Review: Bob’s Burgers ‘Dawn of the Peck’

Spoilers Below:

Bob’s Burgers has been riding high this season thus far, but let’s face it: the show has really been riding high since its pilot. Consistently good week after week, Bob’s also has some instant classics, and a large supply of high quality installments. Some of the best ones have been holiday episodes. For instance, “Christmas in the Car” is one of my favorites of all-time, along with “My Fuzzy Valentine.” This season already has one, the Halloween-themed “Tina and the Real Ghost,” and when it comes to Thanksgiving shows, season two’s “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” and season four’s “Turkey in a Can” have already made their mark on the holiday. Can this year’s “Dawn of the Peck” live up to the Turkey Day precedent?

It began with Linda and the kids going to the town’s Turk-tacular Turkey Town Festival and Turkey Trot instead of spending Thanksgiving at home with a meal cooked by Bob. At the event, crazed turkeys began attacking the attendees, plunging the festival into chaos. Mr. Fischoeder and his brother Felix (Zach Galifianakis returning) swept the mishap under the rug and departed the amusement park, leaving numerous residents trapped inside, including Linda, Gene, Louise, Tina, Teddy, Mickey, Andy, Ollie, and Regular-Sized Rudy.

The group escaped and ventured through the town returning everyone safely to their homes. However, the gang discovered Bob cracked and went to the store, and had to go rescue him. Upon arrival, Linda asserted herself as the Alpha Turkey, and everyone managed to avoid a feathery death once again. Except possibly for Calvin & Felix Fischoeder at their residence.

In Case You Missed It:

1) “No, you’re crying!”

2) How do you die on the tickle ride?

3) So Felix and Mickey are both in this episode, with Andy & Ollie and Regular-Sized Rudy too? I’m in heaven.

4) Teddy identified himself to Linda as “Teddy, from your town.”

5) I love it when Bob makes inanimate objects talk.

6) Linda called her mini water bottles: “waterbabies.”

7) Who hasn’t finished a note, email, text, or social media message and said to themselves: “That’s a perfectly good note; that doesn’t sound drunk at all”?

8) When a live turkey confronted Bob and a frozen turkey, his excuse was: “He was like this when I found him.”

Well done, Bob’s Burgers, for cranking out yet another holiday gem. The show created a conflict right away, with some real danger, and placed almost every major character right in the midst of the madness. They then not only needed to flee from the Wonder Wharf, but had to navigate the treacherous streets of the town as part of their adventure, which was a blast from start to finish. A ton of characters made appearances last night, and yet everyone managed to get a couple funny lines in. Some of my favorite familiar faces made appearances (like Felix and Mickey) and joined semi-regulars like the kids’ classmates. I know I mentioned my affinity for the aforementioned characters above, but I would be remiss not to credit the actors for some of this. Of course the immensely-talented Bill Hader and Zach Galifianakis deserve mention, but I especially want to confess how much joy I get from hearing Sarah and Laura Silverman voice the youngest of the Pestos, and the only ones in the family that don’t get annoying, in my opinion (sorry Jimmy Jr.) With this formula, it would be hard for the show not to succeed.

In fact, the story and the humor contained within the episode were so strong, they could have carried the entire thing by themselves, with no need for an alternate plot. Yet there still was one, which, generally speaking, could either improve upon an already strong installment, or, in some cases, could entirely sink it.

The B-story featured only Bob. It was basically an extended soliloquy, in that nobody else conversed with him between the opening scene where the two plots split, and the end where they merged back together. And you know what? It was a rousing success. He spent almost the whole episode talking to himself and various items around the house and making them respond to him. Few characters in any show could pull this off. (Although, if you want a recent example, just look at Perfect Man toward the end of The Awesomes’ second season; it shockingly lasted for several weeks.)

My only qualm with this episode, if I really need to search for one, is that the laughs in the first segment of it weren’t too big. They were frequent, but I momentarily worried that “Dawn of the Peck” was going to skate by only a decent episode overall. However, they started to pick up steam quickly as the episode progressed, and by the halfway point, I was plenty amused and entertained, and was cracking up constantly. Bob’s love of Thanksgiving, and the fact that its potential failure as a holiday literally drives him insane, is a fantastic running gag throughout this series, and the only thing I can say to add a cherry to the top of this review, is that I definitely cannot wait for Christmastime to come.