When it first debuted, I thought that Bob’s Burgers was worth keeping an eye on, despite a slow start, because of some appealing writing and the general past level of creator Loren Bouchard’s work. I’m ready to upgrade it now: this show is going on my Season Pass list, and if you haven’t checked it out—or did and passed on it—I urge you to give it a shot.
The premise of the show is pretty much an anti-premise: a man runs a burger restaurant, has a family, laughs ensue. But ensue they do, partly because of the show’s good-natured absurdity (in an early episode, Bob hallucinates himself in a speakeasy bartended by a talking nightlight after he gets trapped inside the building’s walls while escaping his in-laws) and partly because of the strength of the voice acting.H. Jon Benjamin (Archer and numerous past animated shows) is expressive as usual, but Kristen Schall and Eugene Mirman were also excellent choices; they instantly define their characters with her urgent squall (“The Burn Unit is just me and dad!”) and his distinctive deadpan respectively.
This Sunday’s episode (see clip above) did a good job of fleshing out the relationship between Bob and each of his kids, but the previous episode, “Art Crawl,” is a contender for my best-episodes-of-the-year list. A clip appears below–placed after the jump because I could not in good conscience embed a sight gag based on paintings of animal anuses on the main blog page. If this doesn’t convince you to watch Bob’s Burgers, my cause is lost. Just don’t watch while you’re eating:
