Review: Bob’s Burgers “Roller? I Hardly Know Her!”

Gene!!! on ice.

Overview (Spoilers!)

Gene and his BFF Alex (from last season’s “Cheer Up Sleepy Gene”) are heading home to play the new game they’ve invented, a science fantasy cross between hopscotch and math class. Courtney’s father Doug pulls up with a proposition for Gene: Courtney’s roller dancing partner dropped out right before a competition, so he wants Gene to skate with her. Gene proves that he can, in fact, lift Courtney, but he turns them down, choosing to play with Alex instead.

The next day, Gene waits for Alex, but Alex gets into Doug’s car—he’s decided to become Courtney’s roller dancing partner. When Gene confronts him, Alex explains that he’s delighted by the prospect of physical contact with a girl. Bob suggests that the kids go to the rink to cheer Alex on, but when Gene steps onto the rink, Alex rejects him once again. From the sidelines, Alex’s overprotective mother gets in the way of practice.

That night, Doug appears at the Belchers’ door. Alex is a terrible skater, so Doug wants Gene to sabotage him and take his place as Courtney’s skating partner. Gene agrees to give Alex a drink spiked with hummus, which will give him diarrhea.

The Belchers show up to the rink. Louise plays the claw machine. Tina checks out boys. Gene offers Alex a soda, but when Alex apologizes for ditching him, Gene smacks the drink out of his hand. They hug and makeup.

Courtney and Alex roll out onto the rink, but Gene is skating with them. Furious, Doug skates onto the rink to stop them, pursued fiercely by Alex’s mother. In the end, Courtney joins Alex and Gene in their weird wizard-robot game.

In the B plot, the Belchers notice that a mysterious woman is sitting in her car outside the restaurant day after day. Linda and Teddy theorize that she might be an assassin or even a ghost, but Bob goes out to speak to her. Brenda explains that she’s agoraphobic and her therapist challenged her to enter a public place, so she’s been trying to get up the courage to eat at Bob’s Burgers. Bob promises that none of them will talk to her if she comes inside, and they all fail, but she promises to come back anyway.

Our Take

As someone who loves Gene and the odd band of friends he’s picked up over the years, I feel like this episode was made for me. Unfortunately, as much as I grew to identify with and root for Alex during his introductory episode last season, his quirky personality wasn’t really on display much here, and neither was Courtney’s. Honestly, this storyline could have been about any old characters—Gene didn’t even really get to do anything that shows off how uniquely funny he can be—and it’s a little disappointing. Honestly, I would have thought Gene would leap at the chance to perform for a crowd on roller skates (or, well, Courtney would be the one doing the leaping, but you get the picture).

Despite this fairly generic friendship tale, the roller rink setting does make for some funny visual gags. I enjoyed watching Alex stumble around on the rink—and seeing Doug flee Mrs. Papasian on his own skates was pretty satisfying. Alex and Courtney’s costumes are fun, Doug’s obsession with victory reminds me of some misguided parents I’ve known. Plus, when the competition begins, we’re in for some great visuals—the room is dark, and every surface is covered with big, bright, polka dots from a disco ball. Season 9 is really killing it with the scenery.

Comedy highlights:

• “It’s not school if you love what you do!”
• Alex realizes that he actually runs slower than he walks
• Tina likes to walk home exactly two minutes behind Jimmy Jr.
• Louise assuring an onlooker that Alex getting into Doug’s car isn’t “a kidnapping thing”
• Alex admits that he’s attracted to every girl in their class
• Tina trying to make small talk with boys walking into the rink
• Alex’s drink making its way through the straw towards his mouth right before the commercial break
• The audience’s mystified clapping after the roller performance
• Linda, after Brenda, is able to sit in Bob’s Burgers: “Now she’ll never have any problems again!”

Speaking of which, the Brenda storyline is one of the more successful Bob and Linda-focused B plots this season. While still staying light-hearted, it manages to capture the extreme awkwardness often inherent in trying to help people who struggle with mental illness. Linda and Teddy screw up big time, and of course, they don’t fix all of Brenda’s problems, but she seems okay in the end.

We leave Brenda on a hopeful note, which is one of the things I love most about Bob’s Burgers—the characters often screw up and fail, but at the end of the day, they’re able to move on and keep going about their lives. Even though Courtney and Alex didn’t win the competition, they ended up in a supportive friend group. It’s might be a hokey message, but it’s a satisfying one all the same.