Arrow: “Legacy”

Jim’s Thoughts

After the end of last season, you may remember I said Arrow needed to win me back. Season 4 was outright bad, and not even Neal McDonough’s performance as Damien Darhk could salvage it. With that, I hoped season 5 would get off to a roaring start, and while it didn’t quite do that, the premiere did give us one of the more watchable episodes of Arrow in some time.

The weak parts of the episode are a lot of repeat offenders from last season. Detective Lance and his on/off relationship with Felicity’s mom isn’t interesting, and it’s spoiled the character so thoroughly I can’t even invest in his grief over his personal loss. There were also a lot of passing glances to Felicity and Ollie’s relationship, but these things weren’t given much focus, and that helped.

The flashback sequences, while not particularly bothersome, have lost their intrigue. I think that mechanic worked when it was Ollie and Slade on the island because we were seeing the evolution of their relationship, and Slade was the threat in present day Star City. I’ve recently heard rumors that the show will abandon the flashback story arcs after this season, and I have to say it’s a long overdue move.

The argument over whether or not Ollie should be killing has always irked me, because he’s found himself in situations where there just wasn’t a believable or practical alternative. Having Thea object so strongly feels a little like a contrivance, and I’m hoping the show doesn’t focus on it.

The other big story thread this week was about whether Ollie should recruit a new team. Personally, I like him working alone. I think it simplifies the story and it brings the show back to when it was much more successful, but we’ll see how long it lasts.

Again, this wasn’t the stroke of redemption I was hoping for, but if Arrow maintains this level of quality, it’ll be an enormous step forward.

Kyle’s Take

Arrow set the bar limbo stick low last season. Jim and I bashed it most of the season—we could get away with that because we aren’t sponsored by any of the producers, TV networks, etc.—but it’s telling when some of those other sites that are paid by the networks to review their work said that the money wasn’t worth their integrity and gave Arrow episodes 2 out of 10 ratings. There were episodes at the end of last season that were pure Overwatch—I’m sorry, they were pure Uberdreck.

“Legacy” is to Arrow what Suicide Squad was to Batman v Superman. It’s bad, but at least it’s not that bad. I have hope that Arrow can move past all the things that didn’t work last season and find fertile ground this season. I don’t care about the Lance/Smoak relationship or the flashbacks—they haven’t been effective in seasons—but I had forgotten Ollie ended last season as Star City’s mayor. Arrow really wants to push our suspension of disbelief. How much free time does Ollie have to conduct Green Arrow duties if his day job is mayor of a city with a population of almost 3 million? (DC Wikia)

I agree with Jim that Ollie works best when he’s on his own, but I see him forming a team as soon as next week. Come on, the next episode’s named “The Recruits.” If you followed our Arrow Secrets page last season (I’ll have to start that up again this season), you’d know that Curtis Holt is supposed to become Mr. Terrific, so this has been a slow burn for over a year. I’m not convinced Arrow’s done with Laurel either. Flash has an issue with time jumps and Earth hops, but Arrow has problems with resurrections. The Lazarus Pit is destroyed—for some reason—but it’ll return or something will take its place.

Oddly enough, I could be okay with all of this (resurrections and a new team). I just want Arrow to work for it. I could even buy into Ollie moonlighting as Green Arrow, while serving as Star City’s mayor. I’d just like to see consequences. I’m not even sure what these consequences should be, but Arrow can’t be lazy and insist that Ollie can pull off both jobs at once with no hiccups.

“Legacy” was watchable. If Arrow can build off of its premiere, it could be on its way to win me back, but how much the show lags after the mid-season break—Arrow always has a mid-season slump—will prove whether or not it’s recaptured the magic.

Another season of Deathstroke couldn’t hurt either.

Flash: “Flashpoint”

Jim’s Thoughts

Between excursions to Earth 2, and the time loops of last season, alternate realities are something The Flash has been playing with far too much. On one level, it’s simply confusing, but beyond that, it’s hard to consider anything they do to be character development when we’re just looking at different versions of the same people.

Flash’s season premier gave a nod to Wally West as Kid Flash this week, and I like seeing the writers of these shows going back to the source material. This episode had a lot of the same feel to it that’s made the show successful in the past, and that’s what I hoped to see after an up-and-down season 2.

The alternate timeline versions of these characters didn’t do a lot for me. Particularly, seeing Cisco as a tech billionaire, and kind of a jerk, didn’t have much of an impact after seeing his Earth 2 supervillain doppelganger. We’ve also seen an Earth 2 Joe West that disliked Barry, so this alternate timeline where he was more or less a stranger wasn’t really a shock to the system.

