TCOP Tube Talk: Bob's Burgers: Review - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

TCOP Tube Talk: Bob's Burgers: Review

Posted: Sun, 9 Jan 2011 22:43:06 PST

Out of all the show's in FOX's Sunday animation comedy block, King Of The Hill was the one I kept up with as much as possible, until the network kept preempting it with football overruns and such. Thus, a gaping hole in my Sunday night viewing pattern has existed since the Hill family left the airwaves,

But there's a potential contender the jury's still out on; a fresh 'toon offering whose promos offered a King-esque flavor..and as a matter of fact, it's executive producer worked on Hill for nearly its entire run.

Bob's Burgers offers many of the same hallmarks of previous FOX's animated series; a dysfunctional family with quirky characters, rapid fire dialogue, sight gags that range from clever to tasteless, and well constructed story lines....Unfortunately, it's the latter in which Burgers lacks polish.

At first, the debut episode fired on all cylinders introducing us to Bob's kitchen family which is also his real life family: Nagging but loveable wife Linda, bespectacled Tina who doesn't endear herself to boss daddy by scratching a certain area of her body, Gene, the not-so-bright son more focused on a bullhorn that spews out sirens and fart noises, and Louise, who's not exactly a future Jeopardy contestant, but is the clan's most enthusiastic employee, loudly extolling the virtues of the diner's current specal: The Child Molester Burger (complete with candy for strangers!).

Now if the above made you either laugh or giggle, you weren't alone; I don't think I laughed so hard at a show's first segment in years, despite an over abundance of bathroom humor..but that bullhorn got me every time...and then almost like a gigantic stone that descended from the sky, PLOP! Things descended with a rather predictable plot line about a health food inspector coming in to cite Bob for potential health code violations alternately leading to a revelation that the official and Linda once had a thing.

Honestly, the effect of the episode going flat was kind of like a colorful swimming pool floating device your Mom or Dad blew up that falls apart once you hit the water thanks to an undiscovered hole. To be fair, there were a few chuckles in the latter two-thirds of the program, but they hit nowhere close to the bulls eye of its first five minutes...and for most new shows coming out of the starting gate, that can be a permanent turn-off to viewers unwilling to come back for a second helping.

However, I sense some potential with Bob's Burgers, and that's mainly due to the excellent voice cast that matches the looks of the characters perfectly, especially H. John Benjamin and John Roberts as Bob and Linda, respectively; a union that could become the next Peggy and Hank if the scripts improve. Kristen Schaal, Eugene Mirman and Dan Mintz are equally effective as the kids, providing some much of the episode's funniest moments. But the writers have got to come up with dialogue and scripts to match the talent.

Here's hoping that like many classic shows that started out with a weak first offering, Bob's Burgers develops into the equivalent of a well done, juicy, triple meat menu item, and not winding up like stale marked down “Manager's Special” burger buns.

-J.R.