With “All That Gene,” Bob’s Burgers pulls off its most difficult task, and the clue is in the name: This is a really, really good episode all about Gene. Much of why Gene is the hardest Belcher to build stories around is on display here, starting with the fact that he’s always on to the point of obnoxiousness. Tonight’s episode digs into what it would mean for Gene to try his hand at performing and be completely, unequivocally rejected. Until now, his forays into acting and other performing activities like cheerleading have all happened at Wagstaff, where his more-is-more approach has the perfect audience in, well, middle schoolers. But here he’s joined the cast of the closest thing the town has to legitimate theater, a production of A Potluck In The Grass by Alabama O’Callahan—which are truly wondrous fake show and playwright names, respectively. The harsh response of Donovan, the show’s director turned de facto star, to Gene’s antics is enough to break the spirit of the most boisterous Belcher, leaving Linda to fix the mess she inadvertently created.
That’s the other thing that makes “All That Gene” remarkable. It’s not just an excellent Gene episode, it’s an excellent Linda episode, too. Indeed, while Gene’s love of his particular notion of performing is at the heart of the story, he isn’t the character who drives the plot forward. That’s his mom, who saves his failed audition by promising Donovan that she will sell out all 50ish remaining tickets for the show’s opening night and work as a stagehand. Unlike most instances where Linda is dazzled by even the dimmest of bright lights, here she keeps her focus squarely on supporting Gene, whatever it takes.
The only slight problem is Gene’s completely unsuitability for the role of Quiet Eli, which is why she had to make such outrageous promises in the first place. This is Linda operating with the very best of intentions, but being caught even in a well-intentioned lie undermines the whole foundation of her relationship with her son, which is being completely, over-the-top supportive of everything he does. The sad thing is, there’s no reason to think Linda isn’t sincere when she tells Gene that he’s a better singer than Adele. I have zero issue believing that that’s something she believes. But even the most ludicrously sweet, maple syrup-soaked treat can’t repair that trust once it’s shattered. It’s only when she convinces him that the Gene Show is exactly what she and the show’s elderly audience most want to see that Gene pulls out of his funk.
Those are some pretty serious stakes, especially for the two loudest, zaniest Belchers. That’s a big part of why “All That Gene” works, as it doesn’t treat the idea of Gene or Linda having complex feelings as too ridiculous to contemplate. Previous, superficially similar episodes have made that mistake. The flawed “Gene It On” is this episode’s most obvious forerunner, and it illustrates this issue perfectly. Gene has some feelings about cheerleading, but they are way less strong than those of his rival, as though the show can’t quite imagine Gene properly caring about something—other than a talking toilet, I guess, that’s been clearly established. Linda meanwhile, is so caught up in reliving her nonexistent past glories that she loses all sight of anyone else, least of all Gene. I don’t come away from that episode with a sense of Linda and Gene as mother and son, whereas “All That Gene” is entirely concerned with that.
As such, the episode is happy to lean on the other characters for a lot of its gags. Mr. Ambrose is the ideal familiar local to show up in the community theater production, especially one as complicatedly horny as this one is. His lack of filter and tendency to narrate events from his own unique world—his being a Billy Eichner character, in other words—are a ready source of gags, plus he’s an entirely logical candidate to spill the truth about Linda and Donovan’s deal to Gene for no reason beyond, well, why wouldn’t he? It’s also great to see the return of Sharon Horgan’s Kathleen, the widowed Irish accountant who may be a little sweet on Teddy, and in whom Teddy is brutally, hilariously unsubtle in his affections. I believe this is the first time a theoretical love interest for Teddy has made a return appearance, at least once you eliminate the murderous one. Whereas previous episodes that have delved into Teddy’s romantic life have made that the main focus, here it’s a tiny side plot, which almost feels like progress for the poor guy. At least this episode doesn’t have to call into question the very existential possibility of him dating someone—though given how hilariously atrocious he is at as little as saying hi to Kathleen, maybe that does still bear revisiting.
