iZombie Review: “Salivation Army”

Kyle’s Thoughts

iZombie has proven time and time again that it’s not afraid to shake up things. “Salivation Army” started off slow but several story arcs were closed out in satisfying ways. I don’t know how to explain this without spoilers, so I’ll make a spoiler section. Let’s just say that fans of the show were treated to some old fashioned zombie goodness.

I’m liking the new dynamic of Detective Babineaux knowing about Liv, Major, and zombies. We didn’t get much detective work this episode, but you can see how he’s been doing his job with one hand tied behind his back up until this point. He needed to know, but I liked how iZombie took its time to let Babineaux know. The show waited until an opportune time to tell him. And the moment felt right.

The first half of this week’s episode showed the newly formed Zombie Mystery Team create a plan to free Max Rager’s zombie prisoners, and they worked well off each other. I hadn’t noticed how disjointed iZombie—in regards to its main cast—until saw Liv, Ravi, Babineaux, Major, and Peyton in the same space. Throw in an amnesic Blaine and you’ve got a party.

***Spoiler Zone***

Max Rager threw its own party this week. Rob Thomas (of Matchbox 20, not the show’s producer) was the headliner, and the Zombie Mystery Team used the manic energy to crash Max Rager headquarters. Oh, they found the surviving zombies, but not before all heck broke loose with Super Max. Utopium mixed with Super Max causes crazed zombies, and some teens learned that the hard way. It might get buried with weekly mysteries, comedy, and a web of backstabbing, but “Salivation Army” reminded us that iZombie is a zombie show. Several characters die. And not the undead kind of die.

Vaughn and his daughter are dead, and they died in satisfying fashion. Vaughn suffered and Gilda was put out of her misery. The big tear jerker—of sorts—was Drake’s death. He turned into a Romero zombie. He lost his mind, thought only of brains, and Liv had to put him down. Liv and Drake’s relationship was developed well and the two actors had okay chemistry, but he was a stand-in for Major, so I wasn’t too choked up about his end. iZombie has done a better than CW job of building romantic relationships, but Drake was more of a plot device.

The biggest reveal was that the defense contractors buying Super Max from Vaughn were turned into zombies. Liv zombies, not Romeros. We’re not sure if they knew what Super Max did before the party but they’re going to take advantage of it and that allowed the episode to end with a great chill.

“Salivation Army” is the perfect example of how iZombie can be goofy one moment and creepy the next. Rob Thomas was more than your standard musical guest. He died during the zombie attack and when Liv finds his corpse, she says, “This is how a skull breaks.” It’s okay to share an uncomfortable laugh with this play on a Matchbox 20 lyric. Vaughn also mentioned how Rob Thomas’s death would affect his company’s stock. And there was something unsettling hearing someone other than Rob Thomas singing “Unwell” at the end of episode. Viewers knew a zombie had eaten his brains and gained his memories and talent. Turns out the zombie feeding on Rob Thomas was one of the defense contractors. Creepy.

***End of Spoilers***

No one but Blaine returns from the dead, so I don’t expect any of the characters who died this week to return. It says something when a CW show about zombies resurrects fewer characters than non-zombie CW shows. I won’t get into any details there. Let’s just say that I’m enjoying iZombie and can’t wait to see the season finale.

Thanks for reading.

iZombie Review: “Dead Beat”

Kyle’s Thoughts

iZombie continues to set off fireworks every week or two and those explosions ripple through the ongoing arcs. “Dead Beat” had little to no weekly mystery. It focused on complicating iZombie’s world and that’s wonderful.

The first part of this week’s double-header did a great job of maintaining the slow boil that was Major’s future. He had already reverted back to zombie state, was imprisoned as the Chaos Killer this week, and something had to give. Would he find a way to get the brains he needed on the inside? Would Liv break him out of prison? Would Liv have to give him the zombie cure and wipe his memory like Blaine’s? Or would Major turn feral and start the zombie apocalypse? Even with knowing that iZombie wouldn’t opt for the final option, the threat was real and that was welcome.

Liv tried to sneak brains into Major’s hands multiple times but every attempt failed. She struggled with giving him the cure. iZombie had taken a gentle hand to romance—unlike most other CW shows—and you could see Liv struggle with this option because Major was a close friend and represented her life before becoming a zombie. So Liv treated the cure as a last resort and that forced her to choose breaking Major out of prison.

