Poor Tina. All she wants is to be the perfect big fish to Kaylee, the nerdy fourth grader placed under her weeklong tutelage. That surely isn’t that much to ask, right? Right!? Yet that just isn’t going to happen, as the two utterly fail to hit it off. “A Fish Called Tina” gives us a good old-fashioned descent into madness story for the eldest Belcher, one in which the only person who really gets hurt is Tina herself—well, her and the floor of Mr. Frond’s office. It would be scary watching Tina lose it like this if we couldn’t feel so confident that her cockamamie plans to force bonding with Kaylee wouldn’t end as they do, with her spilling chili all over her shirt and dousing herself with a shaken-up soda. Tina is bad at being a good big fish, as this episode makes painfully clear, but at least she’s also bad at being a bad big fish as well.
“A Fish Called Tina” is a solid episode. It fits squarely into the category of Bob’s Burgers story where the main plot is literally only important to the person at its center, as Tina alone cares about proving herself the perfect mentor. We’ve seen meltdown episodes like this many times—“Burgerboss” is an early classic in that category—and episodes like that tend to be best when the featured character’s pointless obsession dovetails with other characters’ marginally more normal pursuits. In that earlier episode, that took the form of Bob’s gaming obsession colliding with the kids’ desire to crash parties and Linda’s dream of joining the yacht club. Here, no one else especially wants anything beyond getting through the week, so there’s a lot of backing away slowly and letting Tina spiral before Louise finally steps up. That’s still a decent formula, but it doesn’t hit the comedic highs of the show when it’s willing to get a little wilder and more cacophonous.
There’s still a lot to enjoy, and a big part of the fun of this episode lies in its recognizing a simple fact of the show’s world-building: We have met a lot of eighth graders and a lot of fourth graders, so why not pair a bunch of them up and see what happens? So we get Arnold, the tiny karate enthusiast voiced by Damon Wayons Jr., bonding over high fives with Jimmy Jr. and helping his big fish grow in ways he couldn’t have expected. We get Regular-Sized Rudy wondering within about a half-hour whether he and Zeke might be soulmates. We get Harley, not the brightest bulb in the fourth grade, paired with Jocelyn, who makes the former look like a genius by comparison. “A Fish Called Tina” can only spend so much time on any of these threads, as the focus remains on the Belchers with Tina and her little fish Kaylee and, to a much lesser extent, Louise and her big fish Tammy.
But all these quick-hit jokes work because the show has built enough familiarity with those characters that these particular interactions don’t need much to land gags. Even with a recent addition to the ensemble like Arnold, Jimmy Jr. is such a bighearted doofus that it instantly makes sense he would bond with this little kid. Zeke and Rudy make such perfectly absurd sense together, a pair with completely different backgrounds and dispositions yet who are united in their hidden depths and desire to see the good in everything and everyone—they also both have some vague unresolved thing with the respective Belcher sister in their grade, if we’re charting all possible parallels. It makes sense they would hit it off then, and generally it makes sense that Zeke specifically would end up being presented as the good contrast to Tina’s flailing efforts as a big fish. While Tina is obsessed with creating the perfect experience just as she remembered it four years ago with Madison, Zeke can’t help but go with the flow and be his spontaneous, irrepressible self. Lesson for us all there, really.
While she doesn’t get as much to do as her sister, Louise is handled well here, as it remains a simple thrill to see her act not like just a little kid. Her efforts to help Tammy fool her cousin that she’s in the Caribbean are better than what Tammy herself would have come up with, but that’s not a high bar. The sunward shot from the sandy beach is pretty good, but it’s only after completing the snorkeling photo shoot that Louise realizes the fish are upside down—and she never seems to clock that Tammy apparently went swimming in her regular clothes. This relatively normal behavior from Louise makes it all the more effective at the end where she grabs the mic and tells her sister the truth she needs to hear: Tina has been an amazing big fish to her all these years, and if Kaylee isn’t interested in that, that’s as much her loss as it is anything to do with Tina. That’s a worthwhile lesson, one that actually hits with greater impact because the episode waits until the very end to articulate it. Kaylee isn’t under any obligation to hit it off with Tina, but that can simply be because they weren’t a good fit instead of anything being wrong with either of them.
