A quick review of tonight's “Bob's Burgers” coming up just as soon as I sing about having a head for business and a bod for sin(*)…
I don't really have anything insightful to say on the subject of “Word Hard or Die Trying, Girl.” It represents so much of what Loren Bouchard and company do well, particularly in how it blends their love of both musical parody and the pop culture of the 1980s with the manic enthusiasm of Gene and Louise (or the more elliptical enthusiasm of Tina) to create something weird and wonderful and hilarious. Of course Gene's “Die Hard” musical is terrible. Of course his rival's “Working Girl” musical is even worse. Yet they and the show throw themselves into the concept – and into the outstanding improvised mash-up of the two plays at the end – like it's the greatest idea anyone has ever had, which is how it ultimately feels.
Mainly, I wanted to acknowledge the genius of “Bob's Burgers” when I had the chance. Like James Poniewozik, I tend to save the show as a treat to watch after I've cleaned my plate of things I have to watch for work – and since the plate is so rarely clean, it often takes me weeks or months before I've scene certain episodes. (But those mini-marathon days are the best.) FOX made this one available in advance, and I of course couldn't resist the Gen X pandering, which gave me an opportunity to shine a brief light on the best of FOX's current animated comedies. So much fun.
What did everybody else think?
(*) Also, the episode made me think back on the very strange career arc of Melanie Griffith, who got a lot of critical buzz from “Something Wild,” then became a huge movie star – and an Oscar nominee – for “Working Girl,” before the moviegoing public decided that they really only liked her in that one role. It was brief, but for those seven seconds where she says the famous line to Harrison Ford, she was everything. I wonder if she'll be watching this episode at some point, and maybe even ponder staging her own musical version. I suppose she'd have to play the Sigourney Weaver role, though.