The big emotional payoff to this episode came when Barry had to ask Reverse Flash to set the timeline right again. Him forcing Barry to say the words, to actually ask him to kill his mother did something to make us hate him, and that was effective. However, seeing Barry return to his own timeline, but with the caveat that for some reason, Iris doesn’t speak to Joe feels like we may be in for more of the same with this shifting reality nonsense.

It’s clear to me that Thawne as Reverse Flash has the potential to be an excellent villain for the show, and the more the focus is on that part of the story, the better. Iris and Barry’s love story has been stale for a while, and I’d like to see the show settle on a setting and run with it.

Kyle’s Take

The Flash using its source material isn’t a surprise. Geoff Johns (Flash’s executive producer) got his start on the Kid Flash and Flash books, his favorite comic book character is The Flash, and the story arcs The Flash covers are based primarily on Johns’ work. If Flash’s writers didn’t use the source material, they’d be on unemployment.

I do agree with Jim that character building is important, and The Flash struggles to do that. After all its Earth hopping and time warps, I’m not even sure who some of these characters are anymore, but The Flash battles with another basic element of fiction: conflict. The Flashpoint event was successful (in the comics) because the universe was going to implode (man versus environment), Justice Leaguers battled each other, tearing apart cities and killing people (man versus man), and Barry had to face the fact that he was responsible for this and was, in this instance, the world’s greatest villain and had to allow his mother to die (man versus himself). None of that existed.

Sure. Reverse-Flash said, “Who’s the villain now, Flash?” but that was a throwaway line because the only negative thing that occurred in “Flashpoint” was Barry forgetting his friends (his memory of the previous timeline vanishing). But he reunited with his friends. With the selfish Barry we met in “Flashpoint” I figured he had come out ahead with living parents and slightly more dickish buddies. Cisco was a billionaire. Party!

Okay, Wally was dying—for some reason—and Barry spent half a second with choosing to save him, so that internal conflict—if there was any—didn’t have time to build. None of the “conflicts” worked, and when there’s no real conflict, there’s no story.

Lack of conflict isn’t a new thing. Flash’s time-traveling/Earth-jumping nonsense deflates tension and a lack of tension leads to a lack of rising action. There’s a lot going on in The Flash, but few conflicts are given the chance to grow.

Speaking of growing, let’s talk about something I’ve been warning folks about for years and it looks like it’ll boil over this season. Jim has wanted to get rid of the villain-of-the-week format; I’ve said that The Flash needed to revamp how it handled its villain-of-the-week and go with recurring villains. I agree that the show is at its strongest when there’s a central villain–and Reverse-Flash shows promise–but we can still get three or four episodes a season with Pied Piper, Mirror Master, Gorilla Grodd, Weather Wizard, and the like, and the reason why I say this is that Geoff Johns—you know, the executive producer and one-time Flash scribe—never wrote a Flash story arc without at least three Flash villains. The Rogues are coming.

I’m not saying that 10 or 12 villains in a single episode is a good idea—there’s that problem I mention often of limited screen time for too many characters—but had Flash developed recurring villains, we’d at least know who these people are and Flash could have a series of episodes with three or four villains teaming up, a tip of the hat to Johns. Flash has twice as many enemies as Batman.

Good luck identifying everyone, non-Flash readers. Doctor Alchemy was teased at the end of “Flashpoint,” and the person whispering to him was Mirror Master, so multiple villain episodes will happen. I geeked out over the closing moment. Jim didn’t even catch that it was Mirror Master whispering to Doctor Alchemy until I pointed out that “Alchemy” was written on a mirror. Imagine if every Flash viewer had met Mirror Master and knew who he was from the previous two seasons. Every Flash fan would’ve been geeking out over that moment.

I still enjoy Flash and I’m hopeful it’ll get better over the coming months, but there are countless missed opportunities.

Spoiler alert:
Mirror Master’s powers involve generating mirror worlds and pocket realities, so the West family drama might not be an echo from the Flashpoint. Mirror Master–and not Reverse-Flash–could also be this season’s main villain.

Bob’s Burgers: “Flu-ouise”

Kyle’s Thoughts

I missed the season premiere of Bob’s Burgers. I’ve got to accustomed to having cable again; I’m trying to get caught up. Sorry for the late write-up.