Before wrapping up, let’s take a second and sketch out the Belcher family’s various combinations, because it speaks to what’s so good about this episode. Most stories that divide the family do so along generational lines, with the adults getting one story and the kids getting the other. When the show wants to explore the specific character dynamics, these are all well-defined. It’s easy to contrast the impulsive, happy-go-lucky Linda with the cautious, perpetually tired Bob, as it is with any one of the kids and the other two, depending on who is getting the story’s focus. When the show mixes and matches kids with adults, we’ve seen the show mine stories from how Bob struggles to relate to Gene and how Linda doesn’t always connect with Tina or especially Louise. Both the Belcher daughters connect well with Bob—again, Louise is the more extreme case here—and those pairings have given the show some of its most fertile terrain to explore. In the case of tonight’s episode, that admittedly is just a joyful obsession with tweaking Bob’s love handles, which is about as slight as side stories get but still does everything it needs to do. It helps that H. Jon Benjamin’s yelps are so funny, as is Bob’s efforts to avoid any such further attacks.
The one big under-explored connection then is Gene and Linda. We know from various episodes that these two are close, with Gene seeing so much of his love of performing in his mom’s exuberance. But what does that bond mean when it leaves the confines of the Belcher residence? It’s taken 10 seasons for the show to really dig into that question, which has to be some sort of testament to how tricky Gene and Linda episodes are. Even here, the episode keeps it simple at the end. Neither Linda nor Gene necessarily learns anything from their journey like, say, Louise did with Bob way back in “Carpe Museum.” Here, rather, the point is just to reaffirm that these two make perfect sense together, and that whatever disappointments or rejections Gene might encounter, his mom is always going to support him 100 percent. Those two are happy to be weirdoes together, and honestly, that’s a beautiful note to end on. The smile on Gene’s face when he realizes his mom really does believe in him is one of the purest moments of emotion we’ve seen from him in the show’s entire run. That look alone justifies the episode’s journey up to that point. That “All That Gene” has a ton of fun jokes along the way is a hell of a bonus.
Stray observations
- Teddy still believes the family’s last name is Burgers. Teddy is the best.
- “He’s so handsome.” “Great body…” Linda and Bob, appreciators of the Rock.
39 Comments
I love Gene and Linda. I don’t think either are “tricky” characters. There have been plenty of Gene-centric episodes and Linda-centric episodes that rank amongst my favorite. The characters’ more outgoing, confident attitudes towards life perfectly complement the other Belchers; take either of them away and the show isn’t nearly as good. As for episodes that pair off Gene and Linda successfully, I can think of several, but the one that stands out for me as “the obvious forerunner” isn’t “Gene It On” (Gene and Linda aren’t even really paired off in that one—Bob is present in every scene that they share and Gene spends most of his scenes with the cheer squad, sans Linda). It’s “The Hurt Soccer”—you know, the one where they perform together and become involved in local theater—and it was great, heartwarming stuff.As for “Gene It On,” I wouldn’t call it “flawed” just because it doesn’t involve those same emotional stakes, like Gene not really caring about cheerleading, especially since his lack of interest is foregrounded from the beginning. Tina was the one trying out for cheerleading originally, and when the cheer squad tries to recruit Gene instead with promises of attention and popularity, his responses (“Got it. Don’t need it.”) set up the punchline when they add “cheer shorts” as an incentive (“I’m in.”). I also wouldn’t fault the episode for Linda’s myopic focus on living vicariously through her children—first Tina, then Gene when he makes the squad and Tina doesn’t—again, that’s what’s foregrounded from the very beginning of the episode (that’s the joke, in other words). In both cases, Gene and Linda get swept up in something that Tina originally wanted for herself, and Tina being swept aside after literally biting her tongue sets up the great b-plot with Louise acting as her “interpreter” for (of course) self-serving reasons. Structurally all of this works together to set up some pretty great jokes throughout, and both plots—the cheer squad and Tina’s Louise-assisted date with Jimmy, Jr.—pay off. Saying that an episode is flawed because it doesn’t go down some very specific road that you wanted it to in service of a flawed premise (that the show usually regards “Gene or Linda having complex feelings as too ridiculous to contemplate”—don’t even get me started on that bullshit) is unfair.
You know, for all the AV Club has declined and the way the great kinjaing decimated the comment section, I still love that this is the only website where I can see a three-paragraph comment about the plotlines and emotional arcs of a cartoon and not roll my eyes while making a jerk off motion.
