TV Assessment: Bob’s Burgers’ 10th Season Is Candy and Comforting as Ever
The Pitch: As Bob’s Burgers enters its 10th (!) season, the season premiere, “The Ring (However Not Scary)”, sees Bob (H. Jon Benjamin) hatching a plan for his upcoming anniversary to Linda (John Roberts) — giving her the flamboyant diamond engagement ring she by no means received throughout their preliminary courtship. There’s only one drawback: the Belcher youngsters. Tina (Dan Mintz), Gene (Eugene Mirman), and Louise (Kristen Schaal) already stumbled upon the ring whereas looking for presents of their “super-secret hiding place” within the closet, and now it’s caught on Gene’s finger. And on the day they’re headed to the water park, no much less! As their anniversary creeps ever nearer, Bob and the children wrestle in that quintessential Belcher strategy to get the ring again earlier than Linda finds out.
Fellowship of the Ring: With Bob and Linda’s anniversary, it’s becoming that Bob’s Burgers celebrates such a momentous manufacturing milestone with an analogous marking of time for the household. Loren Bouchard’s present is exceptional not only for its well-intentioned optimism, however for mining adoring sitcom conditions out of practical working-class situations. In spite of everything, Bob’s gesture of the flamboyant ring is made out of a want to make amends for years of being too overworked and poor to provide Linda the engagement expertise she deserves. It’s well-trod territory at this level, however the anniversary offers us one other likelihood to revisit the important heat on the coronary heart of the Belcher household and why followers have fallen so in love with these characters.
As for the children, they’re transparently an engine for the plot this time round, their ring-related antics a fly within the ointment for Bob’s journey. The best way they (and different characters within the episode) wrestle to acknowledge how Bob and Linda are associated — “Wait, no, they’re brother and sister?” Tina asks of the ring — is extra than simply sitcom absurdism; it appears like a testomony to how shut they’re as household. Positive, Bob’s seek for the ring together with his youngsters is a ache within the ass, however it additionally lets them bond within the methods we count on of the Belchers at this level.
One other Love Saved by Nat Kinkle: Bob’s Burgers is usually simply as a lot in regards to the wacky city they dwell in because the Belchers themselves, and the premiere sees the return of scatterbrained limo driver Nat (Jillian Bell), now a frequenter of the city’s water park, Wetty Set Go! (The present’s love of puns continues unabated, together with this episode’s burger particular, the “Olive Me, Why Not Take Olive Me? Burger.”) Her go-get-em enthusiasm dovetails properly with the Belchers’ vitality, as she rallies dozens of individuals to sneak into the park late at night time to assist with Bob’s ring quest.
Gayle Power Circumstances: Much less efficient is the subplot that retains Linda out of the best way for Bob’s ring misadventure – a farcical scheme to get agoraphobic sister Gayle (Megan Mullally) to take her pink eye drops. Loads of the gags work, together with an prolonged scene the place Linda tries to govern Gayle into going to a liquor retailer to decrease her guard (“No wine? No beer? How do you calm down?” “I don’t.” “Oh.”). However numerous it’s simply place-setting to maintain Linda occupied whereas Bob works towards the clock to retrieve the ring. Somebody get Gayle a person already!
Bob’s Burgers, FOX
The Verdict: Based mostly on the premiere episode alone, Bob’s Burgers seems to be altering nothing about their components of their tenth 12 months. And actually, why ought to they? The present’s an absolute treasure exactly due to that pleasant consistency of tone and humor it’s employed since its humble beginnings, a heat hug of an expertise with a household who actually love one another and (Louise’s sociopathy apart) imply one of the best for one another. It’s a miracle that this present appears to be reaching Household Man/Simpsons ranges of longevity with out experiencing these different reveals’ wild swings in high quality.
That stated, I’m certain there’s room to develop, particularly as we all know a lot about these characters already. Regardless of Bob’s anxiousness about dropping the ring, we all know Linda might be high-quality with it in the long run. In her personal phrases, “Our love isn’t in an enormous, large ring, you dummy. Our love is in every little thing we constructed collectively after you requested me to accept you.” It may be an excessive amount of to ask the present to introduce the Belchers to rockier waters; their quirky consistency is the present’s true hallmark, and reducing the sweetness of their dynamic with deeper problems is only a bridge too far.
“The Ring (However Not Scary)” is possibly one of many extra modest season premieres within the present’s historical past, however it leans onerous into the inherent sweetness of the Belcher household dynamic in ways in which really feel extra reassuring than ever. Amidst a world that grows ever extra divided and cynical, a few of us simply want some kindness and labored burger puns to see us via the darkness.
The place’s It Enjoying? Bob’s Burgers serves up scorching household enjoyable (and household puns) Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
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