More generally, “A Fish Called Tina” is a good illustration of how Bob’s Burgers has developed its storytelling muscles to avoid an episode like this getting mean-spirited. Yes, Tina loses all perspective on what this week was supposed to be, and she fails again and again to take the hint that Kaylee just isn’t interested in having a fish-to-fish relationship with her. The episode doesn’t shy away from the fact that she’s being ridiculous, but the key thing is that she wasn’t wrong to want that kind of connection with Kaylee in the first place. The scene where she seeks out her old big fish Madison at Caboose Kabob. A grimmer version of this episode would give us a Madison who doesn’t remember Tina or anything about their time together, or perhaps even a Madison who reveals she never cared about being a big fish and thinks the whole thing is stupid. But, nope, Madison is just a normal, still kind high school senior who is a little too intent on asking customers what she can put in their caboose. She gives good, honest advice, and it’s not on her that Tina is too far gone to listen.
“A Fish Called Tina” ends up illustrating a key idea of Bob’s Burgers: The Belchers are rarely more foolish than when trying to make something perfect happen, and rarely wiser than when they recognize they already have the actual version of what they want. Bob falls into that trap every Thanksgiving, Linda has managed it in all sorts of contexts, and now it’s their elder daughter’s turn. At least her siblings are there for her, even if it takes more office vomit and spilled deception chili than strictly ideal for Tina to realize she’s a great big fish after all.
Stray observations
- Yeah, Bob and Linda’s story gets bumped to the strays this week. Theirs is a really funny, simple story, with Ben Schwartz perfect as a fitness jerk and their next-day soreness all too painfully relatable. Really, their entire saga, from initial excitement about unleashing their muscles to grim realization over the money they’ve wasted, is perfect. This is rich enough material to be a whole episode, but it’s all so brutally recognizable it doesn’t really need any more time devoted to it than this to get across all it needs.
- I appreciate how the episode acknowledges upfront how the whole big and little fish concept excludes a sixth grader like Gene, and then has him crash all the key events anyway by pretending to be an eighth grader, which is to say wearing a tie and saying the word “algebra” a lot.
- Sorry for the extreme lateness—I had a nasty case of writer’s block last night.
44 Comments
“Your father and I are both MILF’s now!”
Mommy Is Living Forever.
I love that Louise had to ask what a MILF was, reminding us all that she is still an innocent little girl.
That kind of thing is adorable, like when she hasn’t seen John Wick but knows that they did SOMETHING to a puppy.
This show is so goddamned depressing…
I had a realization the other day. I doubt it will be popular but all I could picture is that in the future, Tina is going to become Gayle. Gene will be like Linda, and Louise will be somewhere between Bob and the old lady at the craft store.
I still maintain that Louise is going to grow up to be Ilana Wexler from Broad City
i can totally see Gene being a very Linda-like adult but i don’t think Tina will end up like Gayle. this may be wishful thinking, because Gayle is, really, the saddest character on the show (beating out Teddy and Frond, IMO). Tina is far more confident (at least usually; this episode definitely showed her more insecure than i think she’s been in a while). But i also think Tina has a lot more drive and resilience (even as a 13 year old) than Gayle. I do think Gayle and Tina may share a similar… artistic sensibility – Gayle’s song about Derek Dematopolous in “Purple Rain-union” is def. some Erotic Friend-fiction in musical form.
I can’t decide if I disagree with you or if the idea of Tina becoming Gayle is just too bleak for me. Tina is awkward, but Gayle is one of those people who flat-out can’t function in society.
I knew it would be unpopular, and it took me several seasons to realize it, but Tina is totally going to be Gayle. Look back to the horse episode. She’s going to just do that with cats.
I know she’s kind of become this icon for girls but I just picture the real world grinding her down until she reaches full Gayle.
Still think Louise will run the burger restaurant and be married to Regular-Sized Rudy, who she will obviously run roughshod over, so now that I think about it maybe that does make her somewhat like the old craft store lady
And I hope that she’d hire Zeke to become a head chef there too.
Tina is not destined to become Gayle. She’s at risk of becoming Gayle. More accurately, she’s one huge college-love-story-gone-awry awa fyrom becoming Gayle.
Is this the first time they acknowledged a business next door that was in the intro?
