We all have been through what Linda been through in the episode. Not the whole prison thing, that’s a different story for y’all to explain. Talking about experiencing some serious indigestion and at the worst possible time, especially in places like at school, at church attending services, during a long car ride, or even watching the game. Like, I know that this page isn’t sponsored by stuff like Pepto or Fiber One, and even if I were to have a YouTube channel in a video version of this, pretty sure that won’t be the case. Just be thankful you’re not in Linda’s shoes because uh...yikes.
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, Linda ends up doing some prison time for something that she didn’t even do because that’s how the American justice system works nowadays when trying out a new dietary exercise on the day of the parent-teacher conference in my spoilerific review of the fifteenth episode of Season 11, titled “Sheshank Redumption”.
Yeah, and as what the introduction stated, it wasn’t a pleasant day for Linda when heading off to the parent-teacher conference when going under through a dietary change to her health. Though the episode itself regarding the whole Linda under police custody after making some doo-doo that got her into deep doo-doo, yeah, this feels average. The episode was average at best despite a few flaws. Though sure, there are some moments that I do somewhat enjoyed with a few laughs. But regardless...what is this, the second episode this season where the issue of pooping becomes the hot button issue? I’m now sure that one is enough with “Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid” back in November of last year and should let the topic be put to bed...and by bed, I mean toilet. Down the drain and into the sewer it goes. Leave the toilet and pooping situation to last season with “Poops!.. I Didn’t Do It Again”, will ya? Might as well leave it at that. But that being said, and I know there’s always that one episode where it’s going to be in the “forgettable” column and this episode might’ve fit the bill, let’s dive into what could be a wonky and yet, long review up head, this is “Sheshank Redumption”.
Starting off the episode with Bob cleaning the tables with Teddy, of course, being the only attendee in the restaurant, taking the first minute of the episode in the TMI way possible with him telling Bob on how he’s living a totally different lifestyle. And by that, I mean him changing underwear types from briefs to boxer briefs. Guess it’s mostly because of the chaffing. That I don’t blame him for that. Can be a hassle in the nether regions. And yeah, Teddy was a briefs guy when you see him in that back in Season 2 when watching the morning show that both Bob and Gene appeared for the cooking segment and all. Again, a bit of a TMI moment to start off the episode with Teddy bringing up the story of how he became a boxer briefs guy. Not even a first full minute into the episode.
Of course, that talk gets interrupted by Linda coming into the restaurant in all gears and jogging like a crazy person and interrupting Teddy’s story of the whole underwear change with her telling the guys about a new diet and exercise routine that she’s been working on by telling that she’s going for a power walk. Not to mention, a change in how she’s eating that involves stuff like salads and veggies and smoothies and stuff. You could say that it almost sounds like a vegetarian or even a vegan lifestyle could be taking place, but apparently, it’s not. Let’s also mention that she’s not alone in doing this whole change of the world of health and lifestyle because Linda’s friend Ginger, who has yet to appear, that she and Linda have that little bet that just now brought up regarding the whole thing with whoever gets the most frowny faces on their Facebook profiles, will have to wear a bra over their shirt for the whole day. So uh...yeah. That’s pretty much this little bet they have in a nutshell from both Linda and Ginger regarding the change of exercise and diet and stuff. And it looks like she’ll be powerwalking her way to the school for the upcoming parent-teacher conference over at Wagstaff instead of using a car. I guess that also is part of the bet that you can’t use the car wherever you go unless you want a frowny onto your Facebook profile. But before heading out, she noticed that there’s a certain group of people who are missing from the scene. The Belcher kids.
