Pages

Monday, March 02, 2015

Review: Bob's Burgers Season 5, Episode 13: Once Upon a Gayle. Who's Story is Better?





On this week's episode of Bob's Burgers, Gayle's been duped by a date that she was hoping to enjoy with, so the kids, while being grounded, wrote essays to to make her happy and fill the seat for her big night. Here's my spoilerific review of "The Gayle Tales".


Gayle is back in this week's episode and look at that, problems with a date calling off and cry over to Bob's Burgers to calm herself down. It's like sooner or later, Gayle will meet that perfect someone to make her happy and hoping for that guy to don't blow off. This time, it's a man named Stacy. Yes, Stacy. Found out that Stacy is a man's name. Thank you, naming committee for recognizing that.


And of course, the kids telling their own side of the stories they wrote was a nice reference to the Season 4 episode "The Frond Files" except with Gayle instead of the Wagstaff school. With the first with Gene and country music, Tina in 18th Century living, and Louise parodied the hit HBO prime time series,  "Game of Thrones". I'm surprised that HBO didn't sue FOX for parodied the hit show.


And since it's an episode with the kids telling the stories, look like this review will be breaking it down into three parts like what I did in my Frond Files review. So look like Gene's story goes first.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So Gene's story is going country in the most country place on Earth, Nashville.


But how does Gayle was included in the story? Well it all began with both Linda and Gene got attention from Louise as a Hollywood agent but only interested in Linda, meaning that Linda is getting the solo gig which makes Gene quit the band, goes to a bar, and thanks to a drunk Bob, here comes Gayle singing her way in.


Bob in Gene's story, or in this case, the duration of the episode, became the background character this week. He just drank, get drunk, and passed out from a hangover. The fans want a drunk Bob, and this is what they get. 


Tina was also pushed back in Gene's story as the stage director when Linda told her to sabotage the duo's chances of getting into Hollywood with a snake. However, that plan backfired. So backfired, that firefighters ain't gonna extinguish this one. Because of that, Gene and Gayle got their chances of going to Hollywood.


And a boot thrown aiming at Linda's face? Is this a drawback to former President Bush dodging pair of shoes thrown at him from an angry citizen in Iraq?


And of course, Scott Bakula came into play, but wait, that's not his voice. 


But who cares, it's Gayle's fantasy anyway, so yeah. screw it. Let her be happy.


As for Linda, marries a drunk Bob. That's it.



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, that was a bit of a Pro-Gayle/Anti-Linda fitted into the story. It was good for Gayle because she needed that but for Linda, guessing it's for grounding the kids. What are the kids grounded for? You'll wait as you scroll down later. So it look like Gayle found a clear winner.


But wait, it's Tina's turn to tell the story and this one is going all 18th Century. Was hoping for zombies to be added to the story, sorry, it's History that Tina has to follow. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tina's story is based on life in the 1700s. Why the 1700s? Two hints, colonial clothing and mentioning of a war. Which war? The American Revolution! But if it is the American Revolution, where's the British Red Coats? Didn't Britain passed a Quartering law in the spark of the revolution following the Boston Tea Party? 


Of course, it ain't a Tina story without Jimmy Jr., which in this story, he has long hair and riding a white stallion, yeah...go along with it.


So Bob came into play in the story, no longer a background character because that job now belong to Teddy. Let's break it down, ride's broken down, need help, congratulations, you got a date to the gala. 


Of course, that was a nice, yet weird, comeback to bring up the Gayle being attracted to Bob ideal since Season 2's "Dr. Yap", even Linda is not on board with this, hoping for Gayle to not fall in love with Bob. 


The dance at the gala was quite good, it's like square dancing adding in butt touching to add progression in Tina's story. But it did lasted for 2-3 minutes till Linda comes in seeing Bob with Gayle. Adding drama in the story, nice.


And Gayle dead by heartbreak after that back at the gala was a bit unsettling. From leeches, to beaches, to screeches, way to commemorate Dr. Seuss' birthday. And guess who decided to join the party, Scott Bakula. 


The ending of the story seems a bit questionable, teleported to the future? Well, Scott Bakula is a Star Trek actor, so I guess that might have something to do with that. Speaking of Star Trek, rest in peace Leonard Nimoy, long live and prosper. 

