(Part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here).
Is there a better use of my time than ranking, in order of worst to best, all of the episodes of Bluey from seasons 1 and 2? I THINK NOT. There's a lot of episodes, and I've got a few too many things to say about each one. In this instalment, there's magical underpants, a Greedy Queen and a Kindly Queen, and a cake that looks like a duck. LET'S GET INTO IT.
104. Spy Game
Bluey and Mackenzie play spies, in order to collect potion grass, which will then make a potion, which can then be used for magic, which…. I can’t make head or tail of this game. There’s a lot of to and fro in this episode – a sideplot involving Bandit and the barbecue and the playful teasing from his friends – ‘you’re burnin’ ‘em, you’re burnin’ ‘em!’ – and Bingo playing, then not wanting to play. Many of the best Bluey episodes are based around games played successfully (or not so successfully), but this one doesn’t feel like it quite comes together.
103. Movies
It is a marvel to me how this little seven minute show manages to have two or three plots going at once. In this episode Bandit takes Bluey and Bingo to the movies – ‘Chunky Chimp’! Bluey is a little worried she’s going to be scared by the movie but then, ‘Mackenzie’s seen it’; Bingo, two years younger than Bluey, has no such issues, mostly because she spends all of her time running around evading Bandit and ignoring the movie; and the movie itself runs at the same time – you see enough of it to get a sense of its plot, too. ‘Look, mate, it’s a movie about a talking chimp, don’t think too much about it’, Bandit reassures Bluey (yeah, right, thanks dad). The experience of going to the movies at some megaplex is evoked with impressive realism, and there’s cleverness in the way the script has Bluey and Chunky Chimp say the same thing at the same time, drawing the multiple plots together. Still, I suspect Bandit has it right in his assessment of the movie – and it does feel like a bit of a cheat, having the standard Hollywood cliches (‘just be yourself’!) be substitute for the usual subtle Bluey moral.
102. Bob Bilby
My feelings about this one, in which Bingo has to take a kindergarten puppet Bilby home for the weekend and create a series of photo memories with the Bilby, but keeps getting distracted by watching digital animations on the family Tablet, are complicated by the fact that I keep getting distracted by watching this digital animation on the computer. So are digital distractions bad or good? I don’t mind this episode, but it’s probably one of the ones in which the program comes closest to the twee family-friendly moralising of, say, a 1980s sitcom.
101. Typewriter
An unusual quest narrative, this, consisting of a few parts that don’t always come together. First you have Calypso’s story which Bluey finds unconvincing (because, well, it is). This inspires Bluey to become a writer so she can write a better ending to the story; only to do this she needs the typewriter. Then you get Bluey’s posse – here it is interesting; like in those movie or fantasy quests, Bluey assembles a team (Winton and Snickers) with some unusual abilities. (Winton is a ‘space invader’, because he scares people off with his habit of moving into their personal space – it comes into use later in the episode). And lastly you have a challenge – that would be the Terriers, defending Scotland (‘Bwing! Bwing! Bwing!’) OK, now I’m having fun. But the moral is also a bit lacklustre; Bluey learns the power of imagination. Thankfully the show never preaches, but it seems like a message I could get from a thousand other kids’ shows anyway? So I’m not sure about this one.
100. Queens
While mum Chilli scrubs the lorikeet poo off the deck – (‘ew!’ says Bluey. ‘You’re mum’s not afraid of a little hard work’, replies Chilli) – Bluey and Bingo dress up and play Queens. (Or rather, they take turns playing the Queen and the royal butler). There’s a point in here about inherited privilege and their reliance on the working classes, I guess, though it’s not pushed overhard, so it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Still, this episode doesn’t quite do it for me.
99. Grannies
Dress up time, and we say goodbye to Bluey and Bingo as we say hello to Rita and Marge, two grannies who are mysteriously the same size as Bluey and Bingo. Bingo wants to be the flossing granny (the dance move), but Bluey insists that ‘grannies can’t floss’! So a call to Nanna is in order. It’s a pretty simple episode really.