Yeah, I wrote that at what was 7 a.m. for me, and I might have been a little cranky before having my morning coffee. I stand by it, though. The AV Club—despite all of its many soul-crushing faults post-Kinja—is still the one pop culture site that I frequent with any regularity, and Bob’s Burgers is probably in my top 10 all-time favorite shows. So I get a little over-the-top passionate about it, and this isn’t the first time that the whole Gene-and-Linda-are-difficult-characters thing has served as a premise for one of Wilkins’s reviews. It just rubs me the wrong way, I guess.
Nah, you didn’t go too far at all. I genuinely meant that this comment was well and good, specifically not something that makes me roll my eyes.
That’s three in-depth paragraphs.We watch every week and often watch the reruns. I don’t know any episode by name except my favorite, “Broadcast Wagstaff News,” which I only know cuz someone on here told me. (It’s the one where Gene imitates Bob and also Mad Pooper.)
The only ep title I know is “Sheesh, cab Bob?” because it’s both a great episode and a fucking ridiculous title, but in a good way
Knocking a piece of entertainment because it doesn’t go down some very specific road that the writer wanted it to is pretty much the main form of critique across this network’s sites.
I do sometimes find Gene a bit much (he’s hilarious in small doses, but can overwhelm me if the whole episode is about him), while Linda is always great, but an episode that focuses on the two of them together is definitely a risky one for me. This one, however, had it all: great laughs, genuine sweetness, true-to-character behaviour. I found it was interesting for the show to finally confront head on that Gene is not for everyone, and that’s okay.
This comment and all its replies sums up perfectly why not even Kinja can make me leave this site.
Yup, the way the show handled this plot was pretty wonderful. Part of growing up includes disappointment, and also figuring out that you’re not the center of the universe. And maybe also actually getting good at something, rather than just goofing off all the time (which, as the article notes, isn’t usually recognized as Gene trait.)But Linda and Gene’s relationship is so focused on Gene as a really little kid that Linda tends to infantilize him, and nurture that kid-instinct (I remember Gene once even wondered if he could have just stayed in the womb). But yet Gene is at that age where a person is pulled in two directions – to either work on becoming an adult, or stay ‘safe’ and protected as a child. This story line allowed for some growth, but also kept that earlier Gene-Linda dynamic intact.
see, I think the episode actually undercut that growth by allowing gene’s inherent obnoxiousness to save the day. gene has been shown to be a genuinely talented kid, albeit one obsessed with food and farts, but it’d have been nice for gene to save the day by actually acting half of the parts in a now two man play rather than doing the worm with his shirt off.gene didn’t really grow in this episode at all; as soon as he realized that yeah, he is annoying and loud and sometimes you have to dial that back to accomplish cool things, the episode flipped on its ear to let gene be gene and save the day.
Kind of a cop-out imo
I was looking for the same resolution you were – Gene saving the day by playing half the roles because he had absorbed everyone’s lines during rehearsals and proving himself a bit of a theatre savant by going “less”. That being said, I wasn’t disappointed with him going full-Gene and receiving validation for it. I honestly think the lesson of “sometimes less is more” took, and if anything he’s learned that there’s a time and place for it. It was also really nice to see Linda being full-on supportive of her son in all his Gene-ness.
Yeah, but at the end of the day Bob’s Burgers is a show that embraces and celebrates weirdness and it would have been out of character for the show not to allow Gene’s weirdness to save the day. Remember the town they live in is full of weirdos.
Also, the play as presented in its original form looked kind of awful. I think the director is one of those guys who thinks he does important work and can’t see that no one cares about his terrible play.
He was starting to save the day, but we also don’t know what happened after the table collapsed a few minutes into the show.
The episode where Gene was trying to get back into the womb was the second one ever. I only know this because I just started a rewatch. Binged the first three seasons in a week. Can highly recommend in these trying times.
Has it been ten seasons already?Here’s hoping they can stay good and relevant and interesting for many more.
I’M QUIET ELI!!!!!
I too enjoyed the (sort of) risks this episode took with Gene and Linda burger
I think it might speak to how many of these reviews that I’ve read that at some point during the episode I actually thought “hey, there are some real stakes in this episode”. Also having been a pit musician for several local theatre productions (including a musical where literally 1/3 of the cast came down with the flu during the run), the cast rundown was not inaccurate.
So you have experienced times where most of a production’s cast got the “horny flu”?
Less “horny flu” and more just a “close quarters/sharing water bottles” cold, although there was one production where a child was conceived by people married to other people.
