Season Review: Bob’s Burgers – Season 5

Spoilers Below:

Believe it or not, season five of Bob’s Burgers just ended. (Five!) It seems like just yesterday the show was the new kid on the block, fighting for acceptance among the big boys like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and The Cleveland Show. (Wait, scratch that last one.)

Gone now are the days of calling the show new. Gone also are the associated worries of a premature cancelation. We can now refer to Bob’s as a veteran. If some fool asks if we’ve heard of the show, we’re at the point where it’s acceptable to roll our eyes and reply, “Of course.” We also now know that Bob’s Burgers can hang with the pros, and just might be the best show in FOX’s Sunday night lineup. (Gasp!) We’ve seen the show grow and find its niche over the first few years with some quality episodes, and last season it really came into its own with some true gems. While number four had hits like “Ambergris,” “Christmas in the Car,” and “The Kids Rob a Train,” this time the winners were episodes like “Eat, Spray Linda,” “The Oeder Games,” and “Dawn of the Peck.”

I make this comparison because (score spoiler alert!) Bob’s earned the same mark as last year. Although in all honesty, I’m surprised it didn’t rank higher. In addition to the aforementioned episodes, there were a host of extraordinary installments. This year’s Christmas show, “Father of the Bob,” was a dud compared to last year’s, but their Thanksgiving special (the aforementioned “Dawn of the Peck”) and Halloween spooktacular (“Tina and the Real Ghost”) were fantastic, and other Tina-centric episodes like “Midday Run,” “Can’t Buy Me Math,” and “Tina Tailor Soldier Spy” succeeded for obvious reasons.

Giving Tina a run for her money, Louise surprised with some strong showings, such as “Adventures in Chinchilla-sitting,” “Late Afternoon in the Garden of Bob and Louise,” and “Hawk & Chick.” The latter two dealt with the youngest Belcher’s relationship with her father, and the added sentimentality only helped their causes. Likewise, “Eat, Spray Linda” was about Linda’s bond with each of the kids, and also impressed with its combination of meaningfulness and non-stop comedic prowess.

As Bob’s is obviously a character-driven show, weeks that featured the whole family were winners as well, and “Best Burger” and “Itty Bitty Ditty Committee” prominently showcased this point. Even more successful was “The Oeder Games,” which brought out the entire town to help in its victory.

What it comes down to for the episodes that didn’t fare as well, was a slight lacking in laugh-out-loud jokes. “Work Hard or Die Trying, Girl” and “The Runway Club” were both parodies that missed the mark, especially surprising considering the potential they seemed to possess. Same goes for “The Gayle Tales.” Doing a plot with three mini-stories within can be tricky, and this one ended up being all over the place. “Speakeasy Rider” paired a storyline with the kids and another with Bob & Teddy, but the characters couldn’t quite put it all together. “Friends with Burger-fits” was another Bob & Teddy show, but it fared a bit better.

However, I’m really just splitting hairs here. By the numbers, only five of the 21 episodes this season scored in the 7-range or less, and three earned a 9. Everything else ranked comfortably as an 8 or 8.5, and that’s about as good as one can hope for any show.

So although this year’s batch of new shows averaged out to the same as last year, there are a couple things to take away from this. First, credit should be given for a series managing to match a high mark for yet another year, as all-too-often we see our favorite shows hit a peak and begin a decline during some type of entertainment midlife crisis. Not so here.

And second, this show is clearly head-and-shoulders above most shows on television – past and present. If you find yourself flipping through the channels, or scrolling through your Netflix queue looking for something that’s a well-rounded, amusing program with the highest probability to make you laugh – you really can’t do much better than Bob’s Burgers. FOX took notice while making a slight scheduling adjustment midyear, and me, you, and everyone else in this crazy world should do the same.