Review: Bob’s Burgers “Ex Mach Tina”

Read the last review of Bob’s Burgers for a while.

Spoilers Below

In an attempt to look good for the beach bonfire, Tina wears some wedge espadrilles to school. Of course, she can’t actually walk in the tall shoes. She falls, severely twisting her ankle. The school nurse gives Tina a pair of crutches but Mr. Frond has something else in mind. A company has approached the school to give them something new to try out. A robot that will allow homebound children to attend school like the other kids. Due to Tina’s injury, she is eligible to use the robot.

At first, the other kids shun robot Tina. Until she gets stuck in the Audio-Visual closet with Jimmy Jr. The two teens spend hours in the closet talking. Even though Jimmy Jr wants nothing to do with actual Tina, he has formed a connection with robot Tina. To the point that he invites the robot to the beach bonfire. But how is she going to get the robot out of the school and to the beach? Well, Louise and Gene have been taking the robot around school at night (when it is supposed to be charging) and they have formed a bit of a relationship with the night security guard. They tell the night guard a tale in order to get the robot out to the front sidewalk, allowing Tina to get the robot to the beach.

Once the robot reaches the beach, the other kids start to make fun of her. Then Jimmy Jr actually kisses the robot. That is when Tina has decided she had enough and heads to the beach in person. She joins Jimmy Jr on the beach, giving him the confidence to read his singing poems (which are not songs) to the rest of the class. Just as Jimmy Jr reads the last few, the other kids begin to enjoy the musoems. Grateful that Tina showed up in person, Jimmy Jr and Tina kiss.

While the kids have robotic fun, Bob buys a banjo from the second-hand store. Unfortunately, he isn’t very good at playing it and no one will really give him the time to practice. He does get a few moments to play at the bonfire while Jimmy Jr sings his musoems but it doesn’t last very long.

There were some absolutely hysterical lines in this episode. During a lunch scene, Tammy and Jocelyn are having a conversation with Zeke. The girls say that A.I. stands for “as if,” which makes Zeke say that the girls make him feel smart. Burn! Other than a few great lines, the rest of the episode was just OK. The banjo thing with Bob felt tacked on while the robotic night antics of Louise and Gene weren’t fleshed out enough. There were some background references to things they did but the things we actually saw weren’t all that funny. For example, one of the teachers asked how basketballs got into her supply closet, which makes the kids giggle. Well, the robot doesn’t have arms so how DID they get the basketballs into the closet? I think it would have been funnier if we could see the kids pulling pranks with the robot. It just doesn’t make sense otherwise.