Anyway, “Flu-ouise” gave us another very good musical episode of Bob’s Burgers. This show has a knack for switching to the musical format and keeping the focus on its characters. Fox cartoons have a history of doing this with Simpsons and Family Guy. Family Guy has done the best job of the musical episode form, but Bob’s Burgers—with Linda and Gene who naturally lend themselves to sung dialogue—gives the Seth MacFarlane cartoon a run for its money.

The musical form may be used as a gimmick in Bob’s Burgers, not unlike Family Guy, but the focus of the episode is rooted in its characters. In “Flu-ouise,” the titular Louise suffers from a nasty flu. When her family tries to tend to her needs and wants, they accidentally drop her favorite toy Kuchi Kopi in the toilet. As the family races to fix—or buy her a new—Kuchi Kopi (glow worm-like cuddle buddy), Louise goes on a fever dream journey, and cue the musical. Stuffed animal versions of the Belchers sing their way to Louise forgiving them, and when “Flu-ouise” ends, Louise learns that she has to let the small stuff go.

We’ve seen Bob’s Burgers use this narrative structure before, but it works. “Flu-ouise” offers a strong start to Bob’s Burgers seventh season. Its sixth season showed a few cracks but finished strong. I’m hopeful for another great year. Thanks for reading.

Stranger Things

Kyle’s Thoughts

Remember the Eighties? He-Man, Rubik’s Cubes, Trapper Keepers, MTV playing music videos, and Toto’s “Africa”—“I bless the rains down in Africa”—were totally rad in the Eighties, and they can be found in Stranger Things. Do you also remember those Staples commercials where someone presses the “Easy” button? That’s what Stranger Things does when it evokes Eighties nostalgia. Stranger Things is baseline good; it’s not great.

Warning: there may be spoilers ahead.

Stranger Things is difficult to review. It is good and received overwhelmingly positive reviews. One reviewer even likened it to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. I started the series with high expectations, but Stranger Things is definitely not Twin Peaks.

It’s as if the Duffer Brothers (Matt and Ross Duffer) took several beloved Eighties properties, cut them up, and pasted them back together in different ways to form Stranger Things. The young girl with powers is ripped out of Firestarter—right down to her narrative arc. The beast/antagonist is a Sci-Fi version of the spirit in Poltergeist—right down to it keeping its victims in an alternate plane of existence. The group of boys borrows traits from the group of boys in Goonies and Stand by Me; there’s even a scene that’s close to a one-for-one recreation of a Stand by Me scene. And that’s before you include scenes that would’ve been at home in any Brat Pack movie, Back to the Future, or ET.

Stranger Things hits its easy nostalgia button so often that there may not be much in terms of character or plot development besides “remember the Eighties?” cropping up every five or ten minutes through most of its first season. When one of the characters isn’t a cardboard version of an Eighties property, they’re purchased from Costco’s stock movie character aisle. Winona Ryder’s mother is a generic, single mother worried about her son. Then there’s the social outcast teen, the popular kids, and just about every other stock Eighties character you could want. Sure, they’re Eighties characters, but they’re still stock characters.

Okay. I could go on about how Stranger Things’ plotlines are thin and how it pads its story with Eighties nostalgia, but I’m done ranting. Besides, there might be something more going on with these characters beneath the show’s layers of Eighties references, but mimicking Stand by Me and the like should at least make you wonder if Stranger Things spent enough time developing these characters, or if Stand by Me (and the rest) developed their kids, and Stranger Things is hitching a ride on the Stand by Me Express.

Regardless, Stranger Things is a well-executed show. It does a good job of pacing, the special effects are top-notch, and viewers can find a character they can relate to in the show and root for them.

During season one’s final ten minutes, Stranger Things fast-forwarded time a month—something you’ve heard me say that I don’t like in the past—but I think the skip worked here. We’re left with some interesting choices made by a couple of characters, namely the ingénue and the Judd Nelson replicon, that could be expanded on in a second season. These choices run counter to how you’d think an Eighties movie/TV show would take its characters.

Stranger Things does a great job of recreating the Eighties. Heck. They painstakingly recreated the Eighties. If you search Google for “80s references,” Stranger Things will dominate the first ten search pages. I’ll admit that I smiled when I caught an Eighties reference in Stranger Things, but I wanted the show to do more than ape the Eighties.

If you love Eighties nostalgia, you’ll love Stranger Things. If you like Eighties nostalgia but want something that will push narrative and characterization boundaries, you may be disappointed.

