REVIEW: BOB’S BURGERS “BAD TINA”

Guest Cast Jenny Slate: Tammy

Spoilers Below

Tammy is a new girl at school that Tina takes a liking to and as such they quickly become friends. Things start out ok at first as Tina shows Tammy around school and introduces her to everybody including the Pesto kids. Tammy isn’t exactly a good kid however, as she tries to dress up Tina to match Tammy’s look and even goes so far as to black mail Tina by threatening to read her stolen”Friend Fan Fiction” to the rest of the school. As time goes on Tina develops all sorts of bad habits like copping an attitude to her parents and getting caught stealing drink mix from her parents liquor cabinet!

Trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on with her daughter, Linda finally tries to talk to Tina who confesses what Tammy is putting her through. Two things happen, 1) Linda tells Tina to not be ashamed of her fan fiction which inspires Tina to go to school to read it in front of the class 2) Louise and Gene hear about their sister’s horrible experience they set off to retrieve Tina’s stolen book from Tammy. While at school, Louise and Gene actually do get the book back but it doesn’t matter as Tina reads a bunch of her fan fiction in front of the whole school in which case she gets laughed off the microphone. But, like everything in school, everyone gets their 30 seconds of shame and that’s exactly what happens when Tammy lets out a drum roll of farts in front of everyone.

Bobs Burgers did a fine job of conveying some of Tina’s personal struggles. She really is quite the cute character isn’t she? From her love of horses, zombies, and all around quirkiness somehow trying to deal with malicious intent was a pretty cool “good cop, bad cop” type of story. I’ve said numerous times that Bob’s Burgers is a very funny show but it also is a show with a ton of heart and poise with adorable characters that you can’t just help but love. Also, Bob’s is becoming one of the better equipped shows in being able to focus the story on one character whilst building out the rest of the plot around that one person. Some of the Animation Domination shows don’t do this so well as we’ve seen American Dad fail numerous story lines with Francine and Hayley or The Simpsons when Lisa is rehashing the whole “I’m the smart one in school” premise a thousand times over. Bob’s Burgers mid-season finale is next week, but this should be a show that keeps on coming back.