Bob’s Burgers

Kyle’s Review

Welcome to the best, worst Thanksgiving tradition: the Running of the Turkeys.

What do you get when lock up a horde of psychotic turkeys, ducks, geese, and chickens? Comic mayhem. The family abandons Bob on his favorite holiday to go down to Wonder Wharf and take in Mr. Fishodor’s spanking new Thanksgiving Day extravaganza.

It’s hard to mention anything about this episode without giving things away, but you should see what happens when Linda encounters a cycloptic turkey, the kids when they get stuck on a Scramble Pan ride, and Bob when he decides to start his own personal disco. No one knows what sets off the poultry. It could be the pecking order, the spirit of Thanksgiving, or the beginning of a turkey revolution, but you’ll be glad Bob’s Burgers set the turkeys free.

On a side note, Teddy’s life on a turkey farm saves the groups’ giblets on more than one occasion. If you want to survive the Turkeyapocalypse, you have to think like a turkey.

Verdict: The best Thanksgiving episode in a long time.

Grimm

Kyle’s Review

This week’s episode of Grimm takes a minor step back.

Let’s start with the Wesen of the week. While I applaud the continued focus on Nick’s detective work, the solution left me scratching my head, and that was before it got silly. I can’t tell if it was meant to be funny—Grimm can have some chuckle moments—but this was a little much. The rest of the story elements don’t fare much better.

Most of the episode revolved around the ongoing drama elements. I don’t believe in the cast’s aversion to Nick’s cure. So what if Juliette looks like someone else while they make love? Team Nick throws out at least fifteen different solutions: turn out the lights, pretend that you’re role playing, she’s the same person on the inside, etc. To make matters worse, Juliette made her peace with the angle the writers are trying to take (as to why she wouldn’t want to go through with this) in the season premiere, and they toss the ick factor aside in less than an episode. The reason they toss it aside is huge, but it’s another underdeveloped thread.

We also get a groan of a new thread this week. Renard wants his baby back, even though he doesn’t know where she is. Mothers cloud everything in this series: the sorceress supreme Adalind’s mom in season one, the butt kicking and reclusive Nick’s mom in season two. Now we get the loving yet manipulative Renard’s mother. I like that there’s some depth to this character, but does Grimm have to resort to mothers every season as their twist?

The shocking third season mom Adalind gets plenty of air time in this episode too. How could anything as convenient as Adalind’s escape be anything but a hoax? She falls for it—literally. But what’s the point of breaking her spirit? The royals want the same thing as Adalind: Adalind’s magical baby. But she clearly doesn’t know where her child is and has no hope of finding her.

Verdict: Easily the weakest episode this season but still watchable.

Constantine

Kyle’s Review

This episode was undercooked in some areas but brought to the right temp in others.

The portrayal of Zed’s ability has been uneven all season, but it works for the most part here. She gains a psychic link with a malevolent spirit in New Orleans. I’m not sure if I buy her power’s link with the map introduced in the pilot, and if Zed’s going to connect with haunted cities in this way, Constantine should make weekly trips to New Orleans, but I dug the change of scenery. I also dug Papa Midnight’s return.

Papa Midnight showed that he wasn’t as deep as a puddle. He actually believes he’s helping people. While I like this angle, I’m not sure that I buy it. Someone who goes after a devil-spawned album doesn’t usually play nice with others. I’m also not sure how this will play out. We know that Zed will eventually betray Constantine—we knew this from the “I’ve got a fishhook caught in my eyebrow and I like it” glances she gives John—but I don’t know if we should see Papa Midnight take her place. He’s the best foil Constantine has at this point. I don’t think Papa will join Chas in the taxi, but it was nice to see him make an uneasy truce with John.

The malevolent spirit—actually there’s more than one—stems from Papa Midnight’s magic gone wild. I love that there was a human element underlying the demonic. You can’t spend too much time in the clouds or floating in lava. But I wish they’d avoid the Zed betraying John story arc like it’s hot lava.

My eyes hurt from the eye roll I had when Papa Midnight’s spirit buddy confirmed that “someone close to John Constantine will betray him.” We get it. Don’t wait until the end of the season for how she’ll betray him. Get it over with already.

I’d be remiss to mention that we see Chas in action this week. He gets killed again, but we see him come back to life. Still no word as to how or why he has this power. Hopefully, they’ll explain this soon.

Verdict: It was great to see Papa Midnight in action, but I’m not sure about much else.