Bob's Burgers, "Two for Tina"

In any other show, Tina would be insufferable, and the butt of everyone's jokes. The Tina of The Simpsons is Lisa, "Springfield's answer to a question no one asked." The Tina of Family Guy is Meg, who is constantly being abused by her family.

If I were the kind of person to make sweeping generalizations, I would speculate that comedy writers all still hate their older sisters from when they were awkward teenage boys, and they can't see past that emotional baggage to view their teenage female characters as actual human beings and not just a target for their misdirected, decades-old angst.

But I'm not! So let's talk about Tina.

Tina Belcher has a lot of strikes against her. Poor, dumpy, awkward, mumbling Tina. Caught between a childish love of horses and an adult libido, and not sure what to do about either.

Luckily, Tina's family is a bunch of weirdos, too. They accept her obsessions (perhaps because they are each too wrapped up in their own to notice). Linda's maternal concern for Tina clearly stems from having been Tina when she was younger. She not only supports Tina, she does her best to actively guide her through the choppy seas of adolescence.

And best of all, the show itself loves Tina. If this is sometimes unclear, last night's episode (in which Tina finds herself at the apex of a love triangle with two equally awkward teenage boys) made it clear. It was a strangely heartwarming episode, as well as being riotously funny. (I don't know why, but Bob's line about "I'm not mixing peach and mint" still kills me.) As does the dreamy expression on Tina's face when she tries to talk the boys into a polyandrous relationship. (Pity poor Roberto, Tina's papier mache boyfriend, who evidently was ruined in the shower.)

Image copyright Bob's Burgers/20th Century FOX Television