In which, they appeared in entering the restaurant and telling Linda and Bob why they came in late into the picture as Linda was preparing to head out for the conference over at the school. And telling them that they had to serve detention. All three of them had to serve detention, thus explaining what and how they ended up being late from coming home. With Louise getting her spot, she switches the morning announcements to the lyrics of Baby Got Back for Ms. LaBonz to read through. To be fair, the school probably doesn’t want to bother listening to whatever LaBonz has to say during the morning announcements that they’re probably dead inside and out upon listening through the intercom. With Gene in getting his spot, it’s mostly him using a hot dog on a pencil sharpener and thinks that he’s creating something new with the hot dog being chopped into pieces with the pencil sharpener. And of course, with Tina, it’s mostly her attacking Tammy by pulling her hair after badmouthing horses and labeling it as “boring zebras”. And Tina can be kind of defensive when it comes to stuff that she likes to the point where she can go from 0 to 100 right away. Though Tina ended up getting detention, but somehow Tammy got a free pass? You think that she would also get one as well, but nope. Victim mentality at its finest.
That of course made Linda upset over what the kids did, especially on the day of the parent-teacher conference that what happened today is going to be brought up, along with other stuff that they did that probably not going to make anything positive. And rather than accept that everything the kids did earlier in the day that landed them in dentition being nothing more than a memory, Linda was not having it and grounds the kids for what happened as she heads off to do her powerwalk while trying to come up with a punishment as the kids are now forced to do their homework for the time being.
Thus, leaving Bob with Teddy as the kids prepare to do their homework with Teddy wanting to invite Bob to his improv class and telling him that it’s his first performance tonight and pretty much wants him to come over for support and also have him to yell out a suggestion because that’s how improv work, you don’t know a freaking script to create a situation. But Bob would rather take a rain check instead, which upsets Teddy for the decline of invitation for the whole improv class thing. And yes folks, that would’ve been the subplot of the episode. I say that the episode was average at best with some flaws and adding in a Teddy subplot involving him in his improv class would’ve downplayed the episode as a whole. Dragging it down to the ground.
We transition over to Linda, still mad over what happened with the kids that landed themselves in detention and picked the wrong day to do it on parent-teacher conference day as she takes her powerwalk to the park. Only to be hit by a disturbance in the force. That disturbance being the thunder down under and at the worst time for the stomach to pick up some issues. Can’t tell if her being mad at the kids might be the prime factor for Linda’s stomach issues because don’t know if anything negative emotionally would be the benefactor of Linda’s bowel trouble at the worst possible time. I mean, I’m not a health expert, but I think that might be the cause. Either that or the stomach refuses to accept anything new that it would create some issues in the digestive system.
Luckily, Linda spotted a restroom, and would be good for her to relieve herself from the bowel trouble from her diet changes. Only to find the bathroom locked with the sign on the door saying that it’s out of order. Both sides of the bathroom, locked and out of order. Okay, the situation is not looking good for Linda, and would head back home to drain it out of her system, but knowing stomach pains and gas trouble, holding it in is not an easy challenge to breeze through. Especially when you’re out of the house. With no luck with the bathroom at the park being locked and have little time to hold it in when being away from the house like it’s a ticking time bomb, it looks like Linda may have no other choice but to take an alternative way to release herself in the way of what the pioneers would do when being out in the open trail. Getting to the bushes and does her business like what a dog would do while being out for a walk...except that when it comes to a dog, the owner has to carry a bag around. Whereas Linda, not so much and ends up getting arrested for pooping in public. Not knowing that the cop is right over there on her right, watching the whole thing.
Thus, leaving her in police custody with Linda trying to convince the cop that what happened at the park was a big ol’ misunderstanding with happened at the park. Telling the female cop that she was trying out some new method on diet and exercise with the stomach issue that came out of nowhere at the worst possible time after storming out when finding out that the kids were serving detention on parent-teacher conference day. Of course, to wrap up this little reasons of reasons, the cop fine her $100 for bail, but because Linda didn’t even bother bringing in a wallet or a purse, hell, a fanny pack would’ve been a better choice for her, especially when going out jogging, she has to resort to Bob to rescue her in getting the $100 to bail her out via phone call.
