Onto the last official week of November, of course, this would mean one thing if you don’t live in the States in the form of the holiday where the Fall air comes into play in the atmosphere, the color of the leaves changing, and of course, having a very important dinner at the table and eating turkey. But unless you’re Bob Belcher on this year’s Thanksgiving Day episode, it looks like things aren’t looking well at his end when it comes to the cooking portion.
And in this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, with Thanksgiving now knocking on their footsteps, the Belchers goes gasless following not having any gas in the house, resulting in Bob, hoping to cook the turkey up for the holiday, to cook it up the old fashioned way in my spoilerific review of the Eighth Episode of Season 10, Eighth Thanksgiving episode of the series, titled “Now We’re Not Cooking We’re Gas”.
And unlike the whole ordeal with the Belchers dealing with a Thanksgiving with no gas to cook the turkey, this episode almost seems like the show is running out of gas, said some people. Let’s just say, it’s better than last week’s episode where it’s straight forward but felt borderline empty whereas this week’s episode of the Thanksgiving variety, at least it was decent. Sure, there were some flaws being made with this episode, mostly with how the episode was executed with the whole Bob trying to cook the old fashioned way when cooking the turkey, but at least it’s decent, rather mediocre at best than last week. Plus you have to give the guy credit, even though we kind of went overboard when trying to add more stuff to burn for the fire for the turkey, with no gas in the oven, which is mostly use for everyone across the country when it comes to prepping for the upcoming holiday, at least he tried. So there’s that. Though you think that he would go straight for the fryer, using a propane tank and a fryer and deep fry it as a second option since deep fried turkey is a thing, I apologize to everyone in the world that we here in America like to deep fry a lot of stuff, guess they don’t want to that because it would make the whole thing wrap up in like a matter in seconds and also don’t want to turned a turkey into a heat seeking missile. Yeah, so that’s your safety tip for the day when it comes to heating the turkey this holiday season. Now onto the episode.
Beginning the 2019 edition of When Thanksgiving Gone Wrong with Bob driving and taking the whole family with him, which it looks like they’re driving back home, with him driving very slowly. Guess he saw that State Farm commercials and don’t want to mess around with his discount. But no, apparently the reason he had to drive slowly and carefully because the Belchers, mostly Bob, have a very important item that they have in the trunk in the form of a turkey. But this isn’t your usual store bought frozen turkey that Bob got, as shown in flashback when he was about to get to get a turkey being bought at the local grocery store until he gets a phone call that the turkey that he requested have gotten through and thus, switches over to the turkey that they now got in the trunk. And of course, the turkey is from a Riverbrook Lake Farms, which is like the turkey company that Bob was hoping to get after numerous tries leading up to Thanksgiving Day and it looks like he finally got it. It’s like you were hoping to get that one item that you really want since we are now entering the holiday season and then all of a sudden, fate decided to give you something nice for once and finally get that item that you want. Guess that’s pretty much that describes Bob when getting those turkeys that will be used come Thanksgiving dinner time once the holiday arrive.
And let’s not forget that Thanksgiving is pretty much Bob’s favorite holiday and despite that everyone would be in full on work mode to get everything ready come Thursday, which it looks like according to the Bob’s Burgers universe, is tomorrow where they are as you can see Bob checking on Louise sleeping with Kuchi Kopi next to her, Gene...doing Gene things in his usual sleeping pose, and Tina doing some late night reading as Bob gives a final check on the turkey before the big day...and also talking to it and in which he makes it talk back. I mean, look at him. He’s like a kid on Christmas and ready for Santa to invade the house, drop presents, and have a big ass gift waiting for him on standby come the morning. What? You think that this episode would finally give Bob the perfect Thanksgiving? The perfect dinner without any problems that would turn the whole experience into a colossal car crash for this episode and end the streak of uncooked turkeys getting it’s damaged, even though “Thanks-hoarding” does kind of done that but was undercooked, will this be the episode? Knowing the series...no. Never gonna happen. I mean, you think that we’re now in the world where you wake up and found out that Ash Ketchum won the Pokémon League for the first time and took 22 fucking years to get it and you would think that Bob’s bad luck streak of getting each of the turkeys he would get not get damaged or undercooked and have a normal dinner without any shenanigans coming into play not happen this time around? Sadly, that ain’t never going to happen because the animation gods are pretty much cruel bastards.