98. Easter
This variation on the Easter Egg hunt of childhood sees Bluey and Bingo engage in an elaborate treasure hunt, orchestrated, apparently, by their Mum and Dad. There are some clever visual puns and the final reveal of the Easter Eggs happens with all the sumptuous spectacle that we have come to expect from the animator Ludo Studios. There is an interesting backstory – ‘Will the Easter Bunny forget like he did last year?’ ‘He didn’t forget’, explains Bandit, ‘He left a letter!’ And he reads the Easter Bunny’s weird excuse on the wall. O, what a tangled web we weave when first we etc etc, but then again, there’s nobody like the Heeler family when it comes to playing make-believe with their kids. So this is okay. This episode is okay. Okay?
97. Duck Cake
When Bandit gets landed with the job of making one of those ridiculously complicated cakes-that-look-like-things for Bingo’s birthday party, you kinda know the episode is going to end up being a bit like an episode of Nailed It. Meanwhile, Bluey learns how to tidy up – it’s all a bit too wholesome for me. This isn’t one of my favourites, but it’s got significant cultural heft – duck cakes are being made for birthday parties right around the country. People are weird.
96. Trampoline
Bandit is playing on the trampoline with Bluey and Bingo but that all ends with him climbing out – ‘I’ve got to get to work’. Bluey wants none of that, and keeps on coming up with new games to get him to come up and play. The concept is simple enough, made fun by Bandit’s willing compliance and the creative way he plays the games, though it lacks a sense of urgency that would add a certain comic zest to Bandit’s repeated attempts to get to work.
95. Tickle Crabs
One of the ‘just playing games at home’ episode, but it’s not without a few knotty ethical and metaphysical problems. For instance, apparently dogs put *on* clothes when they visit the beach (actually Bandit just goes to the backyard, but for the purposes of the game it’s the beach). Also, significantly for an episode in which Bandit says Chilli is his ‘true love… because she’s always there for me’, this episode contains a lot more about people running away from stuff. Actually, running away from tickle crabs. (Noooo, not the dreaded tickle crabs!) You’re not left so much with a moral as an awkward truth – sometimes, when you’re a parent, you’re so desperate for any time to yourself that you might find yourself hiding in the cupboard…
94. Verandah Santa
The whole Heeler gang have got together on the night before Christmas. It must be, what, 9 pm and Muffin is weirdly un-hypo - try to square that with her special brand of late-night craziness in The Sleepover! But consistency is for losers, and anyway, they’re all here to learn the true meaning of Christmas, which is, being nice to one another is a very shrewd tactical method for getting presents off that fearsome bearded wraith from the far north. No, it’s actually being violent to your parents is heaps fun and when you’re a kid they let you get away with a lot of shit. Well, that’s not true either; the moral is closer to the former, so it is a bit bland – in a game of Verandah Santa, Bluey hurts her cousin Socks’ feelings and has to learn that we’re not nice to one another just to get presents. This Christmas episode certainly doesn't attain the positively symphonic exuberance of Pool Swim, and isn’t quite as iconically Australian as that episode either. But the game of Verandah Santa is fun and the jokes are plentiful and, oh heck, it’s Christmas, Mister! So on the whole this is quite a decent Christmas episode.
93. Butterflies
Man, Judo is so annoying in this episode! I know that’s kind of the point – ‘She doesn’t have anyone to play with’, explains Bluey to Bingo as she interrupts them and insults Bingo – but that doesn’t change the fact that being annoyed by her is, well, annoying. It does make the emotional crisis she causes interesting though – what do you do with that annoying friend who maybe means well, but who causes a rift between one sister (Bluey) and another (Bingo) because she’s only really interested in playing with one (Bluey)?
