episode Review: Bob's Burgers - "Mazel-Tina"

Bob's Burgers - "Mazel-Tina"

Tina episodes are often my favorite episodes of Bob's Burgers, because Tina is basically the heart of the show. She's the most vulnerable and insecure of the Belchers, so whenever an episode centers around her, it often lets us see a softer, more genuine side of the entire Belcher clan. That was certainly the case with "Mazel-Tina", an episode that actually let us see the softer side of the hardest and most cynical of all of the Belchers - Louise. Generally speaking, if an episode can effectively squeeze a genuinely sweet moment out of Louise, it's a great episode of Bob's Burgers.

"Mazel-Tina" also demonstrated just why Tina Belcher has become such an important television character for so many people. In a world where there are still characters like Meg Griffin, who reinforces the idea that being a lost teenager is something worthy of insult and ridicule, Tina is a bright light in how she's allowed to be confused and lost without being embarrassed about it. Most shows might've ended this episode with Tina being shamed for taking over Tammy's party. But what's so comforting about Bob's Burgers is that she's accepted despite her mistakes and her insecurities. The world of Bob's Burgers - or at least, the world in the eyes of the Belcher family - is that everybody's got their own weird thing. Tina's is that her budding sexuality sometimes causes her to go crazy and take over bat mitzfahs. Linda's is that her passion for food, culture and...well, pretty much everything...sometimes causes her to accidentally crash a wedding without even realizing it. Louie's is that her devious love of pranks occasionally gets her stuck inside a giant replica of a tweens' head. Even minor, one-off characters like Janet are given specific quirks that are treated with admiration - Bob's is so good at character work that it makes us feel actual triumph when Janet flat leaves Tammy to pursue her Broadway dreams, and we barely even knew her for five minutes.

This warm character building is what keeps Bob's Burgers at the top of my favorite shows list week after week. There's so much out there, not just on TV but anywhere in the media or really, even in our everyday lives - that tells us we need to be a certain way, that we shouldn't do that or this or that we need to fit some kind of mold, just because that's the way it is. Bob's Burgers says "fuck you" to that concept and tells us to just be whoever we want to be - in the warmest, sweetest, funniest and weirdest way possible.

* * * * * (5 stars out of 5)

Episode Reviews: Broad City - "Destination Wedding", Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing", Parks & Recreation - "New Slogan"

Whoa! Three episode reviews in one! I really am trying to take this thing seriously, aren't I?!


Broad City - "Destination Wedding"

Due to its beginnings as a web series, Broad City came out more fully formed than most shows do. Right from the first episode, it had an incredibly clear sense of what it wanted to be, and its characters were fully realized people pretty much from the first time they appeared on screen. And yet, Broad City continues to impress me more and more each week. The past few episodes, in particular, have seen the show starting to make a lot of interesting experiments with its direction and editing. Add that to the experimentally hilarious humor that solidified the shows' status in the first place, and you have one of the freshest and most unique shows on television. All of that coalesced incredibly well in "Destination Wedding" - the shows' strongest episode yet, and one of my favorite episodes of television so far this year.

"Destination Wedding" was great for many reasons, but what made it such a stand-out was that it hit so well on all of the aspects that Broad City is best at. The show works so well as a twisted love letter to New York City, lovingly exploiting everything that makes the city such a unique place to live - both the good and the bad. "Destination Wedding" got much of its best material from doing just that, whether it be the dignified rush of Grand Central Station, or the deeply unpleasant establishment that is Penn Station, or the unique traveling method that is Citibiking, or the horror of a Chinatown bus...whatever it is, Broad City knows exactly how to take it and turn it into something unique to its own comic voice, whether it be by having Abbi's boyfriend break up with her when she tries to take him to Penn Station, or having Abbi get drenched in a bunch of rancid fish on the Chinatown bus, or whatever twisted and beautiful comic scenario Broad City comes up with that manages to sum up city life in the most weirdly perfect way possible. But the best part of the show - and what elevates the show to "truly great" status, I think - is the bond it forms between Ilana and Abbi. Broad City is full of so much purely comic material that the show could work just fine without it, but the genuine friendship that its leads share adds a layer of vulnerability to the shows' zany humor, and those two aspects conjoining makes for some really compelling television. I don't know if any moment highlights this better than when Ilana finds out about Abbi and Darcy made out. It's funny, sure, but the sound dropping out managed to add to the humor and make us feel Ilana's hurt in the situation. That the show then led that into a scene that made the dumping of rancid fish both funny and emotionally upsetting is a testament to the unique, hilarious and weird that makes watching Broad City such a special experience.

