It’s that magical time of year again, people. Thanksgiving. And of course, it is a tradition that it ain’t the Thanksgiving holiday without having Bob’s Burgers to do an episode for the holiday like getting into shenanigans to the point where you kinda wish that there were would be one episode where the family, mostly Bob, to have a normal episode without getting into shit. Although now thinking about it, that would sound boring, but it’s possibly the thought that counts. I mean, what’s going to be next year’s Thanksgiving episode? The Belcher family ditching the feast to go lineup at the mall for Black Friday? I mean, that might not be a bad idea to think about it. Bless the Harts back when it was in the lineup, they have their Thanksgiving episodes have the family lined up while also going into backstory mode. Don’t think Bob’s Burgers might do that, but again, it’s the thought that counts.
In this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers, the Belcher family for this year’s Thanksgiving episode have them volunteer over at a retirement home with Bob and Louise doing all of the work in the kitchen to cook up Thanksgiving dinner as Tina and Gene must help Zeke out to entertain the elderly without having to watch TV, just going to pretend that streaming isn’t a thing, in my spoilerific review of the eighth episode of Season 12, titled “Stuck in the Kitchen with You”.
And there’s also another tradition that coincided with the Thanksgiving holiday, as well as the Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa season, and that is the idea of giving back to the community. Whether being serving over at soup kitchen, passing out turkeys in a community event, or doing what the Belchers are doing and helping out on the elderly over at a retirement home. I mean, hey, it is the holiday season and this would be the time of year where you would be giving thanks and also giving back to the community and the people who needed it the most. Well, that is what the Belchers are doing though much like with what happened with certain episodes like “Legends of the Mall”, “Mr. Lonely Farts” as prime examples, we have three plots in one episode and question on how I want to do this since there are some moments where you one plot to start off the episode before separating into three parts but as the episode drags on is where you have either Plot B (Tina, Gene, and Zeke) or Plot C (Linda and Bosco) intertwine with Plot A (Bob and Louise) before reaching to the finish line. And apparently, this might not be that episode review where I go talk about three plots separately, and instead, it’s going to be one long page. And if this were either a YouTube video or a podcast, that would’ve at least made Thanksgiving preparations a little less stressful. May God help me with whatever I’m about to say with this very episode. So let’s just start off and chop this episode into pieces like a pile of vegetables for the dinner table, this is “Stuck in the Kitchen with You”.
The episode begins with the Belchers for this year’s Thanksgiving episode not staying home for the holidays or even heading home but instead, they’ll be heading their way to the retirement home for the Thanksgiving holiday to try something new. That being heading out of the house and rather than focusing on themselves, they’ll be focusing on other people and nothing said celebrating Thanksgiving like heading over to the retirement home to at least try to bond with the senior citizens. Try to be helpful for once because it’s the thought that counts. Louise questions as to why she, along with the rest of the family, are being forced to do on Thanksgiving where if your name isn’t Bob, you can get a breather for a week with Linda answering her question that her friend Ginger did it last year. Therefore, the Belchers are doing it for this year. Again, it’s the thought that counts in making smiles to the elderly in whatever time they have left on Earth.
Although I do have to give the episode some early pointers on a minor callback coming from Tina when she mentions Meryl. Of course, for anyone who somehow forget or just came here for no reason, Meryl is the elderly woman who Tina volunteered to read for her Thundergirls troop back in Season 6 and Tina coming face-to-face with her once arriving if it weren’t for the point where she moved out from the retirement home and moved in with her boyfriend, the retired admiral who wrote her the letters back in the day. Which is good for Meryl for finally to be with her beloved while getting out of the retirement home...unless you put two and two together and noticed that something isn’t right about all of this. And you might as well be right because Meryl somehow was originally going to be making an appearance in the episode, getting her out of the so-called “Island of One-off Characters”, but then tragedy struck earlier this year where Meryl’s voice actress, Cloris Leachman, passed away. And I’m guessing that the episode was in production when the news broke and have no choice but to write the character off. Rather, retire the character by telling the viewers that Meryl moved out of the retirement home and live with her boyfriend. Almost similar to Archer when Jessica Walter passed away and they don’t know what to do with her character Malory despite that it was long after production for that show’s twelfth season and decided to have a proper send-off and retire the character. So yeah, Meryl was originally going to be in the episode but then Leachman passed away, and thus, her character has been written out. So at least we got some sort of send-off for Meryl with her moving in with her boyfriend than just...I dunno, kill her off. Pretty sure that show wouldn’t go in that direction when dealing with a predicament regarding the voice actor.
