Review: Bob’s Burgers “Radio No You Didn’t”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

While cleaning out a closet, Linda finds an old ham radio that reminds Bob of a story about how his grandmother stopped a German spy.

OUR TAKE

Let me tell you, I had my expectations of this episode shattered several times in just the first few minutes. First, going on just based on the title, I assumed this would be some story involving Gene wanting to be a DJ of some kind, or using the radio to make a weird friend or something like that. THEN, when it became clear that it would be a story about Bob’s grandmother Alice, I figured “there’s no way they’re making all new designs for this, it’ll probably be an anthology episode about each of the kids imagining what it was like for Alice, with something like Louise giving some sassy spy thriller, Gene doing a musical, and Tina doing something about the spy being actually a handsome zombie or something.” Not that either of those options wouldn’t have been perfectly fine episodes in and of themselves, but no, in fact this WAS a story that was played mostly straight that was just about a Belcher ancestor needing to go on an investigation within her apartment complex to find a German spy in 1940’s America. And while it definitely provides the comedy necessary to make it a Bob’s Burgers episode, it also is a very welcome breath of fresh air for how it fleshes out the Belcher family tree.

Alice is very much her own character, not necessarily a female version of Bob or even reflective of any of the kids aside from POSSIBLY Louise. She’s just an overwhelmed single mother in the 40’s who ends up pretty much in over her head and in a pretty serious mystery when things come down to it. The mystery itself is paced pretty well too, with some red herrings and hints along the way as to who may be the spy before it comes to a head, although I do have to critique how quickly it wraps up near the end. I think a bit more of an emotional gut punch of an ending could have taken this premise from good to instant classic for the series, but it was still a nice attempt. Also neat to see more of Bob’s mother, who we only briefly saw in the movie but here is just a crying baby. Maybe if this show goes on long enough we can see her get her own flashback episode. Wouldn’t that be nice, perhaps in another thirteen seasons.