While all of that was happening, iZombie did a great job of building up how circumstantial the state’s case against Major was. Even though it was unlikely they’d get a conviction, the police did have enough evidence to keep Major in jail, and the only one who could get Major out in time—before he started the aforementioned zombie apocalypse—was Detective Babineux. He’d have to admit how circumstantial the case was and Liv used this knowledge to her advantage, coming clean about being a zombie.

It was a long time coming, but Detective Babineux knows the truth. His ignorance didn’t bother me as much as a loved one not knowing about someone’s otherworldliness (superpowers or supernatural abilities) but it was time. And iZombie had a great moment with Babineux learning the truth.

Babineaux dropped the charges against Major and this led to some issues with his personal life. The woman he has been sweet on (Dale Bozzio) dumped him as a partner and curse his name on the way out the door. iZombie has done a good job of sprinkling these two’s deep like for one another. I’m not sure if they’ve slept together, an oddity for a CW show, but they enjoyed each other’s company and Bozzio lightened up Babineaux as a character. It’ll be interesting to see how these characters change.

And that’s what I like the most about this season of iZombie: change. The characters are allowed to grow and change organically. “Dead Beat” dropped some bombshells and I can’t wait to see what the show has in store next.

Thanks for reading.

Grimm Review: “The Believer”

Kyle’s Thoughts

I liked the direction Grimm took with “The Believer” and it’s weekly wesen. Too often we see a crime perpetrated by a wesen and Nick has to figure out which wesen he encounters this week was responsible. In this episode a wesen’s bodyguard is killed and a normal human’s to blame.

I always wondered if there was a wesen who could or would feign miracles by transforming into their beastly state and this episode answered that question. Yes. A demonic-looking wesen pretends to do God’s work by absorbing his audience’s sins. He does so for selfish reasons, but the events he puts on help people. That begs the question, is what he’s doing wrong? Thankfully, Grimm doesn’t answer that question, it leaves the answer to the viewer, but the weekly wesen is a victim instead of the guilty party, so that’s a nice change.

The ongoing story arcs didn’t fare as well as the weekly wesen. They went in bizarre directions. I had forgotten there was a stick that could heal all wounds. The gang had the cloth that held the healing stick examined for hidden writing and the hidden text read, Danger. That’s nice and vague. I guess I’d be more invested in the story line if it hadn’t been dropped for a month and reintroduced. Now, I may have missed a line of dialogue or something, but it would’ve been nice if Grimm had said that Nick sent the cloth in for tests or if the gang had picked up the stick in the last month. We needed something to remind us that the healing stick exists.

Eve as Renard worked until she/he ran into Renard’s new lover. How many times will Grimm use the so-and-so slept with so-and-so because they cast a particular spell to look like someone else? And this week’s episode was made doubly pandering because it was Eve, a female transformed into a male, sleeping with another female. I liked the scenes with Eve as Renard leading up to the gratuitous sex scene. Grimm managed to sell me on Eve as a separate character from Juliette for the first time and that got dashed as Eve-Renard made it to the bedroom. Groan.

The third and final ongoing arc presented this week has been handled the best. I said it before that I buy Adalind’s desire to reunite with her firstborn child Diana, but I’m miffed by Grimm dropping the storyline in the first place. She approaches Nick for news about her other child and that tracks given how this season has unfolded. Everything’s running smoothly as far as the Adalind-Nick-Diana story’s concerned, except that I’m not quite sold on Adalind’s mistrust of Nick. Sure, she’s worried she’ll revert back to her hexenbeist self, but her reluctance to tell Nick is forced.

“The Believer” was a very good episode. If it wasn’t for the awkward Eve-Renard bedroom scene, it might’ve been a great episode. Even so, I’ve enjoyed this season of Grimm more than the last.

Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: “Wag the Hog”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Wag the Hog” was a solid episode. In terms of last week’s Bob’s Burgers, it was better than “House of 1000 Bounces” and not as good as “Stand by Gene.” But this episode did something the other one haven’t done in a long time: split up the parents.

Granted, it didn’t split up the kids. Bob joined the kids with trying to sell Critter’s bike, while Linda was on her own with babysitting Critter’s critter, Side Car. As you can imagine there wasn’t as much of a dynamic change in cast coupling as I would have liked but it worked well enough. The events didn’t scrape too deep beneath the surface like “Stand by Gene,” although it did reintroduce Critter, the leader of the biker gang Bob and Linda have served the last couple of seasons. Critter’s okay. I like him well enough but the episode’s highlight was Tom Lennon and Joe Lo Truglio playing two yuppies who are wannabe bikers.