Onto the next day, Thanksgiving Day, as Bob is setting up the final preparations to send the turkey into the oven, we have Tina entering the table carrying a model of a tree with construction paper in her arsenal and begins working on it. Found out that the thing is from her Thundergirls handbook and you write things on the leaf about what you are thankful for and put it onto the tree. And was hoping for like around the 4:00 hour, like an hour or two, before the Thanksgiving meal with the whole family to do the whole thing. Despite that there’s five members of the family in the household and only eight leaves, meaning either one would more than one leaf or two. Point is, everyone have to partake on the whole ceremony and judging by what Tina is doing when Gene and Louise come up with suggestions, mostly with Tina’s body odor or anything random, you have to be really honest about what you are thankful for with Thanksgiving and the grateful tree as a whole.
As Bob is ready to put the final preparations in putting the turkey into the oven, there seems to be a bit of a problem in his end when he noticed that there’s a little issue with the oven and noticed that it’s cold. Linda thinks that it’s just turned off and Bob has to turn it on and let it heat on. But that’s not the point according to Bob because he turned it on like 20 minutes ago and the oven would’ve been heated up but nothing happened. Which led to Bob coming up with two and not three options of why there’s a problem with the oven. One being that it’s broken and worn out which doesn’t look like it was worn out, though I think that they might be due to get a new one for the house...just saying. So Option A is now out of the table and now onto Option B, not paying the bill for the gas in the house. In which Linda comes with a response that she did pay the bill for the thing and she remember because the cash check ended with the number 69 and high five it over the number like they’re 12 year olds over the number. Bob head down downstairs and onto the restaurant to see if the gas works at the kitchen there but...
Nope. Not working either. No gas coming out from it and back upstairs Bob goes with Linda on the phone explaining what’s going on and found out that it’s Option C that happened to partake for the family. Option C being the main gas line being leaked and the city had to turn it off so that things don’t go downhill and want to the whole neighborhood to suffer Thanksgiving cold AND hungry and also homeless. Bob doesn’t like that the oven is off for the holidays and heard that the gas won’t be turned on until the day or two days or maybe three days after the holiday because his special turkey needs to be cooked for the family to enjoy and hoping to head down to another place to cook the turkey. Was thinking about doing it over at Gayle’s but Linda said that Gayle is out for Thanksgiving down in Florida with their parents, which by the way, looks like we’re gonna see them in action in the Christmas episode come December. So no luck for Bob to hop on over to Gayle’s. He called Teddy to see if he can cook it over at his place but he’s heading over to his parents’ place. Which...yeah, Season 8...Thanksgiving episode, robbed from seeing his parents in the series, thanks a lot crew. Though I’m surprised that Bob did NOT, did NOT mention his dad and would use his oven to cook the turkey. Didn’t even bother heading down to his dad’s place with him carrying the turkey and say to him, “Hey Pop, gotta use your oven since mine got cut and won’t be in use until the weekend.” Like that but nope, did not bring it up.
So Bob decided to throw in the towel since he have no other place to cook his most prized turkey in the gas oven and ready to cancel the holiday but then a voice comes into play for Bob and tells him to not throw in the towel and although the day have just started, he just got the turkey that he wanted and tried to get it for five long years and now that he got it, he would not just call it a day and cancel the holiday over the gas being cut for the day. So to put it short...Bob’s getting pressured to not throw in the towel and must find an alternative to cook the turkey without using gas...courtesy of the voice in his head coming from the guy in the logo on the cardboard box. And now Bob have to find something as an alternative to cook the turkey into perfection in time for the big dinner. And if you’re the chef and you have to cook the turkey but either deal with no gas like with the Belchers are currently dealing with or deciding to not use gas for whatever reason, being safety or just got a bill that said that you used a lot of it and paid it loads and must save money by limiting it, your alternative would be go to fry the turkey since it is a thing but requires a propane tank and a fryer for that to happen but of course, safety concerns would be in place because frying isn’t easy and you really don’t want to turn a frozen turkey into a rocket that you would launch for your middle school science class. That would’ve been the easier alternative for Bob to be in use for Thanksgiving but since this is last minute, he would go the old fashioned way in the life and times of the pioneers...
Roasting food in an open fire. In the alley of all the places. The frying option is still on the table, Bob. It’s still not too late for that to cook the turkey. Bob decided to go old school to cook the turkey by having it being roasted over an open fire in the alleyway and that of course surprised the family for Bob to take that route as an alternative to make sure he can still make Thanksgiving dinner in time before the sun falls and once return from commercials, the family stepped in and help Bob out by finding random stuff from the alley and putting them into the fire as fuel. But of course, the fire from the alley does end up attracting some attention.
