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)
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