Linda out on her own means that there was a lot of Linda, but her annoying presence was undercut with Side Car. When Side Car misses his nap, he turns full on biker toddler and watching Linda try to explain why the child she’s caring for is throwing toys at other toddlers’ heads was chuckle-inducing.

This week’s episode may not have been another slam dunk, but “Wag the Hog” was a solid episode.

Thanks for reading.

Archer Review: “The Handoff”

Kyle’s Thoughts

While I had fun watching the first episode of Archer’s seventh season “The Figgis Agency,” I was left with a lot of questions and they were answered, for the most part, during “The Handoff.” Since most of the loose ends were tied up, I’ll reveal some of the things I held back in my thoughts last week.

Sterling was floating—presumably dead—in a swimming pool at the beginning of last week. This hasn’t happened yet. We just caught a glimpse of the season finale most likely. The Figgis Agency were duped into stealing a computer disc—who uses floppy discs anymore?—from the Hollywood starlet Veronica Deane, and this week they stole it back for the real Veronica Deane. These events explained how The Figgis Agency remains afloat financially. There were times I wondered if the Deane story would be an ongoing one but even if it doesn’t, Archer did a great job of showing the team’s transition into PI work. But a comedy doesn’t need to explain itself as much as a drama. A comedy needs laughs, and Archer continues to deliver.

The standout scene this week was when Malory refused to call Sterling’s phone, because Sterling uses his patented outgoing messages that sound like he answered. Hello. Yes, it’s me, Sterling. Yep. Yeah. My thoughts exactly. Just kidding. I’m off saving the world, leave a message. What’s even better is that Sterling began one of these outgoing messages with “yes, Mother, it’s me,” which was how he answered the phone when Malory called this week. Mallory called at the worst moment. Her call was how Sterling was discovered by a gang of thugs. He fought for his life but all we saw was Mallory and the rest of the agency listening to Sterling’s fight, expecting Sterling to say, just kidding. I waited for a minute, thinking they’d shift back to Sterling at some point, but I’m glad they didn’t. I laughed and didn’t quit after the third punch—at least I thought it was a punch—and by the time we see Sterling, he’s bloody and naked.

Fake outgoing messages wasn’t the only old joke that returned. Phrasing made a couple of appearances. Pam tried to supplant it with “Politics,” but Sterling rejected that joke. I liked the nod to this election year but I’m also glad Archer won’t pander to the upcoming election: it gets enough coverage. Lana mentioned her and Sterling’s child, so I’m glad they haven’t dropped that side story like so many wee-baby Shamuses. And Krieger made his triumphant return. I can’t wait to see his next invention.

“The Handoff” worked on many levels. It set up The Figgis Agency for future PI work, while keeping the pool scene hanging over the season’s head. And I love the bit of fashion advice Sterling gave this week. When asked why he was naked (after his fight for life), Sterling answered, “It’s after Labor Day.” Excellent.

Thanks for reading.

Arrow Review: “Eleven-Fifty-Nine”

Jim’s Thoughts

The last couple of weeks have been rough for Arrow. Coming back from another break, I’d hoped it’d come back strong, and it didn’t. This week, I can say the show found some meaningful momentum again, and the reason for that is what I’ve been saying all season, and that’s Darhk. “Eleven-Fifty-Nine” got back to telling the best part of the story, and so while it wasn’t a perfect episode, it held my interest.

The flashback scenes didn’t bore me as much as they have been. The tie-in to the present day was more apparent, and that may be why. The exploration of the notion that a person can be redeemed has been done to death and then some on this show, so it wasn’t the freshest material, but it made those scenes not feel quite so much like a tangent.

The conflict between Ollie and John Diggle was reasonably well done, though again, we’ve seen this question of trust before. There’s something to be said for recurring themes, so it’s not necessarily a bad idea to revisit these elements, but it doesn’t do a lot for long-term character development. What may have saved it was the bit of role reversal. Where Diggle once warned Oliver not to be blinded by family ties, that was Ollie’s line this week, and they mentioned that in the episode. What I really liked about this segment is that Ollie was right. The way he’s flubbed things with various members of the team, it felt like Ollie needed one in the win column, and he got that, with grim consequences.