* * * * * (5 stars out of 5)

Community - "VCR Maintenance and Educational Publishing" 

The scene pictured here is one of the funniest scenes Community has ever done, and one of the hardest I've laughed all year. Seriously. Any doubts that Community is still funny should be eliminated by that scene. I could not stop laughing. If you haven't seen it, do it. You owe it to yourself. YouTube "Dean rap" or something. It was so funny that the rest of the episode could've been...I don't know, the puppet episode, and I could've still liked it a little bit.

Luckily, the rest of the episode was pretty good, too! I especially liked the Abed/Rachel material - Rachel is such a perfect match for Abed and Brie Larson is such a great match for Community that it bums me out that she has to go film movies and can't just be a permanent member of the study group (or you know, Save Greendale committee, or whatever). Ever since "Herstory of Dance" (pretty much the only S4 episode I can integrate with the rest of the show), I've been impressed with how the show uses Rachel to challenge Abed and force him to more carefully consider the feelings of others. That worked incredibly well here and also tied into how Abed is being forced to confront himself now that Troy is gone. Troy connected with him despite his difficulties connecting back, but he can't get as lucky with Rachel, and the results are proving to be interesting. I'm hoping we can get Rachel back for at least a few more episodes next season (assuming/hoping there is one), because it's a really fascinating dynamic.

I was slightly less sure of the rest of the episode. I liked Annie attempting to reconcile with her brother, but I wanted more of it. That's a plot that deserves its own episode - Annie being separated from her family is quite a sad story, and I've always wanted to hear more about it. I wasn't really a huge fan of the textbook plot, although it had plenty of funny moments and lots of great Shirley lines. It just never quite made an impact the way I like my Community plots to. It didn't have enough time to get to the bottom of the character work it was trying to, and the result was a fitfully funny plot that seemingly existed just to full some time and so we didn't spend the entire thing in Annie and Abed's apartment. Still, the Annie/Abed material - and the Dean in the cold open! - were more than enough to make this another solid addition to a very enjoyable season.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

Parks and Recreation - "New Slogan"

"New Slogan" had a lot of little moments that I really enjoyed - from the pictured cold open where the Parks department discovered the joys of Ben's new site for the city, to Andy's discovery of Duke Silver, to some sweet material with April, Donna, and Tom, but it felt like yet another episode of Parks that was just biding time. It regretfully followed the "Leslie faces a silly problem that she has to try to make right" formula that has been repeated ad nauseam on this show lately, and this time it seemed to realize that it was treading no new ground here, treating the entire "oh no, the slogan everyone's voting for is a joke written in by a radio show!" crisis as more of a ridiculous joke than a serious plot (and not a particularly funny ridiculous joke). The show tried to tie it into the overarching plot of Leslie considering leaving Pawnee for the National Parks Department, but it didn't really feel natural, and the episode itself didn't do much to advance that plot forward at all.

I still get some joy from watching these characters, and I'm genuinely interested to see where Leslie goes next, so I'm not going to stop watching this show or anything. But the more time goes on, the more it becomes obvious that Parks is just waiting around until it can start setting up its endgame here. Honestly, I wish the show would just start it already. I would love to have Leslie decide to take the job and have the next (and likely last) season follow her to Chicago (perhaps taking the Parks department with her). It would give the show a much needed refreshment.

Still, an episode like this does prove that there's fun left to be had with these characters. The cold open and Andy's rant were the hardest I've laughed at this show in quite a long time, and a visit from Duke Silver is never a bad thing. I wish there was a little more to Parks than light fun right now, but light fun isn't always the worst thing in the world.

