Season Review: Bob’s Burgers Season Eight

The eighth season of Bob’s Burgers is filled with everything fans have come to love about the Belchers – plus plenty of new surprises!

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Starting with the creative concept of Brunchsquatch (an episode composed entirely out of fanart), the eighth season of Bob’s Burgers has given us twenty-one episodes of the show’s trademark combination of heart and humor. From climbing a mountain during a treacherous thunderstorm to the family forgetting Bob’s birthday, the antics of the Belcher clan walk a fine line between mundane events of ordinary life and the kinds of unhinged chaos that can only be found in prime time animation. Luckily, Bob’s almost always manages to make it entertaining and uplifting, no matter how insane the storylines become.

Our Take:

Bob’s is one of the shows that I could go on about for hours, but let’s keep things snappy and start off with some of my personal highlights from the season.  These include episodes such as The Wolf of Wharf Street, The Hurt Soccer, and The Bleakening (the hour-long musical Christmas episode). Halloween specials are always fun, and The Wolf of Wharf Street is no exception. From Linda and the kid’s adventurous outing to Teddy’s werewolf shenanigans, this episode was a riot through and through. Louise’s experience with team sports in The Hurt Soccer is potentially one of the funniest episodes of the entire show as a whole. Everything from Tina’s exuberant coaching to Bob’s reluctant insistence about Louise’s participation is just pitch-perfect writing – in terms of comedy and character. And that Christmas special… what other show could pull off an hour-long musical episode while still maintaining the same wit and tight storytelling as usual? This season also featured some incredibly wacky side characters played by guest stars like Adam Driver, Jack McBrayer, Thomas Middleditch, Fred Savage and Vanessa Bayer.

Bob’s Burgers has officially been gracing our television screens for approximately eight years now. A lot has been written about the decline of other long-running animated shows as they grow in age. There’s definitely some merit to this kind of criticism, as a show that is on the air for a long while can quickly blow through their best episode ideas and end up retreading worn-out storylines. In my professional opinion, however, Bob’s Burgers is in no danger of this at present. We may have watched the Belcher family go through hell and high water together plenty of times, but it hasn’t gotten old yet. There are probably a lot of reasons why, but the big ones are most certainly the characters. Characters like Bob, Louise, and especially Tina have become beloved for a multitude of reasons, including their humor, pathos, and relatability. This season took a lot of crazy risks and pushed the boundaries of what fans expected.

Regardless of how fans may complain about FOX’s treatment of the show (taking it off the air for weeks in favor of sporting events), one thing I love is how predictably short the hiatuses are for their animated shows. We only have a few months to survive before a shiny new ninth season will greet us in October. Season eight delivered everything that I’ve come to love about the show while pushing it to new heights in episodes like the hour-long musical special. I expect that the next season will only bring bigger and better things, and I say bring it on!