Let’s also not forget that during the car ride to their destination is that when it comes to Thanksgiving, especially the preparation for the big dinner, can be a bit of a workaholic when preparing the meal from the entrée to the appetizers. And I get that Thanksgiving is Bob’s favorite holiday and the holiday is pretty much that one day a year where he is giving it his all when cooking food for his family and sometimes having certain guests attending to the household. But the family did describe some issues when it comes to how Bob is doing when cooking the meal. I mean, it is Thanksgiving and you want things to go be perfect, but not too perfect where he has to work all day and all night to focus on each item whether being the turkey or the stuffing or even the cranberries. I mean hell, Bob in that brief flashback shows him being a damn workaholic and pushing some people aside, even if they would get something out from the kitchen like with Louise, Tina planning on telling Bob about something, and Gene didn’t even do anything but you have a stressed-out Bob telling him that dinner is about to be served. And yeah...looking at that brief scene, there were some problems with Bob from the family when it comes to Thanksgiving dinner and the preparations in hopes for things to go well. I mean, this is a Thanksgiving dinner that serves a table for however people that might be attending, not an episode of Food Wars.
The family finally arrive at the retirement home where they come across with Sergeant Bosco, who is struggling to get something out of the vending machine, visiting his mother for the holiday, and already, his visit has turned into a living hell. Why? Well, it’s Thanksgiving and when it comes to the holidays, you should be around with friends and family. Though last year during the pandemic might have fucked that up and I guess the same might go for this year. But besides all that, Bosco’s mom, Lillian, refuses to leave her room for no reason whatsoever and Bosco, during his visit, tried to convince her to at least try to get out of the room for just one day. But much like dealing with someone who is unvaccinated and got their sources from Facebook, good luck with that. Though seriously, take the vaccine for the love of Christ. It’s not that fucking hard. Bosco struggles to get something to drink and that’s where the manager of the retirement home, named Deirdre, opens the broken-down vending machine and gets his soda as she welcomes the Belchers to the home and gives them a quick tour and the activities that they’ll be doing. Well, Linda had to bounce out and back in because she has a bag of hard candies that she carried during their trip. Because nothing said making each senior citizen smile like testing their dentures and hoping for not one person over at the home to not choke over a hard candy that is not a bowl of butterscotch. Which I imagine that is what some kids got when trick-or-treating and possibly being ready to egg the place. And this is where are we’re setting things up for the C-plot. Not the B-plot because that title goes towards the next scene, but this is one of the few plotlines that is being established with Linda helping Bosco to get Lillian out of her room.
Leaving the rest of the Belchers to do some arts and crafts with the other senior citizens over at the table. Well, a few in attendance like they’re back in grade school where you have to make your own turkey by tracing your hands, cutting it from the paper, and adding some stuff like eyes and feathers to make a proper turkey. Which is never going to be touched ever again for the rest of the episode because we now being to establish the B-plot of the episode where Tina, Gene, and Louise come across with Zeke, who is visiting his grandmother for the holiday but somehow struggles to fix the cable when dealing with an outage over at the home. Especially with a crowd of senior citizens in the room hoping to watch the Thanksgiving parade. But no luck with the cable being fixed. Must be a Spectrum thing. I heard their service is trash. Leaving the population with sour moods onto their faces but luckily that’s where the Belcher kids come in and decide to help Zeke out in trying to entertain the senior citizens by recreating the parade by using their creativity and imagination. There are going to be some minor tidbits to talk about with the B-plot of the episode other than...well, the issue regarding one of the three kids later on in the episode.