* * * 1/2 (3 1/2 stars out of 5)

Episode Reviews: New Girl - "Fired Up" and Brooklyn Nine-Nine - "Fancy Brugdom"

New Girl - "Fired Up"

Now that the trilogy of Abby Day has concluded, New Girl is back to basics, and "Fired Up" feels like a very basic episode of New Girl. Not in a bad way. But in its third season, New Girl spends much of its time posing some complex questions about its characters that it doesn't always feel like the simple hang-out sitcom it started out as. This is, perhaps, why the show has sort of fallen out of flavor with a lot of people (as its ratings would reflect), but I think I've made it clear how much I appreciate the work that New Girl puts into digging into its characters. It isn't always completely successful - I didn't really think the Sister three-parter worked as the examination of Jess the show wanted it to be - but the fact that it is willing to examine its characters so closely gives it some depth that isn't necessarily needed for a hang-out sitcom to work. 

Fired Up, though, felt like an episode the show could've done back in Season 1, when it was mostly just a fun show with occasional glimmers of depth. It was light, simple, and funny. It centered around two clear, basic plotlines that had plenty of gags and were well-executed overall. It didn't get too deep with its character work, but it was rooted in the heart of these characters enough to have some impact. And it re-discovered the surprisingly successful comic pairing of Jess and Coach, which worked so well in "Basketball" (one of the shows' all-time funniest episodes) and continues to work well here. I haven't always felt New Girl is using Damon Wayans Jr. to his full potential (certainly not as well as Happy Endings did - miss you every day), but pairing him with Zooey Deschanel seems to be a really great match. I think it's because they're both high-energy performers, and they tend to bring out the craziest in each other. I don't know that I could tolerate an entire show about just Jess and Coach, but when they're given a plotline together, it's seemingly guaranteed to be golden.

The truth is that New Girl could be a show this simple every week and still be good. It might even be more consistent, because the shows' soul-searching has led it to some questionable territory this season. In my opinion, it would be a far less interesting show. But it's still nice for a sitcom to sit down and relax every so often, especially one like New Girl, which has had a lot to prove this season. And if it's going to give us scenes like Nick Miller forgetting how to ride a bike, or Winston Furgason, then hey, I'm not complaining.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - "Fancy Brugdom"

I like nearly everything about Brooklyn Nine-Nine at this point, but if there is one quibble I consistently have with this show, it's the plotting. I don't expect every sitcom to have intricate, story-circle plotting like Community or anything, but I find that Brooklyn too often relies on overly-familiar beats to tell its stories, to the point where I can almost pinpoint everything that's going to happen. It also is incredibly reliant on the typical A/B/C plot format, which is sometimes a necessity but is always one of my least favorite ways for an ensemble sitcom to function. Obviously, a show with a cast as large as this one cannot always have everyone in the same story, but if you're going to to split everyone up into 3 different plots, I would prefer that the characters still interact with each other at some point, or at the very least, that the plots have some sort of thematic connections. Telling 3 completely separate stories is a way to ensure that none of the stories will have the time to make the impact they're intended to.

"Fancy Brugdom" didn't suffer too much from this problem, actually. There are 3 different plots at play here, true, but they all seem to be about these characters being honest with themselves and trying to use that honesty to better themselves, which has subtly been the shows' thesis all season. Honestly, I don't think Brooklyn is *all* that interested in character development, but it's interested enough that it's clearly pushing its characters to some sort of season endgame, and "Fancy Brugdom" was a nice step in that direction. Rosa learning to apologize is simplistic, but it's earned because we've been moving towards Rosa learning how to deal with people all season. Terry struggling to stay on a diet that he's on to help out of his wife is sweet and consistent with his character. Boyle being pushed to be honest with his wife is a nice push for his character. None of this is world-beating stuff, but it's just enough that we get a sense that we're supposed to care about these peoples' growth, and we do. Of these three, the one the show wants us to care about the most is Boyle, who is forced to be honest with his wife-to-be for the first time, otherwise he could risk losing everything he has in Brooklyn. And I thought most of this was quite well-executed. Using Jake as a catalyst for Boyle to be honest with himself was especially great, because it allowed a more mature side of Jake to shine through, a side of his character that's more than welcome. (I criticized Jake a lot in my earlier reviews of this show, but I think the show has been increasingly discovering how to use him properly. I don't think he'll ever be my favorite sitcom lead, but he's turning into a pretty good character). 