And that baby grew up to be Andrew Lloyd Webber. And now you know the rest of the story.
“This counts as me mopping”
Linda and Gene not reacting at all to Teddy saying their last name is Burgers was the best.
I think the whole family’s just given up on correcting him on that.
Whoa… I thought it was nearly the worst episode of Bob’s Burgers I’d seen; it made me genuinely feel regret for recently recommending the show to a friend, because I don’t want someone watching that Stooge-ish episode and thinking I found it funny/entertaining/tolerable. The only element of this review with which I agree is the two stray observations – those were amusing. Bob and Billy Eichner were the only other redeeming qualities of this episode. Having Gene win the day with the most awful, over-the-top, stupid (not even cute) antics was a cop-out and smacked of someone running out of time in the writing room.
Great episode. I don’t necessarily think of Linda and Gene as difficult characters myself. Yeah the middle Belcher child was definitely hard to anchor storylines around initially. But the writers got better starting with that ET toilet parody as well as when he and Courtney had a short-lived romance (my favorite Gene episode).I liked when Linda called Gene the next “Lin-Manuel Hamiltons”. Loves to sing and dance but her Broadway knowledge is all muddled.The B-plot was pretty funny too, with Bob chiming “No ticket stubs, no sticking chubs.”
He’s about halfway through when he suddenly realises he’s conflicted about the word “chubs”.
Love The “Burger Family” been an HJB fan ever since Coach McGirk on Home Videos……love the tie-ins with Fam Guy and him voicing Yoda….etc etc….and the Clerk character doing Stand-up “what would it sound like if Bob met Archer, Hey Archer I’m Bob, Hey Bob I’m Archer…” fuckin’ Hilarious.but I digress….Best Gene line ever is prb Bob- “Gene I know you think you’re Helping but……”Gene- “I don’t think I’m helping!”and lastly Love “Billy in the library”…..great supporting voice (to wit they have so many great guest actors too, like Gaffigan and Zach G. I’m not gonna butcher galifinakkis oh wait i did anyway, and Kaitlin Olsen’s were 2 of my fav eps)Good show!
Solid episode and it had much more emotional stakes than I was expecting which they handled great. I’ve got a very minor nitpick though. I just think that there’s no way Gene would blow the audition that bad and be that oblivious to it. He’s totally a theater kid type and would throw himself into that world as opposed to just doing Gene things
Gene always seems to have a pretty clear vision for what he’s going to do, though, and that tends to get him in trouble – in Live Hard or Die Tryin’, Girl and the Itty Bitty Ditty Committee, he has trouble taking direction in a lot of ways. He reminds me of the theatre kid that is all in, but doesn’t necessarily know what they’re doing.
Gene’s ADD is losing me exponentially and this season is doing that no favors
When I read the episode preview, I groaned because Linda/Gene pairings tend to reinforce their mutual obnoxiousness and pushiness. But it stayed well grounded and character driven, not one where Linda and Gene hijack the play with new sets and songs. Bob’s “speech” to Linda about parenting was the fulcrum that kept it from going off the rails, with Linda not digging herself into a bigger hole and Gene not brooding or learning to exercise creative control. I doubt these lessons will hold in future episodes, but oh well.
Bob/Louise/Tina didn’t have much of anything to do, which kind of sucked. Right off the bat, I thought Teddy was going to get more time, but nothing happened with him. The theater guy was pretty blah. But it speaks well of the show that it can put together a decent episode out of elements I don’t particularly care for. Solid story with some genuine characters moments.
I work in theatre and I’ve heard nothing as true as Teddy being told to build a set out of old wood and six nails.“No one told me this had to be structural!”Teddy is literally at least three set shops I’ve dealt with.
This episode was the giant belcher hug I needed when suffering from post vacation blues. I love this family ❤️
Gene and Linda are a good pairing, they never seem to know what to do with him but it makes sense he’s his mother’s son.
“No one willingly buys theater tickets” was my biggest laugh of the night.I’m not usually a big one for Gene episodes, but they nailed this one. It was that perfect ‘Bob’s Burgers’ mix of sweet and funny, and manged it with barely a B-plot.
– Nice use of previously established minor characters- “I love you I hate you I love you but go away but also do that, please!”
– Great as the different kid-parent combos are, I also loved the scene of just Bob and Linda discussing parenting.- Gene’s smile at the end was indeed the sweetest.