This leads to Bob for the main plot of the episode with him taking the mantle of the cook for the retirement home for Thanksgiving and at the last minute too when Deirdre was in desperate need of a cook for the holiday dinner later in the day. Which luckily for her, that’s where Bob comes into the picture, although temporarily because their current cook is out for the day...giving birth. You really should’ve come up with a game plan in getting a temporary cook for at least a few weeks, which they did but it turned out that the backup cook was the father of the other cook who is currently going into labor. Leaving the home with no-cook and at the worst possible time too before finding Bob and leaving the helm to him to cook the food for the entire house. One man to cook an entire Thanksgiving dinner for an entire house of elderly folks? To everyone, that is considered a challenge. Bob, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to mind and is ready to give it his all. I mean it is his favorite holiday after all. Though once Linda called him in through the phone when dealing with the Lillian issue, she did show some concerns with what Bob is planning on doing and convinced him to at least add some help for once for the entire afternoon over at the kitchen. But Bob won’t budge because he thinks that he’s a big boy and want to do it all by himself...that and also they abandoned him to go help Zeke is trying to woo the crowd when preparing to reenact the Thanksgiving Day parade.
Causing Linda to exit out of Lillian’s room for a bit and try to convince the kids to go help Bob out. Though knowing their father and seeing the flashbacks earlier in the episode, they think that it’s best that they don’t head over to the kitchen and just focus on helping Zeke instead. And you can see where they were coming from, especially that this is the one day a year where Bob becomes super busy to the point where you could just head out for the day, run some errands, go for a walk, you know, your usual activities when it is not a holiday while leaving Bob to do his thing. Though that’s not going to stop Linda to convince at least one kid to drop what they’re doing and go help Bob out. And it’s Louise who will be doing the handiwork and helping Bob out over at the kitchen courtesy of her having a weaker hand fart. Her picking the short end of the straw and leave the parade business to Tina and Gene, finally establishing the A and B-plots of the episode.
Louise enters the dragon with Bob already prepping up and ready to cook and telling him that she’s here to help, if necessary because Bob pretty much has everything all settled and could be ready to rejoin Tina, Gene, and Zeke over at the watching facility, though Bob may need some help around and that’s enough for her to stick around...that and also a certain item that piqued her interest from the draw in the form of a kitchen torch that used for crème brulé and might be in use for the dessert for the dinner rush in the form of a marshmallow casserole. Or rather a sweet potato marshmallow casserole when looking it up over at Google while working on the review. Didn’t know that was a thing but...it’s a thing. Though having the idea of mixing something sweet and salty (though the sweet potatoes are not too salty) is pretty much a hard pass for yours truly. I’m a picky eater and Thanksgiving dessert is one of those things where I can be really picky where whatever piqued my interest, I go for it. If not, it’s a pass and I’ll wait for Christmas to arrive. But besides all that, Louise is set to stick around, for now, to at least try to help Bob out around the kitchen.
Transitioning back to the Linda and Bosco sub-sub plot with them coming up with a game plan to get Lillian out of her room for once. Over to the recreational room where the mini-parade with Tina, Gene, and Zeke are planning to perform and that would’ve got Lillian to head out...until she said no and decides to act like a crinkly, old bitch who refuses to get her ass out of her room until she gets a call from someone. That someone being Gary, who happened to be other son to Lillian and also Bosco’s brother. Which I don’t know if this is ever going to be picked up in this series if whether or not Lillian prefers Gary over Bosco as the favorite child. I know we’re probably not going to get it but that would be something to focus on Bosco and his life because let’s face it, whenever the show is giving their side characters some leverage, it’s limited to the core where you get little to no development or anything interesting to their profile. “Bobby Driver” had it with Edith. “Midday Run” with Zeke. A few episodes from here and there with other side characters like Jimmy Jr, Tammy, Alex, Courtney, Darryl, Jimmy Pesto even and I don’t think we might see him this season because of...well...you get the idea. Linda tries to go towards the interrogation angle to get some answers and hopefully to get Lillian out of the chair and join with the others. It failed right away with Bosco calling Linda out by going with a closed-ended question rather than an open-ended question. You have to treat it like it’s a Twitter thread and instead, you turned it into how a press conference would end after one bad question. You have to embrace the 20 questions, Linda. Embrace it!
