Hope everyone had a good Mother’s Day here in the states, and in Mexico and Canada, and of course, nothing said a Mother's Day like an episode that happened to be a Linda episode of all episodes. Even though last year’s episode which aired on Mother’s Day was the season finale with “Yes Without My Zeke”. But yeah, something to get through with moms everywhere even in these hard times with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, so there’s that. But other than that...we’re finally reaching the finish line folks. One more episode until hiatus for the summer...a very long and hellish summer of 2020. The autumn months are gonna bite ball huh?
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, when Linda becomes worried about Tina and thinks that nothing interesting is going on with the small town and decided to change her mind for her school report as Teddy goes to Bob to help him to get through an argument with a sports radio caster in my spoilerific review in the twenty-first episode of Season 10, the penultimate episode of the current season, titled “Local She-ro".
For a second to last episode of the season before heading off to summer break, this was an alright episode to say the least. This was aired on Mother’s Day, so it has to be a Linda episode with her trying to help Tina out, and by helping out, I mean try to convince her that their small ocean town has some interesting stuff than life over at the big city like New York all because of what Tammy is doing for her report for her class by the end of the week. I mean, it was nice but there were some minor flaws in the way from making it a good episode. I mean, there are some moments that I like from the episode whether if it’s Tina’s cover of New York, New York by Frank Sinatra when daydreaming about life in the big city like NYC or Jocelyn straight up exposing Tammy during her presentation about the city at the end of the episode, but above all else, a pretty superb main plot for the episode.
Whereas the subplot of the episode with Teddy going to Bob when dealing an argument with a sports radio host, over that news of a player trade to his team, was rather okay to say the least. I don’t hate it but like with the main plot, there’s a few flaws in the way but at least it was enjoyable to say the least. Mostly around the end with Louise and Gene using pity to get Teddy to be unbanned from the call, going all Sleepless in Seattle and making him the victim. I mean that was something to say the least...Teddy really needs to have a happy ending once the show ends which is...I don’t know...a few years I guess, I don’t know. That being said, let’s hop over to the review of this very episode, this is “Local She-ro".
Beginning the episode with Mrs. Jacobson telling the eighth graders that their report about a place they’re inspired by is due by next week, thus putting Tina in worry mode due to her not having a place all written down and probably like half of the class but it looks like some already got their places locked and loaded whether if it’s Jimmy Jr with the frozen food aisle over at the grocery store which...okay. Odd choice for a place that you’re inspired by but it looks like Tammy has a place that she has chosen in the form of New York City. The Big Apple. The city that never sleeps except for this time around thanks to Covid-19 that ended up turning the big town into a hotbed for the virus.
So Tammy picked New York City for her assignment, stating everything interesting about the Big Apple from private bathrooms to Zeke mentioning, rather describing a bull statue located at Evil HQ known as Wall Street. New York pretty much have everything from landmarks to population, even it even got an M&Ms store. You can’t get that in normal cities, well except for Vegas but that’s about that. Tammy’s pick for her assignment pretty much put everyone’s pick to shame, including Tina, who now begins to question herself all the way to she looks at the town she lives in and even questions it about what makes the town so interesting than the others, including New York.
All the way to the dinner table where she daydreams about her being in the Big Apple while doing a cover of Frank Sinatra’s hit song “New York, New York” while strolling through Times Square and ended up on Broadway though singing off-key until being woken up back to reality. I mean, we all have ambitions about going to the big city, even if you’re born and raised in the big city, you want to go somewhere new and exciting and New York City is one of those places that some people want to go and visit (or possibly wanting to move) to have an adventure and whatnot. You see shows and movies and that probably went...fine. Just must go through trial and tribulations first for all that. But Linda disagrees with that notion and tells her eldest daughter that the town they’re living in just as fine as New York City, well before Tina goes back into daydream mode for the rest of the night.
Passing over to the overnight hours with Linda having trouble sleeping and wakes Bob up about Tina’s decision of wanting to go to New York City and thinks that the town they’re currently living in is not all that exciting. Yeah, let’s compare this city to New York to pass the time with some pros and cons. Pros about New York: Various Landmarks to visit like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building. Times Square being another. Broadway as well. Their style of pizza, sure it’s floppy, but at least it can somewhat last you until a few hours are up to grab another bite. Also, the Yankees...that is all. Cons about New York: The traffic, the crime, rats and cockroaches invading public subways. Jets suck. Giants suck. Mets suck. Knicks...oh god, don’t let me get started with the Knicks. At least you guys got the Rangers and Islanders...right? Now to Seymour’s Bay and the pros and cons of the town is pretty much whatever shit the writers decided to throw onto the people...mostly courtesy of the Belchers.
