Review: Bob’s Burgers “Running Down a Gene”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Gene tries his best to remember a dream of what could be his breakout song, while Tina and Louise try hunting down a cricket for Linda. Bob doesn’t do much.

OUR TAKE

Okay, that’s more like it. Last week had me a bit worried we might be in for a couple more mediocre episodes, but thankfully we’re right back into form with a pretty solid Gene story. And while I’m kinda bummed that this looks like it’ll be one of the years we don’t get a Halloween episode, it’s possible they might’ve had one and it just couldn’t be recorded or written because of the writer or actor’s strikes, and frankly, this is kind of a scary enough year on its own already. Anyway, we’ve got another Gene music episode, this time about a song he heard in his dreams and then takes up lucid dreaming in order to find again. We’ve probably all had at least one dream that stuck with us just because of how weird it was, sometimes to the point that we’d love to recreate it, especially if it gave us what we thought was a winning idea we could monetize. I had a dream once about combining Looney Tunes characters and Batman Beyond, then 5 years later, Loonatics Unleashed came out. And then, two years after that, I got cancer. Coincidence?! Probably.

But yeah, the highlight of this episode is basically just going down Gene’s weird dreamscapes that are all a mish mash of real life stuff and things he just kinda thinks about from time to time, which is essentially what our dreams are in real life. But the lesson that Bob gives at the end (I said he didn’t do MUCH, not NOTHING), that stuff that just comes to you easily like in a dream or just off the top of your head is never going to be as good as something you put time and practice into while fully awake and cognizant, is a good one and something that hopefully sticks with viewers. We know Bob is quite proud of the effort he has put into his burgers, even if there hasn’t been that much change, and the same basically goes for Gene and his music. I’m pretty sure we’re not gonna jump ahead and get a definitive look at the kids’ futures until MAYBE the final episode of the series, but I’m sure if we do, Gene will be plugging away at his keyboard, no clear success in reach yet but a still glowing flame of artistic passion inside of him. Happy Halloween!