I Think I'm Done with Bob's Burgers

Cafe Society
1

I feel bad about this, but for me, Bob’s Burgers is done.

This last episode was just so lifeless (and it’s set in a cemetery) that I’ve had it with the show. And I used to love it.

This episode had the Belcher family wandering around a cemetery looking for Bob’s mom’s grave. The kids slide down a little hill. Linda finds the grave, and they stand around. Then they climb the locked gate and go home. Oh, and Teddy drops a meatloaf on the floor. That’s it.

It’s been like this for a few episodes. Okay, the family loves each other, we get it. That’s not enough for a successful show. Christ, The Waltons had more action.

There was an article that I lost the link to. The theme of it was that Bob’s Burgers is ruining itself in the opposite way from The Simpsons. In The Simpsons, the writers seem to have lost interest in the Simpson family as people in its quest to become more edgy, like Family Guy. Bob’s Burgers’ writers, however, base everything on the Belcher family interacting with each other in a nice wholesome way.

In fact, Loren Bouchard, head honcho at Bob’s said the toning down of episodes was intentional because “Kids could be watching the show”. All the frenetic, darker adult stuff of the early years wouldn’t be child-friendly. Goddammit, I don’t want my animation to be child-friendly. Kids have Nickelodeon or whatever for that.

And BTW, why has the show never resolved the Jimmy Pesto situation? Okay, the voice actor went to the January 6th Rally for Treason. Get Jimmy Junior’s mom involved or something. Bob needs a nemesis, for god’s sake.

But no, the Belcher family is just normal, just like the rest of us. I don’t watch shows to see boring ass familiar stuff. Animation makes the impossible happen. Use it!!! Or I’m done!!!

2

Always loved Bobs Burgers. (Art crawl!)
I haven’t had cable for awhile, so maybe it has gone downhill. Linda is my favorite," all riiight!" as she says.

3

I really loved the last episode. Certainly not the funniest, but I don 't think it was shooting for big laughs. More about addressing Bob’s mom, a thread started in the movies.

As far as the “tone-down,” that pretty much happened in Season 3, and we’re now on what, season 15?

4

Still loving BB and the other Bobverse shows, The Great North and *Central Park".

5

Bobverse shows: don’t forget Archer!

6

DO NOT watch The Bob’s Burger Movie.

Ass on Rye.

I used to like the early episodes. They were pretty funny. That movie? Unwatchable.

7

Too late:(

You’re right. Total disappointment.

8

I’m not familiar with that particular series, but I do know that some series just don’t know when to die. If you’re thinking “lifeless” or “stale” or “repetitive”, that is probably the time.

9

For quite some time I felt like they ran out of ideas, ‘oh another Thanksgiving special where Bob is obsessed with Turkey and calamity happens?’.

10

Yeah, that’s going to shit objectively as well. Adam Reed’s writing was the soul of that show, the jokes were clever and came at a rapid pace, the hacks that replaced him to write that last 5 seasons or so have just been milking that universe dry without adding anything new.

It’s a shame.

11

As someone who is just starting watching Bob’s Burger’s, how long do I have before it gets bad?

Because right now my whole family really likes it.

12

For me, the decline began in earnest around the time that Jimmy Pesto disappeared.

I don’t think the lack of Jimmy Pesto made the show jump the shark, but it didn’t help.

13

See, here’s the thing. I think the show could still be good if the writers would just try to get a little more dramatic.

Take this last cemetery episode. The Belchers are at Bob’s mom’s grave. In the show, the groundskeeper’s truck is pulling up, doing a last sweep before locking the cemetery gates. So what do the writers have the Belchers do? Hide behind bushes until the truck passes by. Yeah. Big climax.

Why didn’t the writers have Bob ask the groundskeeper to wait before locking up because they just found Grandma’s grave and they need a little time to pay their respects? The groundskeeper could refuse because he wants to go home to eat. Bob could have a crescendo of a hissy fit because he’s never really mourned the loss of his mom and this groundskeeper is tearing her away from him…"…AGAIN! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO A PERSON??? OH, BECAUSE YOU HAVE DINNER WAITING??? HOW ABOUT YOU LET ME TALK TO MY DEAD MOM AND THEN I CAN FIX YOU A BURGER??? HOW ABOUT THAT??? THAT’S ALL MY LIFE IS, AND I DON’T HAVE A MOM ANYMORE!!! "

And so on.

Jesus, just breathe some life into the show.

14

I still enjoy it. It still has the same feeling to me.

Then again, I still watch and enjoy The Simpsons.

You gotta give a little leeway to series where the kids can’t grow up.

15

That was only a season ago. FWIW, they said Pesto is coming back (although no details as to how)

And I would say last season’s Blade Runner episode is probably one of the best eps of the entire show.

16

As do I. I thought the movie was entertaining enough, as well.

I mean, I would be a wealthy man if I had a nickle for every time someone on this board declared something I enjoyed to be “unwatchable”.

17

Yeah I enjoyed the movie too. About as much as I enjoyed the Simpsons movie - just another really long episode. Good enough.

18

The cemetery episode seemed like a pretty average BB episode to me

I dunno, it’s an episode that featured adult guilt over a deceased parent, Tina constantly clearing out her wedgies and boob sledding. Maybe I just don’t remember the earlier episodes very well, but that all seemed right in the BB wheelhouse to me.

19

I finally got around to streaming the most recent episode of Bob’s Burgers and it was my favorite episode in a long time. The final montage behind the “improvised” Philip Glass xylophone piece* was quite touching and I hope the substitute teacher returns.

*Based on “Kyoko’s House” from Mishima, I think.