Linda bring up the whole idea and comparing Tina’s chances of wanting to go to New York to hers when she was Tina’s age. Nice to see Teenage Linda. Not like teenage like in high school with her in her full on 80s look in “Purple Rain-union", early-to-mid 80s though we have Linda doing Vouge, a song sung by Madonna, and that song, and I have to Google the song for research, while Madonna did became a breakout star in 1981, Linda does the Vouge pose. Which the song didn’t even come out until 1990. You somehow forgot what year is the show takes place in the present timeline. I mean is it still 2011 over there or around the current climate known as 2020 and if that’s the case, pretty sure no one is allowed to venture out under quarantine orders. Oh yeah, and Linda, like Tina, once set her eyes on New York but apparently, didn’t as time goes on. Her history pretty much set in stone looking at her timeline since then, high school which she’s the vocalist and lead of her band, became engaged to Hugo before ditching him for Bob, badda bing, badda boom, bingo bango, current timeline. Linda’s not going to let that be the case and head to Tina’s room and wakes her up and decided to help her out on what makes this danky small town so unique and interesting. And thus, Tina agrees on joining Linda around come tomorrow morning to make sure Tina doesn’t do New York or any other city across the US, if not, the world, for her report and thus, let the tour begin.
And so they did come the next day with Linda showcasing Tina what makes the town so interesting than the other cities by going around a few places from an intersection where you now begin to think how the fuck does the designer over at the local DOT not freaking fired over that when being made? With a street name being odd when looking at the sign being West Thirty Halfth Street. Odd name for a street name. Just be lucky that it isn’t an insensitive name cause...uh...yikes. Speaking of yikes, Linda and Tina’s next visit is at a random house, strolling by where they encounter the mayor of the town and still not showing his face, yes the mayor is a dude, also to find out that this isn’t the mayor and pretty much a random guy minding his business so uh...to the owner of that house...really should like add a security system to prevent someone from peeing on your property. Yeah...then again, the big city...also does that but by the stairs, so I guess nowhere is safe from peeing drunk people. Then of course, to the park with pigeons galore invading the place though it looks like all three of those stuff that Linda showcase to Tina throughout the morning, not enough to change Tina’s mind for her report.
Strolling through the flea market with Tina still not convinced over which city to choose for her school report, to the point where she maybe planning on talking about Cleveland of all places. No offense to the people who live or from or born in Cleveland but...your town’s a mess. Main export being sadness. Their economy used to be based on LeBron James, now on Baker Mayfield. Cleveland: At least they’re not Detroit.
Linda and Tina stumble through a music shop in the flea market and goes through a pile of CDs, one being a band some people would remember being Chumbawamba, the band behind that one-hit song about being knocked down but got up again. Yeah, that. Tina seems surprised about them starting operations in this town...before being cut off but the clerk and tells the two about a singer living here named Dove Shannon. Tina don’t know who she is but Linda does because she was a huge hit back in her day but apparently, she’s not from the town and originally held from Greenwich Village, which is by New York City. Which signals good news for Linda for Tina to have her report to be written over the thing, but it looks like things are going to be a little difficult because she’s pretty much laid low for decades and unsure if she’s alive or not. Would say go to Google and find out but even with that, it’s not going to be easy to find the former singer, having both Linda and Tina to go on the case and to find the missing singer who now lives in the town from the Big Apple, or rather the suburbs of the big city, and explain why she left and also slap some sense into Tina for the city that inspires her. And hoping that they don’t get, I don’t know...a restraining order or possibly hours of community service or maybe jail time. Yeah, orange would not suit them.
So Tina and Linda bought the CD from the flea market and once Tina open up the thing, Linda spotted their first clue about her whereabouts being a small shop out by the woods and thus, having Linda to hail a taxi and heading out to the place and while heading over there, Tina checks on the songs listed on the CD and seems rather intrigued over the titles that was listed onto it. Not in the form of planning on listening to it once heading back home as both her and Linda arrives at the place that was shown on the CD and it looks like the place...is like one of those shops you see when driving in the deep rural woods, mostly around the southern states, selling driftwood items, which is technically take the playbook from taxonomy but with driftwood and not the actual animals, so chill down PETA, even during this pandemic.
