Review: Bob’s Burgers “For Whom the Doll Toes” - Bubbleblabber

Overview

Louise stages a murder mystery in a creepy old dollhouse.

Our Take

When I saw that producer Simon Chong was directing this week’s episode and show creator Loren Bouchard came up with the story for “For Whom the Doll Toes” I was like, this must be a big deal episode, these two are at the top of the food chain in the world of Bob’s Burgers, certainly, this week’s episode must be a big deal. Given that this is an episode to help celebrate Halloween, I had my hopes up. Kind of like when I was a kid, I opened up a X-mas present that I thought was something cool…only to find clothes.

“For Whom the Doll Toes” is an interesting title that rather succinctly tells the tale of the entire plot of this episode. Louise concocts a whodunnit mystery with dolls to explain away a conversation she overhead Gene and his friends were having about camel toes and an eventual reason as to why Gene wasn’t invited to a party. The dolls were Louise’s best way to soften the blow that she thought was going to be a sudden shock of disappointment by Gene only to learn that if she just told the story from the get-go it would’ve probably have been fine.

It’s actually a fantastic premise for the episode, and in some respects the producers nailed some of the qualities that I thought we were going to get for a perfect “10” episode that would’ve had to have been put up for Emmy recognition. Instead, the series gets in its own way. For starters, we had this terrible B-story of what Teddy was up to while everyone is at the dollhouse putting on a show which only led to constant interruptions. Next, I’m not even crazy about how Simon directed a lot of the episode, using a lot of 50/50 shots with the dolls and the kids instead of staying focused in the doll world which I think would’ve been more fun and original, not unlike what it looked like the epilogue was doing. That may not all be on Simon, there could be a fair amount of criticism of whomever thought we should be taking breaks from Louise’s doll story be it interruptions from the adults or Teddy.

For me, I would’ve liked to have seen a far-more focused effort on the doll house and the story that was being told. It’s something that was becoming increasingly so during the course of the show, but then we kept pulling back, pulling back, pulling back. Like, just let Louise, arguably the show’s most popular character, tell her story we didn’t need to keep checking on everybody every five minutes.

That’s not to say the episode wasn’t fun, it was, but I felt like “For Whom the Doll Toes” could have been an all-timer. Like getting clothes on Christmas, but at least being happy with the fact you were getting nice clothes. But, damn, we were this close to a diamond. Next time we get promised a dollhouse murder mystery, GIVE US ONE!

John is the Chief Editor and Founder of Bubbleblabber.com. While at first a part-time project, Bubbleblabber quickly grew into a full-fledged operation and officially became a company in 2014. When John isn't running a business full-time, he likes to go to concerts with your mother.