Going back to the A-plot with Bob and Linda and it looks like the tensions are ready to erupt as Bob pulls out the bag filled with brussels sprouts with Louise questioning if the bag is even necessary to be an addition to your usual Thanksgiving dinner. I mean, you could add a salad or something that would benefit a relative who happened to be either vegetarian or vegan. But to Bob when adding the brussels sprouts thinks that adding the vegetable would be a necessary addition because he thinks that it’ll complement the stuffing. That and also telling Louise to stop eating the marshmallows from the bag that will be used for the casserole and gets shafted to cutting duties with the brussels sprouts. This upsets Louise in thinking that she’s been demoted but also putting a worrying face because she knew that this was going with what Bob is doing to make sure the senior citizens over at the retirement home by dictating Louise on what and what not to do when it comes to doing stuff over at the kitchen. Hell, when Louise was doing the cutting, she had some struggles but at least she got things together, though more of baby steps whereas Bob...yeah, you can feel the tensions brewing between the two members of the Belchers.
Finally switching over to the B-plot of the episode with the reenactment of the parade with the start of the parade with Tina giving out interviews to random senior citizens like they’re the audience attending in-person about what to expect for the event with Gene telling the viewers about the parade route, though it’s mostly them going into circles since they are indoors. They would put it outside where they would have more space. They would’ve done that but I guess because we can’t push every old person one by one outside because of possible time consumption. That and also old people can be judgmental and also demanding while complaining about our generation even though y’all generation, the baby boomers, fucked us over to where we are right now and y’all are still continuing to fuck us over. But yeah, let’s have the parade indoors and entertain the crowd because it’s Thanksgiving and you have to give them what they want.
Back to the C-plot with Linda and Bosco still having some issues in getting Lillian out of her room now that we have the Gary situation now coming into fruition because she wants Gary to at least call but Bosco doesn’t want to wait and want her mom out of the room. At least we got some background with Bosco’s brother Gary with him being an owner of a tanning salon that...get this...located just 10 minutes, let me repeat to you, 10 minutes from the retirement home. Don’t know if we’re talking driving distance or a walk from point A to point B, but seriously, 10 minutes?! The motherfucker didn’t even bother to just say hi and fuck off. So Gary being a no-show to visit the retirement home was one issue because he rather does something else on Thanksgiving than visit both her mother and brother over at the home. The second is being that she’s a mean old lady which...yeah...looking at how you act in this episode and also how you somewhat treated Edith back in “Bobby Driver” with you denying Edith’s quilt...he’s not wrong. I mean, you could say that it's just her nature and that is pretty much almost every senior citizen where they can be cranky at times. Not saying that she’s like a dick or anything, but you try telling that to your parent or grandparent the next time you’re visiting them either at a home or out of state. I dare you.
But not before Lillian decided to drop some truth bombs onto Linda regarding her and Bob’s future if they were to be placed at a home. Telling her that they’ll too will be facing some “abandonment” from the kids once they’ll grow up as they’re off doing their own things. Whether being Louise taking over the restaurant, Gene becoming a musician, or Tina being an author, that comment coming from Lillian really struck a nerve and also her heart because of the fear of empty nest syndrome about to come in a few years’ time with the events of “The Grand Mama-pest Hotel” serving as a preview of what’s to come regarding Tina. Like damn, Lillian ain’t fucking around if she wants to continue sticking her butt onto her chair whether being with Bosco by bringing up Gary or Linda trying to dig into the situation to find the treasure but instead hit a random rock trapped in the ground. That causes Linda to call on Bob with fear in her mind about the idea of their kids not visiting them once they grow old at the home. Fearing that the kids are going to push them away from their lives and focus on their lives that they won’t have time to drop by for a visit or even a video call. Oh but I think Bob may have already started to do what Lillian has said when it comes to a child leaving their parent aside with Louise not being happy with Bob dictating what she can or cannot do when trying to help her dad out that ultimately leads to her rejoining her siblings and Zeke with the parade. Causing Linda to tell Bob to apologize for what happened earlier and accept her back into the kitchen while trying not to be a “Thank-zilla” before heading back to Lillian’s room to help Bosco out.