The only part of "Fancy Brugdom" that really left me cold was the ending, which completely cuts away from the moment where Boyle faces his fiance and tells her the truth and instead hastily informs us that it went okay but there's "more to talk about". I'm assuming this plotline will be back next week, but it feels like a cop-out to spend the entire episode building up to a big character moment for Boyle and then to not show it. In the end, that's my biggest problem with Brooklyn Nine-Nine's plotting - it often feels too scared to hit on the really interesting points about its characters, and instead goes for easier and more conventional endings. The reason why I thought last week's "Tactical Village" was the shows' best thus far is it gave us a sort of ambiguous, melancholy ending where none of the characters really got what they want. That sort of risk is what separates a good show from a great one. Brooklyn Nine-Nine is currently a very good show that is very close to being great, and I'm hoping it'll take that leap soon.

* * * * (4 stars out of 5)

RANDOM NOTE: Okay, I didn't know where to put this in the review, but I was impressed by a lot of the jokes and the editing in this episode. A lot of the jokes were fairly dark for a light-hearted network sitcom (Boyle/Jake's suicide pact and Santiago hoping Scully would die), and there were some very creative editing choices, particularly when Santiago dropped her almond on the floor. I like that the show is starting to take some risks in those departments. 

Episode Review: Bob's Burgers - "The Frond Files"

Let's see how this goes!

Episode Review: 
Bob's Burgers - "The Frond Files"

After what was about a month and a half but seemed like about six years, Bob's Burgers finally returns with "The Frond Files". This episode marked a bit of a departure for the show, as it utilized the three-vignette structure that has become common in animated comedies over the years thanks to The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror episodes. Unlike the MacFarlane sitcoms or even The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers generally doesn't mess with its format too much, so seeing the show attempt this was pretty interesting. I am generally not a huge fan of the vignette structure - I like the classic Simpsons Treehouse of Horrors, but they're rarely among my favorite output from that show (save for Treehouse of Horror V and the excellent Shining parody), and I've found the swings that later-day Simpsons and Family Guy take at the approach tend to be kind of a sly way to tell a few half-assed stories without having to commit to a full narrative. But this is still-in-its-golden-era Bob's Burgers, and nothing is half-assed. The Frond Files was a hilarious, well-executed form experiment for the show that still managed to inject some of the staple acceptance and sweetness that has come to define the show.

The Frond Files' excuse for its three-vignette structure is that the kids have each written stories that Mr. Frond has deemed "inappropriate" to hang at the school's "Why I Love Wagstaff" fair. Bob and Linda are curious as to just how bad the stories are, so Mr. Frond allows them to read them through, and the episode takes us from there. Similar to the Treehouse of Horror episodes from The Simpsons, these stories sort of served as a way for Bob's to put its characters in genres and situations that wouldn't be possible in the shows' universe. Granted, the show often finds inventive ways to work in genre parodies (after all, one of the shows' best episodes is a straight-up E.T. homage), but this format was still a nice way to get us to see, say, Tina seducing a bunch of zombies in a parody of horror movies in a way that would've greatly threatened the fabric of the show otherwise. The three stories are sort of exactly what you would expect to be - Louise's centers around a prank leading to a futuristic Mr. Frond coming to wreck havoc, Gene's is about farts that destroy the school, and Tina's is her much-documented Erotic Zombie Friend Fiction, and they all have enough little details that made it obvious these stories were supposed to be written by the Belcher kids rather than...well, the writers. (This is most evident in Tina's story, which sees everyone acting a little awkwardly, even the ever-confident Louise). Little touches like this are what make Bob's Burgers such a rewarding experience, even outside of just pure laughs.

If I have one complaint about the episode, it's that the stories felt a bit too much like what we would expect from each character. This isn't a bad thing, per cay - it shows that the show knows its characters, which is great. But Bob's Burgers tends to reveal surprising new things about its characters and their world in ways that you might not expect from an animated sitcom, and that aspect was mostly absent here. It's not world-sinking. Not every episode has to cover new ground, especially for a show as reliably funny and entertaining as Bob's Burgers. It's just what separates the very best episodes from the rest of the pack. Still, what the episode lacked in character development, it made up for in sweetness - the fact that Bob and Linda actually support their kids stories is another example of just how damn supportive this show is. We've seen the "kids write a horrifying story" plotline on plenty of shows, but none of those shows found the parents actually supporting the kids. That's what makes Bob's Burgers the most warmly unique comedy on television.

