1x02 Crawl Space

[7.3/10] It’s really interesting going back and watching these early episodes of Bob’s Burgers. The show was a little cruder and a little meaner than it later became, definitely more in the mold of an Adult Swim show than the weird-but-warm sitcom it developed into. You can mainly see that in Bob here. Choosing to hide in the walls for days rather than deal with his in-laws and calling Linda “Nagatha Christie” doesn’t really feel like the occasionally annoyed but largely tolerant husband and father we’d come to know and love.

Still, it’s a good bit and a funny episode. The homage to The Shining brings a lot of laughs and weird scenarios. It’s our first introduction to Tina cross-pollinating her childhood fear of zombies via Night of the Living Dead and her early teenage desires, resulting in dreams of zombies making out. It’s the first time we see Teddy in action (I think), and his dynamic with Bob is already pretty good! It’s also a great Frond episode, with Louise manipulating him and him going overboard as usual.

But there’s a solid story here too. Bob learns to appreciate his mother-in-law a bit when she helps save the family from Frond’s overzealous counseling, and the notion that family can make you a little crazy sometimes is a sweet moral. There’s also plenty of good side gags and odd bits that display the show’s quirkiness.

Overall, this episode still feels like a proto-version of what the show would become down the road, but there’s a lot of good stuff in it despite that, and you can see the roots of things that would blossom down the line.