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

The rest of the episode is difficult to talk about without giving anything away, so consider yourself warned for spoilers. The big, emotional ending to the episode, and indirectly, the grim consequences I just mentioned was that Laurel died. I’ve made no secret out of having disliked her character in past seasons, though Felicity definitely surpassed her as Laurel actually became downright tolerable. Her heart-to-heart with Ollie just before her death felt very much like telegraphing the punch, and I can’t get too invested in their romantic past. The fact that they each seemed to there at the end made me wince, because I can’t forget that Ollie became stranded on Lian Yu when he ran off with her sister. Simply put, this show (and Flash) do relationships very badly. Kyle and I spoke recently about the many (MANY) “loves” of Oliver Queen, and it’s become impossible to take any of them seriously. Hey, even Felicity was smitten with Barry, “in love” with Ray Palmer, and ditto with Ollie within the course of a couple years if you take the show’s timeline seriously. That also made Laurel’s use of her last lines as a plea for Ollie’s relationship with Felicity all the more annoying.

I realize the producers of the show have stated this death will be permanent (read: no trip to the Lazarus Pit), but as Kyle and I have both pointed out, Flash has also used time travel and breaches into alternate universes. Add to that the fact that they’ve confirmed we’ll get a look at Earth 2’s Laurel Lance as Black Siren, and it gets tough to know exactly how seriously we need to take this death.

***END OF SPOILERS***

As we get the buildup for the final confrontation with Damien Darhk, I’m hoping the show won’t distract us with too many more villains-of-the-week. Darhk really has been the selling point for this season, and the show does best when it recognizes that.

Kyle’s Take

Agreed. “Eleven-Fifty-Nine” did a good job reintroducing the one thing that’s worked on the show this season: Damien Darhk. The silly thing is that Arrow keeps getting away from him, and the last two weeks watched like a dare. How bad can we make this show? Thankfully, “Eleven-Fifty-Nine”–despite its flaws–was watchable.

The death won’t stick (Arrow will take a mulligan just like they did with Sara), the Diggle-Ollie drama was old hat, and there has been so much “love” in the air that it affects my sinuses.

I forget at times that Arrow and Flash are part of the CW, the same network that brought us One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, Roswell, Charmed, and Dawson’s Creek, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that complicated love pentagrams take shape. What was wrong with the classic love triangle? Even with love’s jagged edges, I enjoyed Arrow this week. If we see more episodes like this one and hopefully some better ones, it’ll hold my interest until the season finale.

Thanks for reading.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Review: “Space-Time”

Kyle’s Thoughts

I can’t help but think that Marvel teases DC for some of its storytelling issues, while ignoring their own. Perhaps they don’t do it intentionally, but there was one time when Marvel treated DC like a dog that pooped on the floor and they had to rub its nose in it. The Avengers trying to evacuate citizens of a foreign town in Age of Ultron was a finger wag for Man of Steel where Superman doesn’t care about hundreds of thousands of Metropolis citizens. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s “Space-time” is a bit of a stretch when it comes to Marvel teasing DC, but it does address an issue Jim and I have covered in DC superhero shows on more than one occasion. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D kills a character and we know they’re dead.

This isn’t the first time Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. killed a character, but the manner in which the death occurred makes me wonder if this isn’t another Marvel ninner-ninner-ninner. Agents sets up a character like Jean Dewolff (Spectacular Spider-man #107-110, written by Peter David) where we learn enough about a character to care for them and we see them die by Hydra’s hand in the show’s opening moments.

Turns out that the victim has precognition so we saw his future death and here’s where the ninner-ninner-ninner comes into play. DC shows use time-travel, universe hopping, and fountains of youth to return characters from the dead as unlimited mulligans. In “Space-time,” Marvel used precognition so S.H.I.E.L.D. could stage a rescue. Which storytelling method is more legitimate? Well, I used golf terms in those two scenarios, so DC shot 50-100 mulligans on the first tee and kept saying do-over, while Marvel grabbed a couple of range ball buckets and practiced, so they could hit the first shot well. I’m guilty of taking copious mulligans, but I’d say the second method is more legitimate.

“Space-time” also killed off a bit character because no one believes a primary or secondary character can ever die. Superman’s dead. Please. Deadpool died two months before Marvel was going to relaunch its books. Like we can’t see what’s going to happen in two months. Surprise! Deadpool’s back. Since the character who died on this week’s Agents was a bit character, he’s going to stay dead. Agents has had its share of characters leaving the show this season, and it’s done a good job of saying final goodbyes: Rosalind, Bobbi and Hunter were compromised so they’ll only return as guests, and Lash has also taken over Andrew this week. I’m sad to see Blair Underwood’s Dr. Garner go, but it was only a matter of time before Lash assumed complete control. The moment Andrew shares with Agent May is the episode’s best. You should watch “Space-time” if only for that moment.