Over at the restaurant with the kids filling up bottles and Teddy still in the restaurant with Bob getting a phone call from Linda about what happened and that she needs him to bail her out with paying the $100 fine thanks in part to her poop behind the bushes. Bob thinks that it’s a reasonable price and goes along with bailing out, but then checked on the cash register and noticed that he’s short on cash, guess business is somewhat slow over at the restaurant. Nothing new about that. So that leads to him ready to deposit $100 out of his bank card as Plan B to bail Linda out. Of course, this has to involve not telling Tina, Gene, and Louise about Linda’s little situation with them still grounded and ended up being told to head upstairs to their home to do their homework, and also telling Teddy to leave the place, to get money from the bank.
But once he made it to the bank, apparently, it seems to be closed due to, for no whatever bullshit reason, closed because of a bank holiday. It’s a normal day in the Seymour’s Bay area and the only bank in town decided to say, “Yeah, the bank is closed for today to observe a holiday that y’all don’t know because fuck you. We’re the bank and we can do what we pleased.” With the bank now closed for the day, Bob heads on over to the ATM to get $100 out in cash form out of his card, but when Bob noticed that something is wrong when putting the card into the machine, he now noticed that there’s a scratch on it.
Hence, to this little flashback where you have Louise teaching Tina and Gene how to open the door by using Bob’s card like it’s one of those key cards you get when checking into a hotel. Of course, Bob notices that Louise was using his card to teach her siblings how to sneak into a locked room by using a card as a picklock. Though Tina and Gene think that they got the wrong message when signing up to partake in the class with Tina thinking that it would be her way to organize her closet and for Gene, well...pretty much there for networking. And besides, this isn’t Louise’s first bite of the cherry when using her father’s card. Let’s not forget in Season 1 when she turned Bob’s card into a shuriken, or ninja star as she called it. No, it’s “shuriken”. “Shuriken.” Checks your facts.
Though, this is probably one of the moments that kind of made me laugh when we transition to the kids doing their homework with their father out in trying to get $100 and their mother...well, still in police custody and await for her hairy prince charming to the rescue with the Belcher kids talking to each other what’s the punishment is going to be from Linda once she comes back where they come up with worse things that their mother might throw at them. Whether being grounded until they head off to high school or replacing their limbs with mops and brooms. But that ain’t it. That ain’t it, chief. No, that goes to the TV. Yeah, getting rid of the TV as punishment over what happened that landed them in detention. They’re treating it like it’s the end of the world when coming up with the idea of Linda taking the TV away that they could imagine if they missed their favorite show and you have Zeke and Jimmy Jr, mostly Zeke doing the talking, over what they saw that the Belcher kids missed out. They’re treating it like it’s the end of the world and honestly, this was something. This was something with the kids thinking up the worst punishments they can come up with once Linda comes back.
We then head over to the store with Bob buying a packet of gum in an attempt to exchange a check for cash in hopes to get $100 in cash to bail Linda out. But apparently, that didn’t go through because the store has a policy where technically, you can’t cash in a check. Actually...now that you think about it? Is it possible to cash in bail with a check? I mean, if that is possible, then Bob could’ve used the checkbook to get Linda out of police custody. But I feel like that won’t be the case and might never be the case with Bob can’t cash in a check to get bail money to get Linda out. So instead, he just wastes $1.39 for a packet of gum. Because it looks like he’s gonna need it during the whole situation as it drags on into the episode. That and also cleans a dirty mouth.
Tired of waiting over at the police station, Linda decided to take matters into her hands because the clock is ticking, and she needs to get to the conference in less than 30 minutes time in going for a quick trip back home to get the money to pay the bail herself. Yeah, uh...don’t think that’s a good idea. Especially when being under police custody, which would make matters even worse for her following doing the doo-doos behind the bushes at the park. But that won’t stop Linda from what’s she doing in hopes to get to the school in time for the conference. Only for the police department to not take that lightly and ending up locking Linda behind bars. I mean, she was warned to not leave her post despite that she had to attend a conference over at the school, but man, this isn’t a good look for Linda as of this moment.
