Review: Bob’s Burgers “The Reeky Lake Show”

Overview:

Linda insists that the Belchers take a family vacation, but it doesn’t go as planned.

Our Take:

Linda tells the family that someone was telling her about their family’s vacation and she realizes that the Belchers never take vacations themselves. She convinces the family to take a trip together and she finds a cheap lakeside cabin. Unfortunately, the cabin doesn’t have a TV, electricity, or even drinkable water. Regardless, Linda insists that they take the trip.

When they pick up the keys to the cabin, the locals tell Linda about bugs called “Nippin’ Nevins.” They tell her that their worse than mosquitoes and they even bite peoples’ windpipes. The bad news continues when the Belchers arrive at their cabin. They can’t even enjoy the lakes because it’s infested with Giardia.

Linda tries hard to make the best of a bad situation, but the rest of the family wants nothing to do with the trip. The kids even smuggle a battery-powered TV into the cabin despite Linda saying they don’t need a TV on the trip.

Eventually, Linda caves and says they can go home. Before that, she takes a canoe out to the platform in the middle of the lake and falls asleep. She has a dream and she realizes her family doesn’t need to do what others families do. When she wakes up, she’s being attacked by Nippin’ Nevins, but her family comes to the rescue. They all make up and end their vacation abruptly.

I respect Linda’s determination in this episode. She wants her family to enjoy some quality time together on a trip since they never get to. However, I think she is equally as stubborn as she is determined. She can tell her family isn’t having fun and everything is going wrong. Regardless, she insists that they suffer. Plus, she mainly wants to go on this vacation because other families do so. Comparing one’s own life to another’s isn’t usually the best idea.

On the other hand, the rest of the family doesn’t give the trip a chance from the start. Sure, having no TV or power is inconvenient in modern times, but the trip could still be salvageable in theory. Their attitudes are justified once they arrive, but they could have been a little more open-minded at the beginning.

There’s also a scene with Teddy that I enjoy. He’s always been one of my favorite characters and I found his scene to be the funniest in the episode.

As a whole, this episode is decent. I like the sentiment of the family vacation, but everyone’s attitude brought it down a notch for me. In one way or another, everybody is in the wrong. On the bright side, they end up getting some family bonding in after all.