Back for its fifth season, Fox’s underdog animated comedy Bob’s Burgers continues to show originality, charm and wit with its premiere episode, “Work Hard Or Die Trying, Girl”.
The episode begins in Counselor Frond’s office at Wagstaff Elementary, in the middle of a conflict between the Belcher family and Gene’s ex, the obnoxious Courtney Wheeler and her father Doug. The nature of their conflict unfolds Rashomon-style, with each Gene and Louise Belcher and Courtney Wheeler recounting – from their own perspective – how they ended up performing competing original school musicals on the same night.
Gene’s show is his passion project Die Hard: The Musical, which is rejected at the school audition and ends up going underground, becoming a one-man performance in the school’s boiler room, as masterminded by Louise Belcher (for profit, of course). Courtney’s play is the suspiciously similar Working Girl: The Musical, which becomes a full-blown production with Courtney’s jingle-writing father Doug pulling the strings. When it is discovered that both plays are occurring simultaneously, and when Gene’s play steals much of Courtney’s audience, tensions rise.
In the end, the children solve the conflict by combining their projects and drumming up a brand new musical at the last second titled Work Hard Or Die Trying, Girl, in which characters and plots from both 80’s films are cleverly brought together for a musical finale.
This episode continues the show’s trend of injecting original songs into each episode with greater and greater frequency. The music throughout is catchy and the lyrics are clever, and most importantly, funny. I have a feeling audiences will be talking about the Work Hard Or Die Trying, Girl scene for years to come – much like the Planet of the Apes: The Musical and The King and I: The Musical scenes on network neighbors The Simpsons and Family Guy, respectively. In fact, I have long felt that Bob’s Burgers has always represented the best elements of those two giants, but with its own very unique style and heart. Hopefully, loyal audiences of Bob’s Burgers will continue to grow, and we will be able to enjoy this very special show for years to come.
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