Enter the Belchers’ neighbor from across the alleyway in Mr. Huggins, who noticed that something was burning outside in his back and Linda explains to him that they’re cooking the turkey outside due to not having any gas in the house and even ask Huggins to join in and help out but takes a rain check because he had to head out to enjoy Thanksgiving with a lucky lady...who happened to be vegetarian. Which I wonder what does a vegetarian Thanksgiving looks like? But yeah, it looks like Thanksgiving in 2019 will be the Belchers cooking a turkey over the open the fire with the meat attached to a stick with Bob asking Linda to turn it like a rotisserie chicken you see in like...I don’t know, Boston Market? Would say grocery stores but the grocery stores I go to have them in plastic containers, so there’s that. Oh yeah, and for the bird to be cooked over the fire have to be 4-5 hours until the bird is like golden brown. 4-5 hours of turning the bird over with the fire underneath it...it maybe good arm exercise to get them active but for that long? Think we all know how the settlers died when getting the food big enough to at least last a few hours. And that surprised Linda and the kids because they do not want to look forward to five long hours outside in the cold and wait for the turkey to be warm and juicy, they help Bob out on trying to find some stuff to burn to add more fuel to the fire with Tina taking care of spraying duty from Gene and Louise dumpster diving to find more stuff to...
Linda trying to find some stuff to burn from the closet when making a phone call to Bob that she would burn stuff she can find but doesn’t want to because the stuff that was in the closet was happened to be stuff, mostly art, made by the kids when they were way young from Gene with a drawing of a squirrel, though the handwriting was courtesy of Linda, to a photo frame made by Louise, a drawing of the family by Tina which almost looks like what a first grader would draw before horning in any artistic skills, to even a turtle out from an egg carton and man, talk about sentimental values coming from Linda and these are the stuff that she don’t want to burn but Bob needs more fuel for the fire if they want a fully cooked turkey on the plate come dinnertime. And not like in the form of let’s say cleaning out the junk from the closet and have two boxes on standby with one box said keep and the other for throw away. And Linda even brought up alternatives to burn rather than sending the kids’ stuff into the flame like old newspapers or even Valentine’s Day cards from Teddy. Which...yeah, don’t know why but I feel like that may need to be mentioned...though knowing the show...yeah, that ain’t never going to happen. So uh...burn it to a crisp then.
Linda comes out with the box on her hands of the stuff Bob needs to burn as both Gene and Louise have taken the last pieces of trash they can find from random dumpsters in the alley and the first thing being burned is the turtle. Tina thinks that the gifts were made by Gayle when they were making homemade gifts but Gene comes out and say that the gifts were made for Linda, which caused her to get the turtle out from the fire and despite some damage, think it’s mostly from the feet in front of the piece, the family is now back at square one when it comes to finding some stuff to throw into the fire and with every item in the alley now gone thanks to the fire, they’re now out of items to throw in. That is until Bob brought up the idea of using sticks to light the fire and thus, he send the kids to head on down to the park to get some and of course, the average 12 year old joke of mistaking the word “duty”, meaning job, to “doody”, meaning shit. With the kids now out to get some sticks, the day is still in Bob’s favor, the turkey looks like it’s about to grow some brown on some parts and yeah, he could still score a win for once in his life when it comes to the holiday and it’s like nothing can go wrong for him around Thanksgiving...
That is until a fire truck comes in and thus, back to unfavorable odds Bob goes for this Thanksgiving episode. Alright, who called the firefighters to come in and crash this “party” in the alleyway? I mean, they got their own stuff for the holiday but with smoke coming out and possibly see it in like .25 of a mile away, they have to check it out despite that not knowing that the gas for the whole neighborhood is out for the day, as what Bob is saying to the Fire Marshall when telling what’s going on and why Bob would have a fire pit outside in the alleyway. And you think that she would like accept this and head on back to the fire station but instead, asks Bob to put the fire away unless he wants a fine slapped onto him, which is the last thing he wants for the holiday. First he doesn’t have any gas in the house when trying to get the turkey cooked and now have to deal with an issue of having the city’s firefighters now under his skin. So uh...don’t know what to say there Bob. Should’ve taken the frying option. Linda think that it’s time for Bob to just give up and just get back inside, wait for the kids to come back and tell them that the holiday dinner’s cancelled despite bringing home some “sticks” from the park. Watch why I put the quotation marks over the word “sticks”. But Bob decided to say “fuck the law” and continue as usual despite the warning, mostly because he thinks that he’s halfway there, or rather nowhere halfway there, when noticing some brown spots popping out on the turkey and despite the calls of turkey or fine and wanting to just throw in the towel, Linda will give Bob one more shot in getting the turkey fully cooked, which excites Bob and also accidentally sprayed her in the face in glaze. So there’s that.