And not a good look indeed when Linda tries to yell at the cop who puts her inside the cell and brings up a lawyer as a possible threat to free herself from what is pretty much a small prison, rather being like where toddlers would be put when being in time out for adults. Of course, most of the time, bringing up the whole lawyer thing as an excuse for a pass...most of the time, doesn’t work. Especially knowing that we’re now only 12-13 minutes into the episode. But apparently, all hope is not lost for Linda as she spots Sergeant Bosco and try to use the friend discount and telling him that everything that happened was a big misunderstanding and that she has to head out to the school, of course, need to pay her bail, as a get out of jail free card. So much for that when the female cop brings up her crime in pooping in public. And okay, I gotta give some props into the episode over what is considered a worse crime in the lore of the show when Bosco heard about Linda’s little crime that landed herself into prison. Disgusted over what she did when it comes to committing public pooping behind the bushes before heading out with Linda still trying to convince her that it was all an accident. This and the next time we transition back to Linda serving her time behind the cell kinda made me chuckle a bit regarding the whole thing. Mostly with the whole pooping in public is worse than every other crime that is known to man, and that’ll be touched later on.
Bob finally arrives back at the house with the kids still doing their homework and also planning on what to do with the TV if the punishment of taking away the TV could become reality as he enters the room while chewing gum like a suspicious person like the cracks are ready to expand through the wall with Bob entering the bedroom to find some cash hiding inside the dresser, mostly because Plans A-C had fallen flat onto his face for trying to get the money to bail Linda out of prison, so going through the drawer is now pretty much Plan D when trying to find some cash for bail. But found nothing but some stuff. Mostly when Bob found Linda’s old pair of underwear that have holes in it. I mean, she did say back in Season 5 that she has pairs that are over 30 years old. You’d think that she would throw that out? Especially if your pair has holes on it. Otherwise, we may have some issues with that. Especially when finding IOUs in the drawer because...let’s face it, Linda pretty much used that money for something that might not be important...mostly wine. Or probably another box of crackers after Gene ate it all last week. Surprised that the ant situation didn’t come into play with what happened after the whole Gene home alone situation.
Bob decided that now is the time to tell Tina, Gene, and Louise what happened to Linda, well...half of it by telling them that Linda got a ticket and is being detained over at the police station, hence Bob is having trouble trying to find at least $100 to bail her out of police custody. Not knowing that she’s currently in jail for trying to things her way in wanting to pay the bail herself. With Bob telling the kids, mostly Tina, to see if they have any money. Mostly Tina with her babysitting money that apparently now been mentioned, but Tina wasted all of it to get something for her in the form of a perfume that ends up...well, it’s bad. So Plan D ends up being a bust. Leading to Plan E to take place.
Into the car ride to the pawn shop with Bob found an idea to get the money in another alternative way possible to earn $100 for Linda’s bail, of course, you have Tina, Gene, and Louise questioning Bob over what lead to Linda being in police custody. Though Bob continues to hide it from them about the whole “Linda taking a dump at the park” issue. Mostly because Linda broke the rules and she told the kids, after getting detention, to not break the rules and possibly worried about being called a freaking hypocrite. Bob and the kids arrive at the pawn shop and ready to sell one of his prized possession in exchange for money, which is his portable CD player. And if you don’t know what is it. It’s usually what we used to take before the invention of the iPod and the iPhone. Remember iPods? Of course, y’all don’t because we stan PSP. Not really though. Of course, that plan fell flat on its face because of the resell price after going for $40 as the starting bid, but the owner has its estimated price at around $5. Which is way low than the $100 that he needs to get Linda out of custody. Hell, even the kids try to do their part in going for the $18 and that didn’t work out well. Thus having them to leave the place, with the CD player still in Bob’s hands, and it looks like it’s Plan F for the whole “Get Linda out of jail” process, and that is calling Teddy for a favor.
