This disconnect between Thanksgiving as imagined in glossy spreads and the Thanksgiving most of us experience is perhaps why I find myself so utterly charmed by “Bob’s Burgers’” semi-annual Thanksgiving specials. For 15 seasons, the Belcher family has regularly turned what could easily become a tired sitcom trope into a reliable highlight of the beloved series.
Despite being a family whose lives often center around food by virtue of running a restaurant, they tackle the holiday not with the polished reverence of a cooking magazine, but with the messy, absurd energy of a family who somewhere along the way realized that perfection is not only unattainable, but also entirely beside the point.