Over at the park, as the Belcher kids try to find some sticks on the ground, they noticed that the park has some bottles on the ground like there was some party going on overnight. Probably a college party of some sorts. As the kids try to find more sticks for the fire, they found the biggest load of all in the form of a random log down the hill, which is like having a lot of sticks made into one lump of log. So they ditch the sticks and go for the log...
Only to deal with a problem when both Tina and Gene tried to push it but failed to do so. So now Louise have to step in and put in the effort that they can muster up to get the heavy log over the hill like Civil War soldiers trying to get their cannons over a hill despite the heavy weight of the barrel, pushing the log on top of the hill...
Only to go down with the log rolling down as well. Doing it again for a second time, only to be sent back down. Third time, same thing. Even on their fourth time when getting the log to the top, fallen down with the kids feeling exhausted and ready to throw in the towel. But Louise ain’t giving up just yet and should give it another try if Tina want to get to do get her tree ceremony on time and Gene to eat all the turkey he want and for Louise to see the fire from the pit like if she were in a Michael Bay film. By the way, did you know that Michael Bay once directed a Got Milk commercial back in the 1990s with the guy trying to answer a phone question to win a prize on who shot Alexander Hamilton, answer being Aaron Burr, but unable to answer it due to peanut butter and not having any milk. Yeah...there’s your random fact of the week. The kids aren’t ready to give up and ready to do it again for a fifth time and it looks like fifth time’s a charm to get the log to get on top of the hill...only to fallen down forward and was about to go towards the street only to hit the street pole, safely avoiding the street and causing a traffic nightmare. Like Thanksgiving travel the Wednesday before the big day and the Sunday after wasn’t trouble enough.
The kids return to the alley with the log now in their arsenal, even though Bob said that he wants sticks for the pit. But the kids try to reason that with the log, he can have like pieces of wood from the log to put into the fire...that is if anyone of the members of the Belcher family know how to lumberjack and Bob got upset over what the kids didn’t do and that of course, they decided to drop out from the whole thing after saying that enough is enough. Ain’t going to just do what he’s doing to keep the flame going to get the turkey to be all cooked out, thus putting Bob in a panicking mood because let’s not forget, there’s nothing left in the alley to throw it into the put. So it’s probably log or bust for Bob as he was about to bark back at the kids, he noticed something wet coming down to his face from the sky and lo and behold...
It’s now raining. Rain has now come into the picture and that put Bob now cranked the panic mode level to twelve when of course, rain is water from the sky and water of course put out the fire, meaning that the fire would be put out quickly. And to save the fire from being put out, Bob have to cover it by putting his jacket and shirt over it. That or tried to use it as the next items to be burned and that pretty much now cause Linda to bow out and head back inside to celebrate Thanksgiving without the turkey, thus leaving Bob alone in the rain, shirtless, and with the turkey still not golden brown to perfection.
Back inside with Linda serving the kids sandwiches, since it looks like that’s what they’re going to be eating for the holidays thanks to not having any gas in the house as Tina watches Bob over at the windows and acting like a total psycho like some sort of perfectionist and hoping to get everything in order even though things have already fallen apart like it’s a freaking Jenga tower. Bob, might as well throw in the towel now because with the rain and the cold and with the fire still not out if you want to be fined by the fire department, yeah might as well call it a day. That is until Tina decided to something drastic and want to give Bob something to throw into the fire, out of pity or feeling bad for the guy, and head outside where Bob is still trying to get the fire going until Tina comes out want to help Bob out for once by burning something that she is now willing to sacrifice for if Bob want to have the perfect Thanksgiving that he wanted with his most prized turkey.
The grateful tree. Tina is willing to sacrifice it for Bob to get his turkey all done and ready for the table. I mean, the whole idea of the tree being one of the items to be burned was pretty much predictable when it was first being brought up earlier in the episode. But like this with Tina ready to just give the tree away and burn it was pretty much a ballsy move because she tried to push it, even with or without the turkey on standby, and she would get her turn and have the whole family to do so and now, she decided to hand it over to Bob and burn it to have him to have the turkey cooked. Bob was about to do and ready to have it his way by sending the tree to the fire but at the last possible minute, changed his mind and deciding not to burn it. And now realized that he really went off the rails over cooking the turkey with no gas in the house and going way overboard over him having a special turkey that he got after trying to get it for almost half a decade and apologize for all that and of course, pushing the family to do job of putting a lot of stuff from the dumpster into the pit. So pretty much apologizing for making him looking like a total fool, that seems about right. So now, he’s ready to throw in the towel and ready to join with the family to do to the grateful tree for Tina’s sake. That is until the firefighters come back and noticed that Bob didn’t put out the fire despite the warning but didn’t even bother to listen and now it looks like they now have to take it out by force, even though Mother Nature tried to do all the work but Bob ended up tried to keep the flame going, and speaking of the turkey and flame...