The Problem with Preacher

Jim’s Thoughts

It’s Wednesday now, and some of you may be wondering why I haven’t reviewed episode 3 of Preacher yet. I watched it on Sunday, and for a brevity’s sake I’ll say I felt pretty much the same about it as the first two episodes. It wasn’t exactly bad, but I’m losing interest in the show. With that said, I thought I’d poke a stick at some of the things that have put me off from the series in the early going.

To reiterate, I have read the comics, and yes, the show is quite different from them. That’s not a problem in and of itself, however. I’m all for saying this is a different medium, so it should tell at least a slightly different story. So long as the characters are there, I can not only forgive, but applaud it. I’ll also double-down on what I said last week. Preacher does offer recognizable versions of the characters we know from the comics. So, what’s the problem? It’s that the story AMC is trying to tell with this series is shapeless.

Kyle and I were talking about this just a couple days ago. He was surprised to hear I’m not particularly enjoying Preacher, and he asked why. I told him the show is sort of “wallowing in itself,” and that may be the best way I can describe it. Things have happened so far. Jesse has received his mysterious gift of persuasion, and some shadowy figures have come knocking in search of it, but is there really any urgency to the story right now? I don’t feel it. Every week we see Jesse mope, wrestle with his faith, revisit one of the town’s lost causes, or meet a new one, but he’s still there. He doesn’t know anyone is looking for him yet, and it’s not entirely clear what threat those figures pose. Tulip comes by at least twice an episode to try talking him back into his old life. It’s wash, rinse, repeat.

Those who’ve studied creative writing will know about “The Hero’s Journey.” For those who haven’t and don’t, it’s a sort of formula on which most western narratives are built. Part of that formula deals with the refusal of the call to action. Essentially, our hero is too afraid/filled with doubt/ambivalent to take up the cause. You see it in Star Wars when Luke Skywalker says he can’t go with Obi Wan, then changes his mind when his aunt and uncle die. It’s extremely common in western storytelling, and maybe that’s what Preacher is going for in Jesse’s refusal to join up with Tulip, but we’re three episodes in now. Not only has he rebuffed her several times, but it’s almost as though they’ve had the exact same conversation each time. At this point, it doesn’t matter whether Jesse leaves with Tulip or not. I, as a member of the audience, can’t help but stare at the screen and yell, “Just do something!” It’s as though Jesse is fighting against the start of the story, and that’s simply dull.

Maybe AMC wants to tell the story of the town. That could be fine, but what’s happening there? We’ve met some characters. Jesse’s had run-ins with one, roughed a couple of them up a bit, but to what end? What purpose has Eugene served but to show up on screen, make the most of their SFX makeup department, and generate some pathos? He can still be a solid character. He’s there, but he’s not doing anything. That’s the big issue with the show. It’s a bit like watching someone set up a chess board only to stare at it. We think we know who the bad guys are, and what they want, but it’s been ambiguous to the point of being coy. I may stick around for the next episode, but I’m not looking forward to it, and for a show this highly anticipated to have me at apathy three episodes into its first season is a poor omen.

Kyle’s Disclaimer

As of this write-up I haven’t seen Preacher. I had asked Jim a couple of days ago if I should invest my time in the series and his answer was a resounding no. I wouldn’t say that I was particularly “shocked” when Jim told me that he didn’t enjoy the show either. From the sound of it I won’t be sinking any hours, minutes, or seconds into the Preacher.

Preacher Review

We had to wait a week for the follow-up to Preacher’s pilot episode. I can’t understand why AMC would decide to debut a new series, then skip a week before giving us the next episode, but for better or worse, it’s here. Maybe the week off bothers me extra because Preacher has been slow to start. It was my main critique of the pilot, and I’ll say I was hoping for a bit more momentum building than this episode gave us, so pacing is a concern for me with the series.

The show is still doing well with capturing the tone of the comics. It’s getting the characters right, and for fans of the books, it’s exciting to see these characters being brought to life. Cassidy is stealing the show so far. He’s been a steady source of brighter moments, and his interactions with Jesse help us get to know the preacher as something other than a spiritually burdened shepherd.

Speaking of Cassidy, his fight in the church came off as one of the few instances in the first couple of episodes that gives the season some kind of narrative shape. We now know a little something about the threat facing our protagonists, and we need more of that in this show.

Tulip is still in need of some development. It’s not clear to the audience yet why we’re supposed to care about her, or how she will fit in with the parts of the plot that are in motion. So far, she’s just the miniature devil on Jesse’s shoulder, and Cassidy is more fun in that role anyway.