This of course leads to Bob to head out of the kitchen and meet up with Louise, who was about to do ride their way across the recreational room with rolling stools as the next item on the list for the parade to entertain the elderly alongside Tina, Gene, and Zeke. Having Bob to convince Louise to go back to the kitchen, not in a misogynistic phrase, you put your damn phones, mouses, and fingers down, convincing Bob to help him again in what is pretty much the weakest convincing, not yet of an apology, that Bob can ever come up with because knowing the attitude that Bob is showing after coming out of the kitchen and how Louise would react once Bob head back to the kitchen shows that nothing has changed. You’d think that Bob would keep his cool and for once let Louise help out like she somewhat did earlier in the episode, but come on...we all know where this is going once we enter the third act. This leads to Louise to come up with an idea of sabotage to make sure that she will not be helping Bob to the point where she gets kicked out of the kitchen because she doesn’t want to deal with his bullshit. Because she knows what Bob is capable of on Thanksgiving and she just saw it first-hand when being in the kitchen by Linda earlier in the episode that she couldn’t deal with it anymore and wanted to focus on other things, mostly on helping Tina, Gene, and Zeke out with the parade reenactment. And for someone who is poised to take over the restaurant once Bob retires, it’s not painting a pretty picture with this current situation at hand.
And boy it didn’t take long for the sabotage to begin to take its course with Louise entering back into the kitchen as Bob opens up the stove to add some flavor onto the turkey breast with her wanting to do the work in holding the turkey baster, in which she ends up squirting the juices away from the turkey breast and into the side of the oven. But why stop there? We’re only just getting started here as Bob asks Louise to at least help out stirring the cranberry sauce, only to grab the wrong utensil for the sauce by using a knife instead of the spoon. Though to be fair, the cranberries do kind of deserve it. And yes, I only said that because I’m not a huge fan of cranberries. They know what they did. And once we get to the green beans with Bob asking her to stir and him pulling out the sweet potato portion of the sweet potato casserole and not letting her use the torch because he doesn’t want things to be ruined like the goddamn perfectionist as he is during the holiday preparation. Telling him that she doesn’t want to be in the kitchen with Bob in the first place. She, and also Tina and Gene because again, they know what Bob is capable of when it comes to making the Thanksgiving dinner and how he wanted things to be perfect. It’s like...remember in “Thanks-hoarding” where the family, after helping Teddy out to clean up his apartment, cook his meal, and get him through his hoarding habits, had their dinner and Bob thinks that the turkey a bit dry and thinks that he didn’t have the time because they were helping Teddy all day? Yeah, something tells me, and I know that whatever is canon to the show can be screwy at times, I don’t give a shit, that what happened in that episode drilled into his subconscious to the point where became “Thank-zilla” and pushes his family aside to do all of the work. And it looks like that is what Bob is doing right now by pushing Louise around to the point where she leaves the kitchen and rejoins her siblings and Zeke. As well as giving more leverage to Linda’s fear of the possibility of the kids not visiting them in the near future. Speaking of Linda...
Still no luck with the whole Lillian situation in getting her out of her room. Keeping bringing up Gary because he’s a no-show and she wants him to at least come over to the point where you have Linda trying to come up with fun ideas to get her ass out by having a race with the recreational room serving as the finish line but oh no, Lillian decided to bad-mouth Bosco once again and bringing up how great Gary is. And it’s at this point where it pisses Linda off because she can’t get through Lillian’s issue is regarding Gary being MIA. Trying to tell her that he ain’t going to visit and just be glad that she has Sergeant Bosco to visit for the holiday. Giving her flowers and such. Trying to be the best son that Lillian got but whenever or whatever Bosco does, she brings up how great Gary is, and again...can’t tell if Lillian preferred Gary over Bosco when it comes to the whole “favorite son” idea. And you could feel Linda’s nerves starting to break when finally giving up on getting Lillian out of her room like she wants to smack her right upside the head if she were to mention Gary again. You know she wants to. She really wants to smack some sense into Lillian that Gary isn’t going to visit and be glad that Bosco was the only one who came by to visit. And while that would’ve been a good idea for Linda to do something...except that Bosco is there and she would be arrested for threatening violence while also making her look bad in the one day a year where you want to give back to the community. So she just throws in the towel and storms off from the room where she meets up with Tina, Gene, and Zeke. Speaking of those three...