Anyway, Linda asks the owner of the shop about what happened and where is Dove residing at, in which the shopkeeper replies to her and say that...yeah, she dead. Which would really put a wrench onto Linda’s search to help Tina out if it weren’t for the fact that Linda then spotted a car passing by and looks at a woman driving by who pretty resembles the former singer Dove Shannon...in which Linda put two and two together faster than putting one half of the Oreo with cream and combining it with another piece to make it double stuff, Linda spotted Dove in the car passing by and decided to take Tina and follow her. Yeah, so the whole “that person’s dead” excuse to protect the image of a former celebrity from the olden times...really need to like...I don’t know...try moving far so that people don’t follow her. Also get rid of the music...might as well be the second thing to do to avoid being recognized. Linda and Tina heads back to the taxi and asks the driver to follow Dove to a private property, which Tina thinks that she don’t want to go through this, but it looks like that’s not happening and ending up following her.
Linda and Tina finally caught up with Dove at a neighborhood that happened to be a hood full of boat houses and asks her if she can help Tina out for a report and convince that living in a place like New York isn’t the place to be, but it looks like Dove won’t be answering and helping Linda and Tina out and head to her home, thus causing Linda to go the whole nine yards of crazy and go from behind. Though Tina have second thoughts about all of this and want to stop while they’re ahead and ready to call it a day, but...uh...much like her back in “A Fish Called Tina” with the whole Kaylee fiasco, Linda decided to take the playbook from Tina and go overboard when jumping from one rock to another only to end up jumping into the water, which apparently became dirty and...uh...really unsanitary. Don’t want to imagine the storm surge with that unclean water. But yeah, Linda’s going a bit overboard, Tina wants to go home, and Dove noticed what they’re doing, concede, and let them into her own boat home but with Linda going to get a change of clothes.
Really fashionable there, Linda. Did not expect a cross between a dress and a pantsuit in one. With a terry cloth type of fabric, kind of an odd choice for making clothes but...I don’t know, I’m not a fashion expert, what’s your excuse? So Linda got a change of clothes. Old clothes that is messed up by the mud now has to be thrown away. And Linda tells Dove about what Tina is doing for her report for school and tries to convince her that the town here is interesting than what New York hold, thus now hearing from the mouth of the person who used to live in the big city and having an experience while living there in Dove Shannon.
So the reason Dove left New York and decided to move to Seymour’s Bay to this day is of course, going back to the picture in the CD that Tina went through during the taxi ride, the place that they just left. Yeah, well that place over there kicked off her first tour as a singer and fell in love with the place, the people, and the environment and prefers that over life in the big city, mostly because...yeah, it’s New York City. Big city equals some problems in the ol’ neighborhood being the drugs, the people, the drugs...a lot of stuff that pretty much made Dove to say that she has enough of living in the big city and decided to pack her bags and head out to a small town the next state over to where we are now. So basically, she left the big city because the grass isn’t that right shade of green and decided to go somewhere where it’s like the perfect color have been there for like a really long ass time. Or in layman’s terms, she moved out of New York because it doesn’t suit her and want to live in a small quiet town. And thus, pretty much proved Linda’s point that she doesn’t need to go to another city to be inspired and to be written down onto a piece of paper, thus ending up having Tina to change her mind. But we can’t end it right here and instead...
Let’s have a little musical number to pass the time to prepare to wrap up the main plot and the episode with Dove opening the doors and exit out with a guitar in her hands, looking at the sunset, and sings a song to everyone in attendance, mostly her neighbors from left to right. Just be glad that she didn’t sing in the middle of the night, don’t want to imagine noise complaints being made against while singing to the moon. As the song plays out, Linda tells Tina about the stuff that makes their town so special from the Wharf to the houseboats and thinks that even though New York is all fancy and big and full of stuff, the small town like theirs pretty much have everything Tina needs...would’ve said the heart but apparently that kinda seems...vague. You think that they’re should’ve gone with that. Home is where the heart is, cause apparently that seems pretty much vague and overused in pretty much everything but that’s pretty much enough for Tina to finally decide what to do with her report as she presented it to the next class the next day with the radio in her hands with the CD from Dove Shannon ready to wrap up. Though some of the kids in attendance have some questions, mostly with getting through the fact that a former singer resides in town now and Mrs. Jacobson questioning Tina if that CD is the only thing that she’s going with and it looks like it is. So uh...she might as well give her a pass with that as we close out the main plot with Tammy presenting her report about New York City...in which the presentation falls apart like a house of cards with Jocelyn straight up exposing her and going out of bounds from the presentation and exposes her that she really haven’t been to the city herself, so okay, I’ll give the episode some pointers on that one and do really liked that to close out the episode. Rest of it, more on that over at the reaction/thoughts section but for now, the subplot for the second to last episode of the tenth season of the show.