There’s one character who we knew Agents wouldn’t kill, and they showed him “die” anyway: Agent Ward. Ward is one of those primary characters you know won’t stay dead. In fact he was “dead” all of five minutes before returning as “It” or It-Ward. This occurred before the mid-season break, but I’m bringing it up here again to show that Marvel shows are guilty of similar sins as DC shows. It-Ward also rubbed me the wrong way this week. His power looks too much like Whitney Frost’s in Agent Carter for it to be coincidence and yet, I don’t think they’re tied in any meaningful way. If Frost and It-Ward do have a connection, I’ll be okay with it, but if they don’t, it’s lazy.

It-Ward even called Malick’s motivation into question. I bought Malick’s desire to bring “It” back to Earth when he was doing it for the glory of Hydra. I don’t buy a multi-billionaire who needs an alien to tell him that he needs to take a man’s life with his own hands to have power. Malick has been around a lot of death and it’d be shocking if he hadn’t participated. And if he wanted to kill someone with his bare hands, why didn’t he set up an R&D lab to make his own exoskeleton suit? You’d think he’d get that idea after watching Iron Man for over a decade. That’s almost as hokey as Baron Zemo from the 1960s, when he said that he never thought of making a solvent for Adhesive-X (the glue that kept his mask on his head for decades). Really? That wasn’t your first thought.

Overall “Space-time” was a very good episode because it grounded us with the death of a family man with precognition. My biggest fear is that this week began the final shift from an earthly Marvel universe to a space-faring one. This has been the trend for a while, but Agents was grounded in S.H.I.E.L.D. versus Hydra. Once Hydra fades, the show—and the greater Marvel universe—is headed further from grounded storylines. Don’t get me wrong. I geeked out when I saw the announcement for Infinity Wars, but Thanos is a character who can snap his fingers and half of creation is gone. How can one fathom that kind of power? You’d go blind if you looked at it.

Thanks for reading.

iZombie: Major trouble

Kyle’s Thoughts

iZombie continues to impress. The stories intertwine in a satisfying way, and “Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be” called back to one of the show’s more fun episodes “Zombie Bro.” Austin and Brody, two of Liv’s former fraternity brothers, added levity and illustrated how much Liv has been through this season. I still don’t buy her relationship with Drake, it ascended too quickly and crashed like Icarus, but she has taken a more hands on approach toward crime fighting, which gives credence to why Major would keep his actions as the Chaos Killer—or Kidnapper—from her. And of course we had more twists and turns where the Chaos Killer arc is concerned.

I won’t spoil it here, but Major was in major trouble at episode’s end, and the fallout from his issues should be enough to propel iZombie to its season finale. If you caught iZombie last week, you know that Major’s been re-zombiefied. If you didn’t catch last week’s iZombie, I’m sorry for that spoiler. Major has a similar reaction to brains as Liv. He ate the happy-go-lucky brains—another callout to a stellar iZombie episode “Eternal Sunshine of the Caffeinated Mind”—and that led to some great moments with Major, Ravi, and Blaine. A super positive Major even uttered one of the better lines in the show: “Who we were is not who we are, it’s practice for who we want to be.” That’s surprisingly deep for a character who functioned as comic relief at the time he said it. And that’s iZombie surprisingly deep.

I may not care about Drake and Liv’s short-lived relationship, but the story radiates into Liv’s professional career, and not just because she misses him. Detective Lou Benedetto, Drake’s contact at the Seattle PD, factored into “Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be.” Benedetto offered the dark negative to Detective Babineaux’s by-the-book cop routine. I won’t say how things go down and spoil the episode’s story, but Babineaux received some much needed development.

Blaine and Ravi took a backseat this week, but they still had some scene stealing moments. Blaine will factor into the show as it moves toward its finale. He’s the linchpin with Liv and her origin, Major and the zombie cure, Mr. Boss and the drug trade, and Peyton and her case against Mr. Boss. An amnesic Blaine may prove to be the deadliest Blaine. And how Ravi interacted with Blaine and super-happy Major was fun.

