A day at the beach sounds nice, but when it’s just next to the Wonder Wharf, it could be quite the opposite, as the Belcher kids discover in this episode of FOX’s Bob’s Burgers. There will be spoilers and details ahead, so if you’d rather wait and watch it first, turn back now. Mr. Fischoeder, the landlord and Wonder Wharf oddball, has been missed, and I’m delighted he’s returned. Of course, he’s enlisting the help of others, such as the children brought along by Mr. Frond, to clean the beach for free. He’s a strange character who appears alongside anyone while wearing his cape (which, don’t forget, he enjoys the feel of the wind flowing through it on windy evenings).

In this episode of Bob’s Burgers, two fantastic characters, Louise and Mr. Fischoeder, were featured. I could have done without the bizarre and ill-placed secondary narrative about Bob and Teddy’s mustaches, which felt like it was thrown in to fill time. It would have been interesting to have the parents involved in some way or intimately tied to this particular wharf situation. It seemed like you were halfway through a sudoku puzzle, but you kept going around in circles through the number selections without getting anywhere, adding to your aggravation after doing so well previously. It’s a long explanation, but thinking of it as the missing pieces of a sudoku-style puzzle is a decent way to think about it.

With a beach episode like this, Bob’s Burgers had a lot of potential, especially with those minor characters they included, but it fell short. Past episodes starring such colorful characters as Mr. Fischoeder’s have made excellent use of the half-hour time slot and delivered something new. Also, I’m very certain that someone else now voices Micky, because it wasn’t the same in prior episodes; I’m presuming schedule problems, but I’m not positive. In any case, I’m excited to see more of my favorite Bob’s Burgers characters this season, but I’m hoping the tales do them justice.