Staff Television Critic: Lisa Fernandes, formerly of Firefox.org, has been watching television for all of her thirty-plus years, and critiquing it for the past seven. When she's not writing, she can be found in the wilds of the Northeastern United States.
Jake and Rosa compete for bragging rights with a pair of Swedish cops when they’re assigned to an international case after arresting a petty thief who turns out to have stolen a priceless royal Stockholm jewel. While trying to prove their closeness, their more competent Swedish counterparts trace the jewels back to the ring of thieves who originally swiped it, while Rosa and Jake manage to track down nothing but fresh fish.
The Countess mourns the disappearance of Natascha and Valentino, and declares her total independence – which she knows she must reach through Will’s death, though March and Miss Evers try to stop the big day from happening - Liz as well – but Will goes through with the ceremony and soon finds himself meeting Elizabeth’s horrifying monster child, her very dead first husband and her very hungry ex-lover.
With all of the kids on winter break, enjoying the delights and incredible wonders of “A Christmas Story”, Beverly starts to feel the pinch from the overwhelming, all-looming delights of Christmas, especially as represented by their super-Christian neighbors, the Kemps.
This week, Amanda finally closes in on Ash as the gang makes a stop to eat. Ash is, meanwhile, unwisely spending his time trying to attract the sexual favors of a married waitress who (gasp) isn’t into him in an attempt at paying off their bills, and meets up with an old friend who’s into survival and Pablo tells Kelly about the sexual advances she made while under the influence of Deadite possession.
For this year’s Advent Calendar, I thought I’d start off by reviewing the now-classic Bob’s Burgers episode “God Rest Ye Merry Gentle-Mannequins.” Most of the show’s Christmas episodes, from the iconic “Christmas in the Car” to last year’s touching “Father of the Bob” centralize the action on the Belcher clan and their calamitous but rock-solid familial connection.
After his unfortunate encounter with the young vampire Wren, John finally zeroes in on the Ten Commandments Killer thanks to Sally…and it turns out the guy was under his nose the whole time. I’m sure all of you can guess where the show was going with this just from watching the season as a whole, but let me sum it up.
Gloria accidentally wins a family seminar at a school auction (she’d intended to bid on another package, one for a home organizer according to Jay, but wasn’t wearing her glasses at the time), which sends the entire Pritchett-Tucker-Dunphy clan into an embarrassed tailspin.
As we all know by now, Bev’s smother skills are legendary. So when Barry – inspired by the movie Top Gun and Tom Cruise’s toothy coolness – decides to join the ROTC and experience a taste of the military world she forbids him to participate, as it conflicts with the long list of jobs she’d prefer her children avoid.
Homage (adj) – an event in a piece of entertainment that references an event in another piece of entertainment, often a popular one. Or: French for rip-off.
Terry and Rosa head off on a business trip to Riker’s Island to interview a suspect, leaving Jake to look after Sharon, Terry’s very pregnant wife. Tasked with having to keep her apart from Holt (who she gets creeped out by due to his well-meaning bluntness), he enlists a birth-phobic Gina to assist, and the isolation seems to work in the temporary - but all of their plans go awry when Sharon goes into labor sooner than expected.