Review: Bob’s Burgers “Dog Christmas Day After Afternoon”

Overview

A family trip to see Christmas lights turns into a rescue mission, in more ways than one.

Our Take

The series premiere of The Simpsons entitled “Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire” saw Bart and Homer save Santa’s Little Helper from a shelter and has been with the family for the entirety of the show’s run. So, when I saw that this week’s episode of Bob’s Burgers had a similar theme, I thought, “Oh, so the kids get a dog, how great!”. But writer Steven Davis instead helps weave a tale of selflessness, heart, and the things that are most important during the Christmas season…

In this case it’s expensive game consoles. What can I say? America has changed a lot in 40 years and we’re all a bunch of assholes to boot, so I get it. Louise getting a dog for Christmas might have been a bit more cliche as well, but it’s far better than stealing, that shit you can’t do. What still kinda irked me was the fact that after the Belcher family did a good deed, they get a reward, and what the kids DID with that reward seemed a bit…bleh. I don’t know, perhaps if the kids took the cash and went to an SPCA, who knows how much better this week’s episode could have ended, but overall a mixed lesson was taught.

We have one more episode of Bob’s Burgers before the end of the year, but we’ve gotten a pretty strong season of Bob’s Burgers thus far this year. The Christmas episode makes me feel like we got a half-a-miss but given the franchise’s propensity in releasing excellent episodes around pretty much every holiday I can’t fault the show too much for making a few more left turns than right turns.