So as Linda and Tina are out for the day for Tina’s report, Teddy enters the restaurant and asks Bob to deal with a little problem that he’s been having since...now because why not. Anyway, Teddy comes into the restaurant and asks Bob to help with an issue he had in the form of the topic of sports. You see, Teddy had a pretty big argument with the host of a sports radio show over the acquisition of a player to the town’s minor hockey league team where there were some disagreements between the two with the host thinks that it’s a good trade but Teddy thinks it’s a bad one, mostly because of the player’s record and because of that argument leads to Teddy being banned on the phone. I mean...being banned over an opinion. That’s not winning an argument, that’s pretty much you being a quitter and don’t want to be owned by a listener. That’s not sharing an argument, that’s pretty much like whenever you go racing and you’re on the verge of losing and begin to take the dirty route and spill some grease to have the drivers behind you to lose control and crash from the track. It's pretty much that when it comes to losing an argument and don’t want to accept that you’re wrong for once. You have to be someone who happened who doesn’t like losing, an egotistical asshole who pretty much gets upset for not having everything go their way.
But yeah, Teddy got banned from the show and goes to Bob to take his place for the whole player argument and for someone who doesn’t know anything about hockey, which...Bob knew nothing about the damn sport. Okay, once the NHL comes back from the suspension courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic, Teddy...you might as well help the guy out getting to know about the sport as a whole. Might as well get the guy to know everything but once this pandemic blows over and let’s hope a second wave doesn’t strike down (it will by the way, history might repeat itself from the 1918 Spanish flu). Bob agrees to help Teddy out by taking his place for the phone call to the radio.
Onto a few hours later, 45 minutes to say the least though it feels like a few hours have passed, Bob is now getting prepared for the call as Teddy begins to feel worried about the plan about to fall into shambles but then decided to go through the game plan with Bob going through an introduction by doing a nickname since every caller who make a call with the host go with a nickname to get through the call and of course, it has to be hockey related with Teddy being “Ice-Ice Teddy”, referencing Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”, get it? Because hockey play around the frozen ice. So it looks like Bob’s nickname, courtesy of Teddy, is “Pucky Ducky” with the kids try to make some duck noises to be unique and creative as he now goes through the call once his turn arrives.
And so the call did arrive at long last for Bob to follow Teddy’s instructions. Introducing himself of course by using the nickname given and talk about the goalie trade that Teddy had some issue with though Bob has some issue at first when it comes to pronouncing the player’s name. What do you expect? Most of the players in the world of hockey playing here in the US are from Europe, so yeah, you can have some issue pronouncing the names of the players. Bob got through phase one, and now entering phase two in the whole player trade and that player’s record, mostly with the whole drug suspension issue...only to fall apart thanks to Teddy not knowing how to whisper during the phone call and thus ending up getting double banned. I mean...wow. Wow, that idea pretty much fell apart like a Jenga tower after taking one block, just one, to cause the tower to collapse, but sheesh, did not even expect, and heard of, double banned after getting banned once. Though that depends on how long the banishment last...it’s for life. It’s for life. Well Teddy tried. Bob tried. Might as well just call it a day and just be done with it...well if the grown-ups didn’t do dick when it comes to proving the radio sports host wrong about the whole damn trade, might as well leave this to the kids.
Louise and Gene that is who will be taking over the call and not ready to call it a day just yet and tell their father to leave this to the professionals at hand when it comes to him changing his mind. But the first step to do is to unban Teddy from the show and decided to pull out the old trick out of the book known to man that may pretty much be foolproof to anyone who is pretty much gullible to emotional stories...Louise and Gene decided to use pity to unban Teddy on the airwaves. Or as Bob calls it, pulling a Sleepless in Seattle. And using his divorce, his divorce with Denise, his ex-wife, as an excuse to get him unbanned from the show and lo and behold, it works. The pity works. Them using Teddy’s personal life with the divorce from long ago helps Teddy get unbanned from the show and it works. Teddy got unbanned from the show and he can voice his opinions in the world of sports, though you think making a sports YouTube channel or a podcast would probably help voicing your opinion with the topic. Though...yeah, using Teddy’s divorce as a pity gateway to get him unbanned courtesy of Louise and Gene...guy here really need a happy life. Like for real, the guy needs a happy life and to be with someone who can make him happy *cough* Kathleen *cough*. Don’t worry guys, it’s nothing too serious...though Kathleen, come on! Make a Teddy happy. I know I’m rushing things but...the guy really needs to have a happy ending once the show ends. But yeah, Teddy’s now back on the call thanks to the kids, via pity, to voice his opinions once again...only to end the subplot with Bob now falling for that and ending up giving him a free burger, though that better be on tab because the family do really need the money to get through pretty much everything.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? I say this was an alright episode. I don’t hate it, there were some parts of it that I like and pretty much enjoyed. And despite that, sounding like a broken record but let’s not forget that not all episodes are perfect, were some flaws in the way from making it a good episode. Of course, being aired on Mother’s Day that somehow makes it a Linda episode, so it’s pretty much somewhat of a weird coincidence for the scheduling department to put this episode onto that faithful day to be the second to last episode of this current season.
