Bob's Burgers - "Mother Daughter Laser Razor" - Review

Few shows can manage to be weird, funny, and sentimental all at once; Bob’s Burgers does it successfully in almost every single episode.

The series embraces its characters, and their quirks. It shows them at their worse, but never presumes to judge them. In fact, the crazier, weirder, less sympathetic places it takes the Belcher family, somehow the better the, funnier, and more emotionally resonant the show is capable of being.

"Mother Daughter Laser Razor" is all about parent’s relationships with their kids. The two storylines highlight the relationships between Linda and Louise, as well as Bob and Tina. And it explores the love we have for our family and the lengths will go to either make eachother happy or get something from them. Ultimately the Belchers underneath all the quirkiness are one of the most realistically drawn families on television. Their relations with eachother, their dynamics with one another, and their love in spite of all the crap they put eachother through fuel many of the series best episodes. 

When Linda feels as though Louise doesn’t like her, she becomes increasingly desperate to win her over. Louise being her manic self isn’t making it any easier for her. She refuses to hang up the collage poster her mother made for her. She won’t listen to the bed time story, hiding her head under the pillow. Linda keeps turning to “Phenomena Ma”; a website that gives suggestions on how to be a good mother, but it’s only proving to strain Louise and Linda’s relationship even more. Linda “kidnaps” Louise and takes her to a mother-daughter seminar run by the “Phenomena Ma” (who as it turns out is a man who seems weirdly into women empowerment). Louise is unsurprisingly uncooperative, but buys into the whole ordeal after getting bribed by her mother (who’s competitiveness comes out when the Phenomena Ma notes there’s a “Most Valuable Mother” award to be had). When Linda’s bribing becomes apparent, Louise and Logan (the kid from the biker episode “Ear-sy Rider”) are thrown into the “Utero-Room” (where Freaky Friday is played on loop and rather amusingly starts to get to Logan) in order to learn a lesson. While Louise is scheming to get out, Linda becomes obsessively competitive with Logan’s mom for the best mother award. Eventually Louise uses a fake belly ache to lure the parents into the room before turning the tables on them and locking them in there. The kids head over to the next door laser tag building, and  soon after the parents catch up to them. At which point Bob’s Burgers shines, the parents and kids are fighting eachother in laser tag, Phenomena Ma is freaking out at his failures, and Louise and Linda make up in hilarious, heartwarming fashion. “That’s for taking me to the momgina monologues” Louise yells as she shoots her with the laser tag gun. Linda breaks down and tells her that she feels as if Louise doesn’t like her. The combination of Kristen Schaal and John Roberts’s voice acting and the animation sell this emotional moment where Louise lets her mother know that of course she likes her. The Belchers may get upset with one another, but it’s doubtful they could ever not like one another. 

In fact, as the B-plot demonstrates, the Belchers are willing to go to great lengths for one another. Tina, cornered by peer pressure, decides to shave her legs for the first time. However, with her mom to busy being crazy over her relationship with Louise, it’s up to Bob to help her confront her hairy legs. But Bob refuses to shave them himself, and so he takes her to get her legs waxed. Tina becomes really scared at the prospect once there, and Bob for the love of his daughter agrees to get his legs waxed with her. It’s moments like this and the one described earlier between Linda and Louise that truly sell the show. It’s never really doubted that these characters love eachother. They’re weird; they’re crazy; they’re unorthodox. But with a Simpsons-like emotional, character heart beating underneath all the quirk on the surface (as well as sharing a similar type and amount of humor as early seasons of The Simpsons), the series continually elevates itself above other shows. So Bob gets his legs shaved and oddly enough loves the new freedom it provides his legs; while Tina freaks out and misses her “hairy little friends” (there’s even a weirdly awesome Terminator 2 apocalypse dream sequence where her leg hairs talk to her before going up in flames). But Bob comforts her and lets her know its okay.  

It’s all very funny, and emotionally touching. There’s not a character moment out of place, and once again the series proves itself to be one of the best series on television. 

Stray Observations:

-“Dad’s the witch … but just pretend … right, Dad?” –So much of Tina’s humor is sold by Dan Mintz’s brilliant voice acting, which is so wonderfully understated and subtle that often Tina’s jokes are blink and you miss them.

-Linda going into Louise’s bedroom to wake her up and read the kid’s book is wonderful for how quickly it devolves into the two of them yelling at eachother.

-“Gene hide my legs!” and Gene spider monkey clings to them. Great sight gag.

-I love how Gene is in the bathroom when Linda was attempting to shave Tina’s legs. The Belcher’s are so comfortable with one another and who they are that it’s not strange at all that Gene is there for it.

-“I’ve been kidnapped!” Louise tells a passing stranger once she finds out that her mother has brought her to a mother-daughter seminar. The woman looks hilariously very seriously concerned.

-“This is gonna be the hardest money I’ve ever earned” ”Unless you become a hooker”

-The moms are yelling “estrogen” at Phenomena Ma’s request. Louise’s reaction: “Oh, dear”.

-The beer funnels with the gas masks used as “umbilical cords” was another great sight gag. And they’re giving them milk through is. (Louise obviously refuses; Linda: “Open that fetus mouth!”). How crazy is that? I don’t even get what that’s trying to teach.

-The person at the massage parlor is really happy that she has to wax Tina’s legs and not any part of really hairy Bob.

-Tina’s progressive “Uh huh”s showing her increased hesitation at getting her legs waxed was so funny.

-“Role playing is gonna cost ya” “Not until I see some results”

-“Did you just fart on my seminar?”

-Logan on Freaky Friday: “The logic of this movie is very unsettling”

-Linda sings: “Where is the hair? There is the hair. Where is Harry Truman” – The series has mined Linda’s love of singing (and pretty badly) beautifully.

-“I killed my friendly leg hairs”

-“I’m a sheep. A hairless sheep”

-Logan’s full name: Logan Berry Bush. “We didn’t think it through”
-Gene feels left out not getting his legs waxed, and so they end up doubling back.
-The intercut between Louise and Logan screaming at Freaky Friday, and Bob and Tina screaming getting their legs waxed was great.

Grade: A

What did everyone else think?