Back to Linda in her cell with her pretty much ready to give up on stuff and thinks to herself that the family is not coming as she gets a cellmate over at the small prison. And this is where I had a bit of a laugh on this that I mentioned early in the review regarding the whole “pooping in public” issue. It was some of “what the fuck” like in the form of “That sounds like bullshit”, but more of “what the fuck” but also laughing over that scene with Linda and that convict. Linda telling her how she ended up in the cell, revealing her crime, being selling drugs to a state officer. Like, okay, that’s bad. I mean, that’s a big no-no in selling illegal drugs, but also selling it to a cop. Because A, that’s pretty much corruption. And B, that’s stupid because it’s a cop. He or she is probably undercover, and you probably fell into the mousetrap.
So the convict told Linda how she ended up at the cell. With Linda telling her that she was sent there for public pooping. Causing the convict to scoop away from her. Like what the fuck. But not in a bad “what the fuck”, but the “what the fuck” where you have to laugh over the whole pooping in public issue and how, apparently, became the worse offense than any of the regular offenses that you can commit. Because apparently in the Seymour’s Bay area, public defecation is pretty much the biggest no-no in the whole area. The whole area. Worse than committing murder, arson, assault, robbery, pirating movies, shootings, kidnapping, suspected terrorism. Hell, public defecation may probably be worse than what happened in January with the riots at the Capitol. And yes, apparently, according to the show, pooping in public is worse than an attempt to overthrow the goddamn government. At least shitting in the park didn’t like to have five casualties in a federal government building on a cold and cloudy January day in the middle of a pandemic but the show said, “Nope, pooping in public is worse. It’s worse than any of that.” I mean fuck, later on in the episode, you have that convict requesting to be transferred somewhere else, just because she doesn’t want to be around Linda, just because of that little misunderstanding. And yet, Zeke got a pass and he pooped in public, in a school, around portions of the building, but Linda ended up getting prison time for the whole thing. Like, I get that he and his family move around a lot, but still. What the fuck.
Bob and the kids arrive at Teddy’s place with Teddy standing there and waited for them to arrive to hand over the money to free Linda from her cell. And of course, he ends up blabbing about the other half of Linda’s situation that landed her in a small jail over public defecation. So uh...congrats kids, it looks like y’all aren’t the only ones who happened to break the rules throughout the day. Boy, Linda is not going to live this moment down for the rest of her life. Knowing that he doesn’t have any time with the clock ticking before the conference begins at the school, looks like Bob has no other choice but to attend Teddy’s improv class for the night. That and handing over a piece of gum to the guy. Might as well treat it as Bob’s punishment for no ever reason...mostly because we’re all pretty much sadists and enjoy the punishments.
The four got the money from Teddy and head on over to the police station to finally post bail to free Linda from her cell, took some time for the officer to count the money, before handing Linda over to the rest of the Belcher family with the kids may have known about what Linda did but pretends that they don’t know jack shit about what happened that landed their mother to jail. Telling the kids that she’s not perfect in the rules department after the little incident that got her to be detained and telling the kids on their way to the school for the conference that following the rules is still important, but there’s come a time where there’s going to be some fuck ups, whether being in control or not like with what happened. A moment that she will not be living it down for the rest of her life following a brief stomach issue that leads to her pooping in the bushes.
Ending the episode with Bob doing his side of the coin in attending Teddy’s improv class that he had to attend in order to get money to pay for Linda’s bail to get out of jail. Let’s just say, he ain’t enjoying it as Teddy babbles on to create a situation because improv, you don’t a script. Just yell out a suggestion and you’d be good to go. Starting to regret accepting the invitation but that’s what you get, Bob. That’s what you get for agreeing to partake in it to get the money to get Linda out of police custody to attend the conference at the school. Just be lucky that isn’t the subplot of the episode because otherwise, it would totally drag down the episode.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? Like I said at the beginning of this review, I said that this episode was average at best, but with some flaws in the mix that may have downplayed the episode as a whole. Mostly in the likes that it could possibly be as one of those episodes that could be dubbed as “forgettable” with the rewatch factor there written on the wall from start to finish to truly understand the episode.