Gayle and Scott got married, so does Tina and Jimmy Jr. and that where the story ends.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So who's story is better? For Gayle and the viewers, a very hard decision to make. Add Louise, cause she's next in the story to review, Welp, could bring up a not so full fledged civil war. Gayle, you're on your own. 



And now, Louise and the Game of Thrones parody.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now let's get this out of the way because truth is, never watched Game of Thrones. Ever. I don't know what the hype is about? Gayle's the queen, and got a visit from Gene as a magician, or in the olden times, a wizard, minus a wand or a beard. And the cats are dragons! Should I alert PETA on this? And I really love the idea of Gayle using the "Where are my Dragons" reference from GoT character Daenerys Targaryen. In a calm manor.


The slap sword was a nice reference back to Season 3's "Boyz 4 Now" because you know, slap. Look, to keep it kid friendly, the blade is a slapping hand. The show's rated TV-14, why keep it kid friendly. Game of Thrones is TV-MA and it has a lot of deaths. Believe me, I checked. The two head off and oh look at that, got caught not one, not two, but three, count em' three! 


God, the 50 Shades of Grey movie looks gory, isn't it? That's one of the two obstacles Queen Gayle and Knight Louise had to face, but also had to face an army of shirtless Teddies on a horse, yapping. It's like you're trying to say Teddy is not an interesting character. And throwing back to my Doctor Who experience, Don't think, don't breathe, don't blink. This one is don't listen or you die. Gayle tried to scratch, but thanks to Louise, they made it through, it's like Dora the Explorer gone extreme, minus the map singing that map song that you tried to get it out of your head. 


Mort as the Rancor was the best thing someone has to come up with, though his appearance was short in this episode, and only get one line from Andy Kindler, that idea was pretty good. Even though he got eaten by porcelain babies. Hoping for another Star Wars reference, but Mort as the Rancor was the only reference to see in this episode.


Bob as Bobdor was another great idea from the creators and Louise, despite saying only the name like he's some sort of trained Pokemon, I beginning to wonder if Louise's story get my vote on who's story is better. Bob overthrew Linda, free the cats, and lived happily after ever.


But that last part of Louise's story was by far, my favorite scene in this episode, maybe the season overall. It began with Scott Bakula coming in out of nowhere flying with a cat dragon and Bob notices a connection and don't want to be the third wheel, so he fell off to his death. Normally, for the third wheel candidates, they're two sides. On one side, respecting their relationship and go on with your life. On the other side, waiting for a moment to sabotage the newly formed relationship. Bob on the other hand, fell to his death. 


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So who's story is better? The winner is...no one because the guy Stacy came in and the date goes back on. The near ending of the episode seems a bit disappointed. It's like someone just created a rewrite in the last minute. And course, the answer that we all been waiting for, why did the kids got grounded? The reason why the kids got grounded is because of embarrassing Linda in the supermarket. Started off with Louise wanting to buy ice cream, with Linda getting excited but then came opening the door, Gene scared her and fell on a pile of pads and farted.


But Linda actually letting that one slide over and shorten the grounding period to one night and that's it. So it's like the thing was a bit of a disappointment, but probably gonna let that one slide over, for now, anyways. 


Reaction/Thoughts: So what do I think about this week's episode of Bob's Burgers? The episode was good, however the ending was a bit disappointing. The kids storytelling was a nice callback to Season 4's "The Frond Files" but instead of talking about the school, it's Gayle. As for which story I think it's best? Gene, Tina, you had it coming, but Louise took the cake with the Game of Thrones parody, even though I never even watched the series and making it a headcanon that Louise watched the show, my guess for laughs. And the use of Scott Bakula was a bit overrated, but it's Gayle, let her be. I really like the storytelling, except when it comes to the storytelling, the timing on these reviews get added by the minute. I give "The Gayle Tales"...



...a 7.5 out of 10. The episode was good, the storytelling was excellent, but the reason why I had to give it a 7.5 rating is because of the ending of the episode. Thought one of the kids will go with Gayle, but then comes Stacy, and the ending went down that fast, I don't think it was Olympic medal worthy enough.


...but anyway, tune in next week for some father-son bonding...over a broken item and heading over to the factory for a refund, all while Tina is preparing for a book report. In the fourteenth episode of Season 5, "Li'l Hard Dad". 

No comments:

Post a Comment