92. Helicopter
Bluey, on top of an old tree stump, becomes a helicopter pilot – ‘Chop chop chop chop chop!’ But then has to adapt herself to the other pups wishes – she becomes a little more flexible with each helicopter ride. There’s a lot of cute stuff in this episode, but why do the Terriers always get the best lines? ‘Boing, boing, boing! Boing, boing, boing!’ (Reprising the cute ‘bwing bwing bwing’ of Typewriter.)
91. Octopus
As a change from all the episodes with The World’s Best Dad, AKA Bandit, we get an episode with The World’s Most Adequate Dad, AKA Chloe’s Dad. He’s trying to play a game of ‘Octopus’ with Chloe, which she learned from Bluey and Bandit, but he keeps on buggering things up. He walks behind the couch when he should walk in front, he keeps on letting Chloe get the treasure too easily, and, worst of all, he doesn’t make those blooble-blooble-blooble noises that apparently according to kids in Bluey world Octopuses actually have to make. What’s that all about? ‘You’re not as fun as Bluey’s dad’ says Chloe, which must leave her poor geeky dad feeling rather crushed. Because it is based around a boring dad some bits in this episode are admittedly, well, a bit boring (there’s actually a scene where Chloe’s Dad just looks at things on the computer, which is pretty much dramatic death). But the dilemma this show is based around is interesting, the resolution is very affirming and anyway, it’s good to see some character development for Chloe and her dad.
90. The Show
For Mother’s Day Bluey and Bingo decide to put on a show about…. how their mum and dad first met. So Bingo becomes Chilli and Bluey becomes Bandit and Bandit and Chilli become audience members, who are also themselves. It gets…. weird. There’s a bit of fun to be had here, and some of Chilli’s and Bandit’s backstory is told.
89. Christmas Swim
This is a suitably exuberant and energetic episode as the whole family get together for Christmas lunch by the pool. (I think it’s Uncle Stripe’s?) Everyone gets some action – squabbles between the brothers Stripe and Bandit, Muffin going absolutely bananas over the pool swim, Nanna itching to help with the cooking (or preferably take it over entirely), a suitably doggy game of fetch by the pool (they’re catching tennis balls – Chilli snaps it neatly in her mouth). And Bluey is showing her present (a doll she names Bartleby) around, introducing him to her family. It’s a bit of a pretext, really, for including everyone in the plot, but the theme is inclusion. They do say Christmas television is a bit of a desert, but if this came on at Christmas time I’d watch the shit out of it.
88. Hotels
A cute episode about a game of hotels Bluey and Bingo play with their dad. This time Bandit is the well behaved one (sort of) and it’s the kids that are really making the chaos – there’s a crazy cleaner, and a crazy pillow. Nice.
87. Horsey Ride
When Uncle Stripe arrives with his fam, Bandit makes them all an enticing offer: ‘Okay kids, who wants to lie down on the couch and WATCH CRICKET?’ Bluey, having none of that, gets them all to play Horsey Rides. There’s a lot of fun here – Bandit is renamed ‘Sir Galahop’ and Uncle Stripe becomes ‘Sparkles’ – but Muffin seems so weirdly uncrazy (this is an early appearance for her character, who gets more entertainingly Bonkers McGoo in later episodes, thankfully). Her little sister Socks, meanwhile, seems to be acting like an actual dog, which is weird in a show where even the adult dogs are acting like horses. Though there’s a basic theme here – Bluey’s anxious for her favourite toy, Polly Puppy, who’s been stolen by her cousin Socks – the show mostly feels like a series of unconnected gags, because Bluey doesn’t actually seem to be worried much about Polly Puppy at all. Focus, Bluey, focus!
86. The Magic Xylophone
I feel kinda bad placing this one near the bottom because, like all Bluey episodes, it’s top quality. There’s a lot of good here – Bandit playing piano and guitar on Bluey and Bingo, before later taking on the role of a melodramatic villain (appropriate for the game) complete with make up. But there’s so much good in the other shows too, so….