One episode that focuses on poop was okay. And we did have that back in November of last year with “Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid” with Gene dealing with a stomach bug, that turned out to be food poisoning, to prevent him to eat Thanksgiving dinner. But once we get to two or more, that’s where we could have some issues regarding the topic of going number two. Beginning to think that ever since “Poops!.. I Didn’t Do It Again” aired and gained positive criticism, the writing team of the show want to get that and thinks that they should do episodes with poop as the topic in hopes for lightning to strike twice. Except that with “Poops!.. I Didn’t Do It Again”, that was mostly due to the fact that it was a Bob and Louise episode with Louise trying her best to beat her fear of dealing with pooping in public bathrooms. Worried at first, only it turns out to be an amazing episode. I mean, “Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid”, with that episode, despite that it is a Thanksgiving episode and an anthology episode mix into one, sure, people may have some issues with the episode. But I enjoyed the episode. Sure, it’s not great, but it’s not bad either. Though with this episode with Linda taking the stage with her pooping in public that landed her in police custody, I feel like one episode with poop for a season seems to be enough in my liking. I mean, you do know that lightning can’t strike twice. Just putting it out there.
Of course, putting it out there, we may have dodged a bullet with a possible Teddy subplot. May have dodged a bullet because who knows what could have happened with that along with the episode. I think the original idea when there was no mention of a subplot in the press release that maybe it would be in the likes of the events of “Long Time Listener, First Time Bob” where you have the subplot with Linda and Teddy doing sweet potatoes, despite Bob’s disapproval of the food, only to get interrupted by Bob taking over the radio station as a form of protest in hopes to get the old radio DJ his job back. That would’ve been the way for that and have Teddy to hand over the money to Bob to accorporated with, but instead, we didn’t get it. But at least, we dodged a bullet. Dodged a bullet.
But despite that the episode has some issues for the duration of the episode, there were some enjoyable moments that I enjoyed and also shared a few laughs. Mostly with the kids doing their homework and worrying about what Linda would do to them when thinking of a punishment and thinking that the TV could be going away. Treating it like it’s the end of the world or something and that was enjoyable. But also the whole thing with the show treating the issue of “pooping in public” like it’s a serious offense than any of the other stuff like murder and stuff like it’s a normal playground activity at the park. It was like “what the fuck” but it was a humorous “what the fuck” regarding the whole thing with both Bosco and that convict when Linda states her situation of how she ended up in police custody.
So final thoughts, I thought that the episode was average, almost feels like a meh. There were some flaws mixed into the episode and feel like that the whole topic of pooping feels like it’s getting old once the second time we get into an episode focusing on it. Feel like one should be enough for this season. Going to end up as forgettable with a rewatch factor written on the wall. Though I do enjoy some moments on it, so it’s pretty much average at best, but have some flaws in the way mixed into the pot. So I’ll give “Sheshank Redumption”...maybe a 7 out of 10. Though I feel like 6 out of 10 might be knocking on the door with 6.5 out of 10 being the best possible option to put in.
I’ll give this episode a 7 out of 10. But it’s an edge with the grade of the episode, so 7 out of 10 might be a decent, safe choice for the episode grading. But that’s my opinion and now I wanna hear yours. Tell me what you think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Would you attend Teddy’s improv class? Do you think public pooping is worse than any crime known to man? Would say something about the kids, but I don’t wanna get demonetized. All that and your mini-review in the comments down below. And tune in on Sunday, March 28 with another installment of Bob’s Burgers where we have Tina learning Spanish...all because of trying to get closer to a random boy. Can someone check up on how the Tina/Jimmy Jr shippers are doing? Hoping we don’t get a possible insurrection happening from them. Someone should check that. In the sixteenth episode of Season 11 in “Y Tu Tina Tambien”. Okay, now we feel like the show is running out of clever ideas for episode titles.
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