Review: Bob’s Burgers “The Trouble With Doubles”

Bob and Linda can’t escape from their double-date in a horrifying episode of Bob’s Burgers.

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Linda and Bob are going on a double date with a couple Linda met through her PTA meetings. Bob, of course, wants no part of it, but Linda assures him it’ll be fun. However, the night starts going downhill from the very first moment they meet up with Ruth Anne and Nicholas. They’re some of the strangest guest characters we’ve been introduced to, with an emotional support dog (needed because of Nick’s trauma from his college acapella days) and a propensity for visiting escape rooms. After an awkward dinner, things get even more awkward at Great Escape-tations. By the time the four of them manage to make it out, Linda starts to enjoy herself, while Bob even feels a little braver from the ordeal.

Meanwhile, the kids host some school friends for a spooky movie night back at the house. Louise’s plan goes perfectly until the movie is over; everyone is too scared to walk home without adult supervision. (Rudy will only step outside if there’s a “line of adults” stretching all the way to his house and each one will hug him as he passes.) Showing off her masterful babysitting skills, Tina enacts a plan to lighten the mood – even if she has to mortify herself in the process.

Our Take:

To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this episode. The promo teased it as being “the scariest Bob’s yet”, but the time for Halloween specials is long gone. It turns out, The Trouble With Doubles is horrifying, but not in a typical way. No, rather than reanimated corpses or ax murderers, this episode shows us something much worse: Nicolas and Ruth Anne.

I feel like the Belcher kids storylines often get the spotlight these days (not complaining), so it was a fun subversion of my expectations when it became apparent that Bob and Linda were the ones we’d be following for most of the 22 minutes. Their double date was hilariously (uncomfortably) enjoyable to watch, as their new ‘friends’ are pretty much the worst double date choice that could possibly happen. (The whole ‘dog VS Bob’s crotch’ thing had me in stitches, mainly because of dogs actually do this and it’s embarrassing for everyone involved.) I also appreciated that, while Bob and Linda were able to get some positives out of the night when it was over, they also are in no hurry to do it again. Nick and Ruth Anne didn’t get ‘redeemed’ per se, but they also weren’t overly vilified. They’re just a couple of gross, awful people. (Aren’t we all?)

The kids’ storyline didn’t thrill me quite as much. There’s just not a lot going on. We cut to them watching the movie, get a few reactions, and cut away. The more interesting development happens after the credits roll when Tina breaks out a VHS tape of a younger Tina singing to her poop. This whole aspect of the episode delighted me, because my family literally has a very similar tape of one of my younger siblings. (How Bob always manages to be so relatable has got to be witchcraft.) Tina taking control of the situation in this way is nice to see, and watching baby Tina singing her song is a treat indeed.

Overall, this was a pretty standard episode of Bob’s Burgers. It had plenty of funny moments, some delightfully strange characters, and a few syrupy sweet scenes to top it all off. This episode didn’t reach the heights of some previous episodes, but it was still a great half hour of TV. (Also, I’m relatively certain this is the only show where you’ll find a toddler singing to her poop, then crying after flushing it down the toilet.)