85. Circus
It’s election day, and of course Bluey and Bingo have no idea what that means, so their parents have to explain it all. ‘It’s when you pick someone to be the leader.’ ‘Ooh, don’t pick him, I don’t like his smile.’ Well, that’s as good a political argument as many that I’ve heard, but still, Chilli and Bandit patiently explain, it’s not quite like that. As they queue up to vote, the kids get decoyed by a game of circus – Bluey is the ringmaster. ‘I’ll be the audience, you can’t tell me what to do,’ explains Bingo. ‘Okay’ says Bluey tolerantly. Meanwhile, Winton wants to join the circus, instead of playing with the big and bossy Hercules. So we get a look at two different ways of making decisions, it’s quite clever and very fun. Just because you’re stronger, it doesn’t mean you get to make a choice, suggests the show – only, for me, it kind of ruins this moral a bit later in search of a satisfying plot conclusion.
84. Shaun
Bluey and Bingo really want a pet, but Bandit rebuffs their pleas. ‘We don’t need a pet!’ he says. ‘We’ve got Shaun!’ And holds up his hand in the shape of an emu. Pretty dodgy exchange if you ask me, dad, but it works on Bluey and Bingo. Shaun is not only a bad imitation of an emu, it turns out, but a bad pet as well, always pecking other family members, or even hapless passersby: Lucky’s Dad cops it once again. This makes for some good jokes (good old fashioned slapstick violence) and a characteristically minimalistic Bluey plot, complete with some striking animation and direction.
83. Mount Mumanddad
This is a return to the mountaineering theme we got in Blue Mountains, though also a homage to all those trek documentaries and adventure/survival movies. It’s got an originality of its own, and there’s a lot of fun here, but mostly I can’t stop thinking about how weirdly square Bandit’s bum looks. We get to look a lot at his bum this episode, and it’s just so…. *square*. Another oddity is mum Chilli’s stirring speech at the end, another survival documentary/movie homage – it’s like one of those voiceovers you get. But she’s doing this at home, with her kids climbing up her chest. It works for the show, but I just can’t see a mum or dad doing this at home, y’know?
82. Neighbours
There’s nothing quite like filching the couch cushions and making a cubby house out of them, which Bluey and Bingo do so they can play Neighbours. Along comes Chilli to join in the game, and then Bandit. Welcome to Mulberry Street, everyone! Only Bingo starts encroaching on Bluey’s territory – she needs room for her toy horses. And Bandit – well, Bandit has taken it upon himself to be the agent of chaos here on this quiet suburban pretend street. This is a sweet tribute to the natural Bluey environment, the community of the suburbs, with some good sight/sound gags. The resolution here is fun, but not entirely satisfying – it relies on Bingo acting in a way that - well, I’m not sure she would act that way.
81. Hammerbarn
Finally, an episode about one of the seven deadly sins: avarice. Or, in colloquial terms: ‘The grass is always greener on the other side.’ ‘What does that mean?’ Bluey asks her parents. But by this time both Chilli and Bandit are staring in open lust at Lucky’s Dad’s new pizza oven. So they’re off to Hammerbarn. Striking for its evocation of one of the more iconic Australian stores (gee, I wonder what popular hardware chain this one is supposed to represent), the show has some good gags though they sometimes feel a bit unconnected.
80. Bumpy and the Wise Old Wolfhound
While Bingo is sick in hospital, with mum Chilli by her side, Bandit and Bluey, Uncle Stripe, Aunt Trixie, Muffin and Socks make a little home movie to cheer her up. Again we’re in ‘show within a show’ world, another one of those plot devices beloved of sitcoms. All the characters get good cameos within this show world – Muffin is pretty good (‘No! Not my good vase!’ gasps Chilli when she sees Muffin stirring something up in it.), and Myf Warhurst – voice of Aunt Trixie – finally finds her true calling as ‘the wise old wolfhound’, a kind of mystical guru like figure. (Also look out for Mackenzie and Lucky). All in all a pleasing little one off.