Back to the parade portion of the episode with Zeke serving as the reporter on the sidelines with this time Gene enters the stage by pretending to be a member of the marching band and Tina coming in with a broom with a shirt attached and playing flag girl before the two ditch their props and try to attempt to do the cartwheel to entertain the crowd. Pleasing them as you say. And if that’s not enough for the senior citizens, you can’t have a Thanksgiving Day parade like Tina, Gene, and Zeke doing some dancing to the point where the people over at Macy’s parade may have some competition...either that or your local Thanksgiving parade. So be on the lookout for that local parades. Talking to you, H-E-B. And while I do have to give them some brownie points for them giving them they're all in trying to entertain the entirety of the retirement home, it’s not enough for them and also probably for the episode as well. So it does leave them to pull something out of their asses to impress the crowd since they’re slowly starting to lose them. Mostly because they either fell asleep or worst case scenario...died at the scene while waiting for the food to arrive. They just need something missing to make it into a parade and it didn’t take that long to come up with something that is missing from the parade and that is, of course, the float.
And that’s what they’re planning on doing when them, along with Louise after leaving Bob hanging following time after time of him dictating on what she can or cannot do over at the kitchen and also you have Linda that popped out after storming off from Lillian’s room after various attempts to get her out of the room and just wished for some food to consume and just call it a day as she watches Louise rejoining with her siblings and Zeke to build a float by using a random bed and using a lot of toilet paper as decorations to the point where if this episode aired during the pandemic last year and not “Diarrhea of a Poopy Kid”, you might’ve made a joke regarding the toilet paper shortage. So while the kids are about to present the float to the elderly crowd...
You have Bob finishing up with the food and ready to be served with no one in check like the scrooge that he is on this Thanksgiving while talking to his food that they’re perfect and ready to go to be served to the elders. But not until his conversation with himself with the food gone a little out of script with the food think that it’s a good idea to push everyone aside and make him feel isolated, which almost pinpoint to what Linda was afraid of with the idea of them being placed at a home and the kids never paying a visit courtesy of Lillian when bringing up Gary early in the episode. Of course, knowing that we’re only less than three minutes left into the episode is where you now have Bob to feel bad about himself for what happened and now want to make things up with Louise, who is set to perform with Tina, Gene, and Zeke with their parade float. Oh, so now you want to patch things up because the script fucking said so? This episode really has Bob to almost go all out of script when it comes to preparing the food. I get that it’s Thanksgiving. I get that everything has to be perfect, though not everything has to be perfect, just putting it out there. But to cast aside and tell whoever comes into the kitchen, especially with Louise who only got in because Linda said so and also her having the weakest hand fart...I mean, you had a fight between you and your dad decades ago that led to you straight up quitting and storming out from your dad’s place and something tells me history might be ready to repeat itself...just be thankful that it’s going to be like that with Bob and Louise.
Of course...we get the apology with Bob just as the kids perform their final act of the parade and if I’m just going, to be honest with the final two minutes of the episode, this felt quick. The apology went by quick knowing that we’re in the two-minute warning in this episode like it doesn’t even feel earned with what just happened with Bob and Louise over in the kitchen and him being both a perfectionist and a workaholic to the point where has to cast aside from his family during the preparation. Hell, he tried to get into Louise’s good side by crashing into the parade with his own parade float by using two trash bags in an attempt to apologize for what happened, which she accepts the apology because again, follow the script even though it went by too quick. So quick that once you blink, the episode is already be done and we’d be already at the credits. I mean sure, the Lillian issue got somehow resolved for no explanation whatsoever in how Bosco even convinced Lillian to leave her room to watch the parade and the kids putting up the finishing touches to the parade with their respective subplots, but with the main plot of the episode, especially with the ending regarding the apology, it just that it went by so quick to the point where I have to rewatch it, not once, not twice, not trice, but five, six times. Five to six times that I had to rewatch it while working on this piece to understand it. And again, it went by so quick that once you blink, the episode would already be over with where Bob and Louise finally patched things up and the entire retirement home enjoying their Thanksgiving dinner and ending the episode with Louise finally got to use the blow torch when heating the marshmallow onto the sweet potato casserole. So you might as well say that this episode might be decent, if not, average at best but when it comes to ranking each of the Thanksgiving episodes in the show’s history...this might be leaning towards the bottom of the barrel. Though this is my opinion, so...you might as well call me out for being an entitled fanboy and call me stupid over bad grammar and spelling and me being a babbling idiot, but at least it’s the holidays and I know that we only got two more episodes left in the first half of the season, this roller coaster ride isn’t going to stop at any time.
