Review: Bob’s Burgers “Tube for Tina”

Totally Tubular

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Tina picks out a tube top for a concert, which gives Linda concerns. Meanwhile, a unique bird slams into the restaurant window and dies.

OUR TAKE

We’re back after a two week break (and right before ANOTHER two week break) with this season’s fourth Tina focused episode in a row! And having learned that this season is going to only be fifteen episodes long (the shortest season since the second and even shorter than the recent season that was impacted by the writer and actor strikes), if we get even one more Tina episode, that will mean a full third of the season was Tina episodes. Again, let me reiterate, I do not dislike Tina, it is just a bit surprising that she’s had so many of her episodes stacked together like this. And I suppose you could argue this is not JUST a Tina episode, it’s a Tina and LINDA episode. From what I remember from the other ones of these pairings, they usually center on Tina wanting to branch out and be more independent, causing Linda to worry about her or their relationship, or try to help her accomplish that goal but everything blowing up for both of them. This time, however, it’s actually a bit more subdued. The main point of conflict is Tina picking out a tube top, a more revealing bit of clothing, for a concert, and Linda worrying that this will affect how people see her, whereas Tina just wants to act free and adult-ish with her friends. An understandable conundrum between mother and daughter where both sides have reasonable perspectives.

And though one might expect Linda to overreact and overcorrect, leading to a disaster, all she ends up doing is having concerns but ultimately being (reluctantly) supportive of Tina’s choices. When the top disappears, Tina does first suspect Linda, but it then turns out to be Tina’s mistake, leading to Linda sharing the crux of her worries, mainly being that she was self conscious of her body when she was Tina’s age and she doesn’t want her to go through that, but is inadvertently adding to the possibility that she might. All’s resolved, family bonds tightened, and also the rest of the family deal with a bird dying! Given how unique it looks, I was actually expecting it to turn out to be like an endangered species and for Bob to get in trouble for burying it right away or something, but instead we just meet the original owner who liked to “talk” to her bird. And also a callback to that Halloween episode where Bob accidently killed Teddy’s gerbil. Anyway, once again, Bob’s Burgers is off for two weeks, so see you in December for may or may not be another Tina episode.