I feel like I remember it happening at least once before, but I couldn’t tell you what episode or what business.
They did it in last seasons Halloween episode, Nightmare on Ocean Avenue Street, with Bob and Teddy competing against a handyman working at the store next door
They acknowledged those who can-dle candles in season 9s Halloween episode😊
It’s not common, but it happens periodically. There was one with indoor outhouses referenced during the episode, a raccoon sanctuary referenced during the episode, and a Halloween episode where Bob and Teddy got into a decorating war with the owner of the business next door. I may have missed some.
“You’re the worst tenant I have, Bob. And I rent space to a raccoon sanctuary.”“I know, they’re next door to me. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”
The Halloween episode from a couple years back did that as well, with the B-Plot about Teddy and a competitor handyman decorating the neighboring stores with escalating hilarity. I think it was a candle store, if memory serves.
Those Who Can Dle
i think the first one was where bob mentioned the raccoon sanctuary next door while talking with mr. fishoeder.
Much like the show, you appear to be ignoring Mort’s.
Except I’m obviously talking about the one that’s different every episode. Also, Mort’s has been featured a bunch.
Halloween in..8th? The owner gets in a decorating competition with teddy.
I know I will be in the minority, but Tina often just annoys the hell out of me.
“Ooh, wait until Mort and Teddy touch your butt tomorrow!”Literal spit take while taking a drink of water.
I love how Bob seems entirely unfazed by this possibility.
He’s maybe bi. So it checks out.
I’m entirely sure that Bob is bi or pan. Still, that doesn’t necessarily mean you want Teddy slapping your arse.
The thing I most appreciated this episode was how they didn’t try to force an ending where Tina and Kaylee actually bonded. Sometimes you just don’t get along with folks, and that’s OK.
Puberty.
Deception chili!
Tina’s attempts to force a connection were so, so cringey and so, so relatable and I was so, so happy the writers avoided every cliche trap I feared.Also I loved that Louise is like some sort of selfie savant – unexpected but makes perfect sense.
– How adorable is little Tina? Really, any of the Belchers in flashback.- “You wanted to see me again?” “Well, I didn’t *want* to…” I was a little disappointed that the dolls on Frond’s desk were not pertinent to Tina’s specific situation – Overbearin’ Sharon or something like that.
– “and she never seems to clock that Tammy apparently went swimming in her regular clothes” – or that there’s a desk underwater.- Valentine’s episode next week? Hopefully?
Oh right, their annual Valentine’s Day episode! I wonder why it didn’t air the past weekend?
I appreciate how the episode acknowledges upfront how the whole big and
little fish concept excludes a sixth grader like Gene, and then has him
crash all the key events anyway by pretending to be an eighth grader,
which is to say wearing a tie and saying the word “algebra” a lot.
And also gems like this. “I am an eighth grader, now about my pubes”
I’m not saying it’s the funniest joke in this episode, but I totally lost my shit at “Thanquet”.
That was the only thing that made me chuckle at all this ep. This was a B- C+ ep at best, phoning everything in and surprising me not at all once. But! I did love Thankquet!
Tina was really channeling her inner Linda this episode, very reminiscent of Lindas behavior in “The Grand Mama-Pest Hotel” but not nearly as infuriating.
Honestly, I was expecting a plot twist to come up about Tina’s big fish like her treating Tina so nice because she always wanted a little sister or that she was the one who accidentally spilled chille on little Tina. It could’ve made Tina a touch more tolerable since she was really overbearing. I hate it when the show doesn’t really call out characters who do this while framing them as the people who should be sympathetic to.
Not sure why I related so much to the gym plot, but I was literally in tears at the pride in their first session and the resulting soreness the next day. It was all so pitch perfect.
I envy anyone who thinks that it is unrealistic or farfetched to be so sore that you cant stand or lift your arms, legs, or head after working out for a first time. Im 35 and thought I was in shape till a day of playing flag football. I remember having to physically lift my head off my pillow and putting my feet into my shoes using my hands. Never knew you could get that sore
Gene’s episode searching for the goat with two butts is a nice counterpoint to this. He has an ideal of how his journey will work out, but is not concerned when he runs into problems – he just keeps trudging on. Even if they did not find the goat, he would have been ultimately okay (despite an initial despair).