Reaction/Thoughts:
So all and all, what do I think about this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers? One of the many Thanksgiving episodes that we got from the show so far, this has to be the weakest of the ten specials. If not, possibly the second weakest of the Thanksgiving episodes because while it did have some potentials, coming from both the B-plot and C-plot of the episodes...well, maybe the B-plot with Tina, Gene, and Zeke. I think this episode should’ve done a little bit more. Try to expand something and the Belchers to at least do something over at the home...or rather do something else for once, but nope. Just have them put in a retirement home, separate them into three separate plots, and have them deal with some problems to the point where they don’t even want to attend the facility for the Thanksgiving episode with Louise getting the worse of the bunch with Bob being both a perfectionist and a workaholic when preparing the food for the holiday.
I did love that minor callback at the start with Tina mentioning Meryl and I get that they have her move out of the retirement home and move in with her boyfriend, the retired admiral, as an answer on what to do with the character following the passing of her voice actress. They did give Zeke to do something and both Tina and Gene helped him out by reenacting the parade after losing the cable and being unable to see the actual parade on the screen. While also giving some headway for the Tina and Zeke shippers to enjoy the episode, just putting it out there, but Bosco...yeah, I feel like he was underutilized and didn’t get to do anything other than just trying to get her mom out of her room and keeps on mentioning about how great his brother is, even though he is a freaking no-show on this Thanksgiving. Like seriously, is there some sort of favoritism that’s been going where you have Lillian picking Gary over Bosco as the favorite? At least Bosco is trying. He did visit the home for the holiday. He did give you flowers and try to have to do something for once. So she might as well just shut the fuck up and enjoy whatever time she has left.
The main plot of the episode with Bob and Louise is where I have some problems that may have downplayed the episode. Mostly with the idea of Bob being a perfectionist and a workaholic to the point where he pushes his family aside. Pushing Louise aside even though she was told to at least help Bob out courtesy of Linda but Louise knows this from a mile away that Bob is capable of. And the apology at the end felt rushed and also feel like it didn’t deserve to be earned at the end of the episode. I get that Bob should know what he’s doing at the busiest time in his schedule in preparing the food for the biggest dinner of the year, but it wouldn’t hurt for once to get some help without being a goddamn perfectionist. Louise would’ve helped out because she is poised to run the restaurant once Bob retires. Fuck, Zeke would’ve helped out and I know that he’s currently busy with the parade reenactment, as well as visiting his grandma for the holiday, but c’mon. The main plot is where I have some problems to the point where I had to rewatch the episode five, six times in trying to understand.
So final thoughts, while there are some decent bits. Mostly coming from certain parts of the episode and while Zeke has been given some leverage while Bosco is being underutilized and didn't have to do anything but to turn the whole plot in trying to get his mom out of her room into a shouting match, this was a very weak Thanksgiving episode that this season had to offer. Though I gotta go and say this was the second weakest Thanksgiving episode overall out of the ten that we got in the show’s ten-year run. I thought that the ending felt rushed with the apology and also feel like it didn’t feel earned. Kinda wish that they would’ve expanded it a tad more to least make the episode a little more interesting. So I’ll go and give “Stuck in the Kitchen With You”...
A 4 out of 10. But that’s pretty much my opinion and now I wanna hear yours in the comments below. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Tolerating it? All that and your mini-review in the comments below in the comment section. Let’s hope next week’s episode is a good one and it better be a good one. I mean, it’s a Tina episode but we have the return of best girl, Susmita. And...Bouchard...that’s all I have to say. Like I said in my “Manic Pixie Crap Show” review back in September that you have some hope. And also on what I said in my “Vampire Disco Death Dance” review back in May of this year that Tina needed some better friends, or rather, a best friend because she’s the only Belcher sibling to not have a best friend of her own. It’s time. It’s fucking time to finally put this shit to bed. Tina and Susmita need to be best friends by the end of next week’s episode. Give my false hope. Let the false hope consume my body and mental health goddamn it. Just be lucky that we have a two-week break after the episode, so that’ll give me time to calm myself down. So yeah, tune in on November 28 with the ninth episode of Season 12 in “FOMO You Didn’t” and Bouchard, whoever is the writer and director of the upcoming episode, give me my false hope. Give me my false hope.
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