If Blaine and Ravi were in the backseat, Vaughn Du Clark (Steven Weber) was an afterthought. He didn’t even get a credit, but Du Clark was electric in the scenes he was in. He won’t win any father of the year awards, but that’s what makes Du Clark compelling. He quickly turned on her after she became a zombie—we knew she turned last week but I’m sorry if that’s a spoiler—but before then, he doted on her in his own way. To be honest I’m not sure how he functions without Gilda. She’s the one who ran Max Rager. I’m sure that will come to a head in the not-so-distant future.

iZombie has hit its stride, while the other DC Comics shows on the CW continue to flounder. I hope it can maintain its momentum and something tells me it can. “Reflections of the Way Liv Used to Be” was another solid episode.

Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: Narts to a two-butted goat

Kyle’s Thoughts

Okay, “Stand by Gene” was Bob’s Burgers’ return to form I was waiting for. The kids and adults were split in the same manner as “House of 1000 Bounces,” so increase that ratio to five out of the past six Bob’s Burgers episodes, but the non-focus kids—Gene’s the focus as the name “Stand by Gene” suggests—are more than just background. Tina, Louise, Jimmy Junior, Zeke, and even Regular Sized Rudy had moments to shine.

Gene hears a rumor that there’s a two-butted goat in town and convinces all the other kids to find it. He and Zeke become bosom buddies, so that engages Jimmy Junior. Louise bets Gene the restaurant’s end of the day cleaning that a two-butted goat doesn’t exist, so that provides Louise with a reason for going on this journey. And Tina waxes poetic about her future and her destined beau, and she’s certain one of the boys on the collective journey will be her true love, and that incorporates her.

Even though I’d like to see Bob’s Burgers divvy up different characters, “Stand by Gene” exhibited good storytelling. Every character had a reason to be there and they weren’t wasted. The two stories even converged, which was a refreshing bonus.

The adult side of the story added more characters than usual. Bob gets tired of losing to Linda with every game they play, so he wants his friends Mort, Teddy, and even the mailman to beat her at a game of Narts (napkin darts). The games a terrible mess but Bob and Linda don’t care because business is dead and they already told the kids that they’d have to clean up at the end of the day.

Eventually, Bob remembers that Linda’s his wife and he shouldn’t be so petty and root for her. As a result the adults didn’t have as well developed a story as the kids but it was still effective and tied into Louise being thankful that she saw a two-butted goat, even if it meant she had to clean up the restaurant. The same restaurant that has wet napkins darts on every wall, inch of floor, and seat. Louise’s “What the heck happened here?” is priceless.

“Stand by Gene” had more energy. It had more character. It had more of what makes Bob’s Burgers fun. It even had a catchy song about a two-butted goat. It’s pure Fartmony.

Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: The Belcher kids crash a birthday party

Kyle’s Thoughts

Bob’s Burgers has had a lot of episodes this season where it splits up the adults and children, and I’ve grown weary of this practice. Sure, the series has featured this tactic on more than one occasion but they broke it up in years past, while “House of 1000 Bounces” marks the fourth episode out of the last five where the show has broken up its principal characters like this. It’s an okay episode, but I’d like more variety.

Usually, I like how Bob’s Burgers brings in secondary characters and fleshes them out but I’m not invested in Regular Sized Rudy. He owns one of the greatest names on the show but he’s a milk toast. I guess I’m harsh on him at the moment because of the typical for season six parent-children split and because Louise is his foil. Whenever there’s a children episode, one Belcher kid takes point, and Louise overshadows Regular Sized Rudy at Rudy’s birthday party. I like Louise but she’s the only Belcher kid who hasn’t grown. She takes everything to the limit with no regard to other people’s feelings. At the end of each of her episodes her heart grows three sizes and she makes things right. Lather, rinse, repeat. “House of 1000 Bounces” uses this same formula.

The parent side of the story was nonsensical. Actually, I thought it worked because it was so silly. Bob’s afraid of pigeons because he watched Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds at a young age, and a pigeon gets stuck in the restaurant. That’s it. But that’s all you need for a few laughs. Bob deals with his fears, as he often does, and winds up in a bubble bath with the pigeon.

Bob’s Burgers started the season strong—“Gayle Makin” Bob Sled” notwithstanding. “Hauntening” and “Nice-Capades” were stand out episodes, but the show has hit a touch of spring doldrums. “House of 1000 Bounces” is one half of a double-header. I haven’t seen “Stand by Gene” yet, but it sounds like another kid-driven episode.

Thanks for reading.