Bob's Burgers - Thoughts

I don’t quite remember exactly, but I think I was watching promo trailers and came to know of Bob’s Burgers a little before it aired. Realizing that it was from the makers of other fab shows like Family Guy and American Dad, I couldn’t wait to see it. The premise being a family run restaurant, and the dynamic of the odd couple and their crazy children; add to that several double meaning puns and comments in the dialog. I finally waited till the show aired and Season 1 was done, to get my hands on it and check it out.

Expecting for the similar brand of stupid funny as with the totally awesome Family Guy, I watched episode 1 of season 1 of Bob’s Burgers. At the end I realized that it lived up to 50% of my expectation; that being, the stupid part! The characters were annoying not funny, and the plot of each episode, extremely vague and mediocre. Though there is some character development, it takes patience to get through the episodes, and more importantly all the characters are downright boring. As someone who is quite accommodating to content not exactly matching my specific tastes, I still feel that this was lame to the point of being retarded. I normally write my reviews once I complete the season, but with Bob’s Burgers, getting to episode 5 in itself has been an effort, and I expect to drop this show like a bad habit. Even if you have free time, I’d recommend playing tic-tac-toe with yourself, over wasting your time on this. Frankly just about anything beats watching Bob’s Burgers.

Bob plays the central character in the show; the dad and the chef in the restaurant. While he is presented as pretty plain, he is possibly the best character of the lot. While relatively better, he is otherwise forgettable. Linda his wife fits a stereotype that is synonymous to a nut-job, and is more like someone in their 70’s going through their second childhood. Tina is never funny, and the attempt to make her character funny just comes across as pathetic. Louise is acceptable, but reminds me for most part of someone who suffers from a personality disorder. Gene is over the top, like most of the other character on this show, and perhaps can be seen as a little entertaining. While some of these character trait elements may have worked, the mix and setting in this show just doesn't.

The content I was sampling was a lossy XviD rip, the source being HDTV telecast. The files weighed in at 175 MB for approximately 22 minutes episodes. While normally this would be average to just about acceptable bitrate, with the solid colors and animation scheme used in the show, quality was pretty sufficient. Resolution was a little under DVD specs, but video was pretty decent throughout. Sound was presented by means of a stereo 2.0 mp3 soundtrack. Owing to the simple voice and occasional background music mix, dialog was clear throughout. Technically the show is not at all demanding and well suited for high compression rips and portable media player viewing.  

My Recommendation: Skip It (An everyday setting that’s mundane, annoying, and far from funny)