The Belcher family is unique to television in that they all love and respect each other. It took me a few episodes (mostly, after I cleared a bumpy Season 1) to figure this out, but Linda and Bob really do love and respect each other, and they really do love and respect their kids. In turn, their kids, really do love and respect their parents. And, perhaps most bizarrely to modern television, the kids love and respect each other and work, go to school with, and play with each other, as well. And, it's a secular, non-patriarchal family (it appears to be egalitarian).
They manage all of that, and still manage to be hilarious, season after season. Fantastic character-writing. Fantastic story-telling. They are skipping the guns and violence, the prevalent name-calling, the shaming and fighting that you can see in any other family-oriented, or kid-oriented shows.
I love Linda's love-of-life. So many good things (paragraphs) could be said about her. Oddly, I love that she's voiced by a man. I love her sister, too!
I love Bob's steadfastness against changing his restaurant's core value: Quality Ingredients, and his fear of failure. He's so lovable and terribly vulnerable, (and he can SING!); he's a far cry from "Archer." Kudos to the writers and the voice actor to separate the two (But bravo for the mashup "Archer" episode that has Archer working at the restaurant... "Better break-out the purple stuff...").
I love Tina's crazy introduction into puberty. Her moaning (and head bang or faint) for the whole scene, or on key words whenever she is depressed it makes me laugh every single time. Her daydreams are spot-on for hormone-poisoning, as we used to call it. I love that she's the oldest, but gets steered by the sharp-as-a-tack youngest child, Louise.
I love Gene's complete lack of shame and his total joy when wears any female clothes, even though I believe he's heterosexual. He's just got two sisters, so it's no big deal. He says the most amazing stuff about the opposite sex, it just cracks me up. It's refreshing, non-challenging, and no bravado or shaming. The whole family is so accepting of Marshmallow, and that's lovely. It should be like that everywhere.
I love Louise because she is the baby of the family, and somehow, she became the instigator, the troublemaker, the pusher, and the rabble-rouser, but still she is not evil or despicable, by any means. She's not a pathological liar or cheat, or hateful or mean at all. She's clever and happy and looks out for her siblings. Or, gets them to work for her. Whichever suits her best at which ever moment she chooses. Oh, the jawbreaker episode?! So gross! Poor Tina!
A special shout-out to Teddy, Mort and Jimmy Pesto! Then there's all of the kids...
I don't know how this show continues to do it, season after season, but this is a hilarious, amazing and RARE family, that is still going strong in 2020. And, wow, we really need the laughs now more than ever.
More, please!