You think that the whole “home is where the heart is” trope would pretty much be used in this episode but it feels like it was just there when Linda tried to convince Tina to do a report of the town and what makes it so unique and better than New York City all thanks to Tammy coming up with it and have Tina to question about the town. And who knew that a CD that they found from a local flea market can pretty much lead both Tina and Linda into a hunt to track down a former singer from the 1970s and no longer relevant when being stepped away from the limelight to find her and of course, tell her side of the story on why she left New York and finally slapped some sense into Tina about thinking about talking about the Big Apple and possibly moving there. More of the grass is always greener but not the perfect color that you’ve been looking for a type of idea when it comes to location. So despite its flaws in the mix, don’t know if the pacing was the issue or how the episode was executed, this was a simple main plot of the damn thing though I do enjoy some parts of it. Mostly courtesy of that daydream sequence of Tina enjoying life in the big city with her cover of “New York, New York” from Times Square to Broadway with her going off-key but hey, it’s Tina’s sequence, nothing wrong with that. And also the end where Jocelyn just straight up expose Tammy about her not even land one foot onto the big city like New York during the presentation. Call her out Jocelyn...you really need your own episode and it’s getting quite sad not knowing about her and just knowing her as a cardboard cutout. The girl really need to get the attention she deserves.
The subplot was alright as well. I don’t hate it but felt neutral over the whole thing throughout the episode. I mean the plan to get Teddy to have his opinion being voiced for over the whole player trade that got him banned by having Bob take over, only for him to be double banned, harsh but the idea was going to fall apart anyway. Teddy’s just lucky to have both Louise and Gene take over the call and use the pity card to finally got the ban to be removed. Which was rather personal for Teddy and seems rather...I don’t know, not for good use but apparently it worked and Teddy’s back on the call log. Okay...though Teddy should probably get a happy ending and to be someone happy because...why not. Guy gonna need it. But all and all for the subplot, it was alright though felt neutral over the whole thing from top to bottom...god I miss hockey.
So final thoughts, this was an alright episode despite some near misses but with some parts of it being somewhat enjoyable, to say the least, so that’s pretty much the positive about it and for this being a Linda episode, so that’s something to sum up this episode. So I’ll give “Local She-ro"…
A 7.5 out of 10. But that’s pretty much my opinion and now I want to hear yours in the comments down below. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Would you trade up a visit to the big city over a small town? What city has inspired you? Have you have gotten into an argument over opinions that gotten you banned like with Teddy? And do you think Teddy will get a happy life once the show is over with? All that and your mini review in the comment box below the post. And so my friends...here we are...one episode left. We’re in the endgame now folks. One more episode until a long-needed break and the episode that will close out the show’s tenth season is Louise helping one of her classmates how to pull a prank as Bob, like he’s being punished for some reason, has to deliver some hernia medicine to Jimmy Pesto in the twenty-second and final episode of Season 10, “Prank You For Being a Friend” on May 17, this upcoming Sunday.
For up the date things and hopefully I’m not dead for the time being once summer break arrives, follow me over at Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram for all of that. And also if you want to help the page out, me out as well to get ready for a really long summer months ahead now that we have a pandemic in hand...
- PayPal: https://www.paypal.me/yahoo201027
- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/yahoo201027
- Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/Y8Y8K4OP
Donate over at PayPal, Patreon, and Ko-fi pages to donate today to help improve the page and to pay bills has a whole. And don’t bring up stimulus checks, pretty much it’s not going to be enough. Might as well play the lottery over that...if only I knew how to play it without being fucked around. Hmm...one episode left for the season. Light at the end of the tunnel and until then, I’ll see y’all later.
***Bob’s Burgers is owned by 20th Century FOX, Bento Box Animation, and Loren Bouchard. Please Support the Official Release***
No comments:
Post a Comment