* * * * 1/2 (4 1/2 stars out of 5)

This blog gets two MeowMeowBeanz

Hi! What's up? Cool! Awesome! Here's some NBC Thursday night thoughts:



Community

For the most part, Community is not a show that's all that interested in making overt social statements. Sure, you could argue that its whole thesis statement is about the importance of community and it frequently touches on ideas about leadership and group mentality and what have you, but generally, it's a very character-based show that gets most of its plot materials from digging into and exploring the dynamics between its characters, not any grand political statements. I don't think it's a stretch to say that App Development and Condiments is the most the show has ever delved into social satire, and it delves into it with incredible skill. Sure, a lot of the satire in this episode was through a pop-culture-referencing lense, but underneath it all, this was an episode that dealt with how we present ourselves in the digital age and how we'll change ourselves for approval. And I was really, really impressed with how the show put a spin on this that felt both original and unique to itself, while still being an incredibly fun time. What I liked the most was how the show actually appointed Britta to show just how ridiculous everyone was being, giving her the most power she has in ages. This has been a great season for Britta, to the point where I very well might call her the MVP of the season (though we still have five episodes to go).

The show did attempt to give this episode a more typically Community story about character growth, with Jeff and Shirley learning how both of them have a similar thirst for power. Jeff and Shirley is perhaps the shows' most quietly great character pairing - they're similar in so many ways they don't realize. The show doesn't go to them for stories as much as it should, but the few times they've done so have generally been incredibly rewarding. The gold standard for Jeff/Shirley episodes remains Season 3's "Foosball and Nocturnal Vigilantism", which revealed that both of them have a dark past with the game of foosball. It's hard not to compare any Jeff/Shirley story to that episode, and honestly, this one wasn't quite up to snuff. It very much felt like the show putting together a character story for this episode simply because it felt like it had to, and it all felt rushed. "Foosball" and even Season 1's "Social Psychology" dealt with this concept much better. So in a rare instance, tonight's Community worked for me very well on a more general, social commentary level and less well on a character level. But after last week's stand-out and completely character-focused episode, I didn't mind the lessened character work too much, especially when it leads to material that's as great as the rest of this episode was. I give it four MeowMeowBeanz.

Parks and Recreation

Tonight's Parks & Rec did a respectable job of explaining the completely inexplicable idea that Leslie Knope, after spending the better part of the past year being tormented and disrespected by the town of Pawnee, would actually continue to work in Pawnee. The best parts of this fairly unspectacular season have been the ones that legitimately question Leslie's career choices, from the great season premiere to the effectively surprising recall vote to Jen Barkley's advice to her in the 100th episode. Leslie is clearly on the cusp of moving on from the small town she started in, and that's confirmed when two members from the National Parks Department offer her a position in Chicago during this episode. She temporarily turns them down, saying that she can't leave her town until she knows that it's in good hands.

Honestly, I don't really buy it. Even someone as passionate and dedicated as Leslie would seize the opportunity at getting actual recognition somewhere. The reason that Leslie doesn't take the job yet is because the show is not over yet, and this is a show about Leslie and Pawnee. This has been a big part of what's holding both the show and the character back recently - we're simply at a point where most of these characters are going to be past the Parks department and even past Pawnee, but because the show keeps marching on, they have to unrealistically stay where they are. All of that said, I like that we seem to be building towards career movement for Leslie (and I do expect her to take the new job by seasons' end). It gives the season a clearer sense of focus, particularly for the Leslie Knope character. The reason why I do think this season has been slightly better than last for the show (although it still is kind of just 'there' too much of the time) is because there's an underlying momentum of Leslie realizing she deserves better than what she has. The show has been making Pawnee far too comically awful to show us that, but it's interesting character movement, and it gives a show that's clearly showing its age some forward momentum.

The rest of the episode was basically your typical Parks Season 6 fare. Ron continues to be Flanderized, and I'm not entirely sure what the point of giving him a wife and kid was when he mostly just does the same stuff anyway only now with a wife and kid. Tom's storyline was marginally better, but this is Tom's third business now, right? It's hard to get too excited at this point. The characters of Parks continue to run around the same circles, waiting for the clock to tick out. Hopefully the show starts pushing them towards and endgame soon.