79. Stumpfest
Bandit and his friends just want to get rid of two old stumps in the backyard; Bluey and her friends suddenly discover they want to play on the stumps. The backyard suddenly becomes split between two opposing factions, the kids taking the part of protesters – ‘Save our stump! Save our stump!’ – Bandit and his friends taking the part of loggers reluctantly entering into negotiations with the hippies. ‘Okay, you can put make up on me, but no unicorn horn’ says Lucky’s Dad, fated to get make up and a unicorn horn on his head. The parody works though feels a bit contrived and opportunistic, making this one of the less successful episodes. Some fun is had with seeing Bandit, Uncle Stripe, and Lucky’s Dad going bananas in a very blokey, very Australian way.
78. Wagonride
Bluey and Bingo go on a trip to the park, pulled in the wagon by Bandit. Okay, actually Bluey coerces Bandit into taking them in the wagon, and then has to struggle to be patient every time Bandit stops to talk to someone. Some nice animated details here, illustrating the streets of Brisbane.
77. Zoo
Just a simple episode about Bluey and the whole family making up a zoo at home; as usual Bandit causes trouble when he’s given the job of being a baboon – at first, hardly bothering with the role at all, and then throwing himself into the role with a bit too much enthusiasm.
76. Shadowlands
This is one of the classics, an immersive game that reveals the strengths of the kids, and Teaches Them A Valuable Life Lesson. There are a number of clever touches here, like Bluey having to run along in the shadow of a bus to avoid breaking the rules of the game. The animation, as always, is gorgeous – you can see the wind blowing through the grass of the park. And Snickers the sausage dog is always fun – ‘Snickers! Run your little sausage dog legs!’
75. The Adventure
This great little one-piece stands as a homage to the high adventure fantasy movies or, perhaps, the long-running fantasy adventures you can find on the telly. There’s a special Bluey twist, too – it’s all a complicated game being played by Bluey and Chloe. And not only do they put their costumes on and off – they will swap costumes if they come up with an idea to make the adventure better. It’s all about the complicated dealings between the Kindly Queen, the Good Princess, and the Greedy Queen (who is also a witch) – it really doesn’t need too much explaining. It’s all quite a joyful romp; it doesn’t have a complicated moral dilemma or theme, unlike the other shows, so perhaps it isn’t as emotionally deep, though it is an affirmation of the most basic Bluey theme of all – the importance of play.
74. Keepy Uppy
This show spins a magical seven minutes out of the simplest of concepts – in this episode, not allowing a balloon to touch the ground. Lucky’s Dad gets a cameo, heroically helping to keep the balloon in the air until ‘Oh, me hammy!’ Nothing too complicated to comment on in this episode – just simple fun.
73. Pirates
Bluey and Bingo are playing with their mum and dad and little friend Missy in the park – problems start to arise when the ‘littlest pirate’ gets scared and hides behind the ‘lighthouse’ (a piece of park equipment). A simple Bluey episode, this one, with a stand-out score, imbuing the most ordinary act of children playing in a park and learning how to face their fear with outsize, Pirates of the Caribbean-style heroism.
72. Mums and Dads
We start this one with a sweet couple, Indy and Rusty, who are playing Mums and Dads. Clearly something is going right here, because they soon start fighting – just like real mums and dads. Awwwww. Anyway, they disagree over who should stay at home and mind the baby and who should go to work. Indy says it’s the mum who goes to work; Rusty thinks that’s stupid. So, they shout ‘I’m never going to play mums and dads with you again!’ and set off to find a better mum and dad. There’s some cute bits here, all right, in this follow up to Early Baby, though to my mind some of the costume-based gags rely a little too much on some of the characters acting out of character.
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