Inside the fire and burnt the bird it goes and back inside the house as the family put up the leaves for the tree, we have Bob now upset that the bird that he got is now burnt into a crisp with the skin of the bird now blacken thanks to the fire when trying to save it from the hose courtesy of the city firefighters and now here he is, about to put up the final leaf into the grateful tree with him saying that he’s very thankful for the family. And speaking of the family, called him out. Called him out on that being the obvious answer from pretty much everyone. Almost sounding like a freaking diss on the overused trope of the show that it’s about family whenever there’s a good or a bad situation unfolding and that’s the thing that Bob is going for when putting up his leaf into the tree. I mean I get it, each of the lessons from this series is pretty much learning a life lesson week after week, if you add some adult humor but had to be PG-13...ish, but I almost felt like this is pretty much the writers taking on their own tropes when it comes to the writing in each of the episodes. Once the whole thing with the tree now out of the way, Bob is now ready to throw the turkey away in shame that he didn’t even get the special dinner with the special turkey that he got but what do you expect? The animation gods are cruel and merciless bastards. Where he noticed something under the now burnt skin and what do you know?
The meat of the bird is no longer pink and now golden brown and delicious, thus causing the family to huddle to the sink and eat it as well, thus it looks like despite that the bird is now badly burnt, the meat of it has now become rich and tender. Meaning that Thanksgiving, despite that all the things that Bob has done to pretty much made himself somewhat of a fool with the whole thing with the fire pit thanks to the gas being cut, at least got a win...in a way. Now imagine Thanksgiving next year as we deal with Black Friday and ditch the Thanksgiving table...wait no, I think Bless the Harts did that. But still though, imagine it as we know enter my thoughts about this episode.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? For a Thanksgiving episode that pretty much a staple of the show for the holiday like watching the Detroit Lions being mauled against a random team, possibly the Chicago Bears, because life is fucking bullshit, this is pretty much straightforward for the writing but it felt kind of clunky and felt like it was going a tad bit fast when it comes to the pacing. But hey, at least it’s decent than last week’s episode, which felt kind of empty in my opinion.
I mean, you have to give Bob some effort that he made when it comes to cooking the turkey and going old school by having a fire pit in the alleyway because of the house not having any gas due to a leak that the city had to cut it off unless they want to endanger the whole neighborhood. However in the past Thanksgiving episodes of show pasts, the turkey ends up getting the short end of the stick whether if it’s getting shot by a bullet by a lady that your landlord trying to impress or a turkey in the toilet or finally have a Thanksgiving dinner without any problems despite that the turkey was undercooked, despite with no gas, unable to find some stuff to add more fuel to the fire, a threat from the firefighters to put it out, rain, and the turkey being burnt into a crisp, at least for Bob after a very long day with all that, at least things somehow got wrapped up with the bird have some tasty meat that isn’t like contaminated or was cooked wrong. Something that you don’t want that in your conscious come this holiday, either cooking for Thanksgiving or for Christmas or any other holiday that you celebrate.
Where I rank when it comes to the Thanksgiving episode of this series since Season 3 with “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal”, out of the eight episodes we got for the holiday, this would be in the bottom three. Most importantly, at number seven in the list. Yep...it’s an ouchie but hey, at least it’s not “Thanks-hoarding” because we were supposed to meet Teddy’s parents but sadly didn’t and only deal with Teddy’s hoarding problems. Sure, we did got some mentions of Teddy’s life in the past when it comes to the dinner table that lead to him to have a hoarding problem but...yeah, had to be in the bottom. So seventh place in the list when it comes to the Thanksgiving list of episodes.
And final thoughts, this was a straightforward and decent episode despite some flaws and felt kind of clunky in a way also went by a bit too fast when it comes to the execution of the episode. But after what happened with last week’s episode, might as well take this one as a go to. So I’ll be giving “Now We’re Not Cooking With Gas”...
...a 7 out of 10. But that’s my opinion when it comes to this episode and now I want to hear yours. Tell me what you think about this week’s episode? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Where do you rank this episode out of the eight Thanksgiving episodes of the series? Will you take the frying option if you were in the same situation as Bob and the family if the gas gets cut? All that and your mini review in the comments down below. And don’t miss this Sunday’s episode and it’s The Gene Show as Gene takes center stage and audition and of course, Linda comes in and intervene everything in the ninth episode of Season 10, “All That Gene”.
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