This episode spent some more time with locals in need of spiritual guidance, but none of these characters are established enough to carry much of the show, and Jesse’s time with them is contributing to the disjointed vibe of the story. Ultimately, the townsfolk are serving to establish the preacher’s new-found power of suggestion. It’s not an awful plot device, but it’s taken us two full episodes to get there. Here’s hoping next week’s episode steps on the proverbial gas.

Arrow Review: “Schism”

Jim’s Thoughts

Remember last week, when I said I didn’t have a single positive point to make about the episode? Yeah, well, Arrow decided to serve up a second helping of that. I actually mean that almost literally. Darhk got hold of Rubicon again and relaunched the nukes. Yep. It’s wash, rinse, and repeat now.

The one thing I can say for this episode is at least Oliver got to fight Darhk this time. He didn’t just guard the door while Felicity tapped at a keyboard. That was a huge part of the episode, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t all of it.

I think the actors got a bonus every time they used the word “darkness” in this episode, but that’s a nitpick among so many serious issues.

This episode would have felt like a mercy flush if it hadn’t ended with Felicity saying she wasn’t going anywhere. I should be sorry to see the show end, and excited for the next season, but at this point, Arrow has to start strong in the next season. They need to win me back.

Kyle’s Take

What does a guy have to do to end the world in peace?

I could pile on to what Jim has already said, but “Schism” has been universally panned. IGN, who had been giving Arrow an average score of 7.8, gave “Schism” a 3.8. Ouch! IMDB had an average score of 8.6 for most Arrow episodes, and “Schism’s” score as of this review is a 5.9. “Schism” is awful. Let’s bask in its horrendous, third grade writing level dialogue.
Felicity: Go to Hell.
Damien: Why bother? I’m going to bring it to us.

Damien: Fifteen minutes ‘til the end of the world and you want to spend them with me. I am touched.

Damien: Oh, you brought friends. That’s okay, so did I. (Cue a goofy looking action scene.)

Felicity: I’m saying that there’s a man who killed Darhk in cold blood, and that same man stood on top of a car and gave the city its hope back. What you’re feeling isn’t darkness, it’s a schism. You’re at war with two sides of yourself.

Way to work the episode’s title “Schism” into dialogue, Arrow. Perhaps you should’ve looked up the word in a dictionary before using it. Ollie may be at odds with himself but he isn’t splitting up with himself, and Team Arrow may be splitting up but it’s not because they disagree on something; they all agree that they need a break.

I need this break from Arrow, too. Hopefully, things get on the right track next season, but Arrow is on the shortest of leashes.

Thanks for reading.

Flash Review: “The Race of His Life”

Jim’s Thoughts

Flash gave us an okay finale to a season that disappointed a little too often. There’s really no talking about it without giving spoilers, so I won’t really try to avoid them.

Zoom’s character really was gutted when he unmasked as Jay. The last bit of the season showed us he wasn’t really Jay, but that he stole the identity. That wasn’t so much of a surprise as you may recall the man in the iron mask spelling out Jay Garrick in code some episodes ago, so we already sort of knew that. The revelation that the real Jay Garrick is an Earth 3 doppelganger to Barry’s dad also lacked much of an impact because it feels like the show has dipped pretty far into that well. There was some payoff to it. Some of you may know the actor portraying Dr. Allen/Jay Garrick once portrayed The Flash in a previous TV series, there was some fan service to the twist. Take it for what it’s worth.

The final showdown with Zoom didn’t do much for me, either. Having everything settled by a race is pretty unsatisfying. Was it really about his ego? The need to power up his doomsday device would suggest no, but given the fact he could have charged it himself by doing more laps, the answer is kind of “yes.”

For anyone familiar with DC Comics lore, it looks like the end is setting up a Flashpoint story. Given that Harry and Jessie are back on Earth 2, it could make for an interesting story arc for Season 3. With that, I guess I’m at least optimistic that we could see Flash get back to what made the show good.

Kyle’s Take

Flashpoint is an iconic Flash story—actually, it’s a DC Comics Universe story—but in order to pull off Flashpoint, The Flash had to go back in time and save his mother. This negates several deaths, which is something we’ve dinged The Flash on several times in the past and here they go again, but the CW shows could use a reset button. Ever since the producers announced Supergirl would transition to the CW next season, I wondered if they’d pull the Flashpoint trigger and have that sync up the shows to some extent.

