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)