Jim and I were messaging as I clicked the button for “The Race of His Life” on Hulu. He said there was a huge, DC Universe altering moment at the end of the episode and I asked him if it was Flashpoint. He was worried he spoiled it for me, but John Wesley Shipp (Henry Allen and the 1990’s Flash) teased that Flashpoint would factor into The Flash’s second season somehow more than a year ago, and I included that in a Flash Secrets page for May 22, 2015 (here’s a link) back when I still did those—hopefully, I’ll start writing those again next season. So the ending wasn’t a surprise.

Everything leading up to the ending was hokey. Anything involving Zoom was painful. I challenge you to a race, Flash. Really? Isn’t that what Superman and Flash do every few decades or so? Just in case you’re wondering, Flash leads the series with a record of 3 wins, no loses, and 2 ties. Take that, Supes. And what was the big prize for Barry winning that race? We’re powering up my doomsday device. That’s a classic heads I win, tails you lose situation. The solution Barry used to solve that scenario was another something Jim and I have dinged Flash for in the past: time remnants.

I don’t have much else to say that’s positive, and I want to stay positive, so let’s look toward next season. Flashpoint shakes up the DC Universe to its core. This could be fun. I just hope The Flash stops with the incessant time warps and alternate Earths. It’s like a Monty Python sketch up in here. I’m not dead yet. I got better.

Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: “Glued: Where’s My Bob”

Kyle’s Thoughts

Ah. “Glued: Where’s My Bob” was the injection of adrenaline I was wanting. Usually, I don’t like double-header episodes—networks have been doing too much of those lately, just ask Agent Carter—but “Glued” ended the week on a fun note.

This episode started off in the oddest way possible. The intro music didn’t play and the storefront next to Bob’s Burgers had a tenant: The 100 cent Store. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an actual store next to Bob’s Burgers, besides the ones in the opening scene. These clues let us know that we were in for a different kind of episode, and “Glued: Where’s My Bob” delivered. It’ll be difficult to go into details without ruining the episode, so consider this a spoiler alert.

The kids begin with a goop war: grab sticky food stuff and slather it on objects to goop your siblings. This led to some goop puns like “goop, there it is” and “Goopsuit riot.” Bob becomes a victim of one of these pranks: gluing the toilet seat. Cue a popular dining magazine wanting to cover Bob in an article, and one of the best original Bob’s Burgers songs in a while “Bad Stuff Happens in the Bathroom.”

“Glued: Where’s My Bob” may have devolved into potty humor but it’s wonderfully absurd potty humor. The guest stars were on point (Gretchen, Marshmallow, and Ken Jeong as Doctor Yapp), and the one liners made me bust a gut.

Gretchen: Like this isn’t the first time I’ve done someone’s hair while they’re on the toilet.

The thong wearing roller skate dude: We’re all glued to a toilet called Earth.

Gene (in response to Coasters magazine walking in on Bob glued on the toilet): Um, his eyes are up here.

The second half of Bob’s Burgers’ doubleheader reminded us of one of the many reasons we watch the show: it’s fun.

Thanks for reading.

Bob’s Burgers: “Secret Admiral-irer”

Kyle’s Thoughts

“Secret Admiral-irer” had all the trappings of a great Bob’s Burgers episode: a hopelessly romantic Tina, a cynical Louise, Bob trying to please new friends, chuckles throughout, and the episode’s three stories converging in a satisfying way. But the show’s lacked something. I can’t put my finger on it but if I had to guess, it’d be Tina’s stand-in love interest.

Tina gets ignored by Jimmy Junior early this episode and spent the rest of the show trying to make romance happen for a 90-year-old woman. The elderly woman’s love story had its moments but I couldn’t help but question whether or not this romance was a faux-mance or a pale replacement for Tina and J Ju. There’s even a moment when Tina reads the lady’s mail, mentions a free gym membership, and the lady says that she doesn’t know any Jims. That was a little on the nose. Or perhaps we need to introduce the lady to our Jim.

I don’t know if Jimmy and Tina will ever happen—or if they should happen—and the elderly woman, her nephew, and her admiral would-be-lover provided enough giggles, but Tina stories have dominated this season and the story was contrived. You could say all sit-com stories are contrived, so I’ll let that go, but this coupled with Bob trying to please the wrong people—again—made for a solid, if not forgettable, episode.

“Secret Admiral-irer” is another good episode that shows that adds to an already solid season of Bob’s Burgers and yet it lacks in originality. I love Tina as a character–she’s one of Bob’s Burgers’ best–but she’s been over-exposed this season and I’d like to see a solid story for some of the other characters.

Thanks for reading.