To put this into a context that more of my readers would probably understand, when Bluey is at its best, it features emotional moments that make me tear up like the most sentimental episodes of Futurama. Think of moments from Futurama such as the epilogue of "Jurassic Bark", with the dog waiting outside the pizza shop for Fry to return. Or the twist in "Luck of the Fry-ish" when Fry finds the memorial to his "brother" on Mars. Or the montage at the end of "Leela's Homeworld" when we get to see all those little "happy coincidences" that followed Leela around through her youth. Or the ending of "The Devil's Hands Are Idle Playthings", when Fry performs his opera for Leela. Bluey is full of those sorts of moments, and whenever they come around, the show absolutely nails them, every single time!
For those of you who will probably never watch the show, I want to highlight some of my favorite moments of the show. If you're not averse to spoilers, then read on. If, however, you want to watch Bluey, and don't want to have episodes or storylines spoiled, then you should probably avoid reading this list.
- Fairytale
This is a great episode about sibling rivalries, and how mean and cruel siblings can be to each other. It's also loaded with 80's nostalgia. I was born in the 80's, but I consider myself to be more of a 90's kid. Nevertheless, there's some good nostalgia in here for me too.
- Dragon
This is a great example of the more subtle writing in Bluey. In this episode, the family are drawing a little Dungeons & Dragons-esque fantasy adventure. Chili talks about how her mother encouraged her to draw as a child, and how she used to love drawing horses. In this episode, Chili draws a horse as her character's mount, and the horse's colors suspiciously match the color patterns of Chili's own fur.
At the end of the episode, Chili thanks the horse, removes its saddle, and the horse suddenly sprouts pegasus wings and flies off into the clouds above, as if it were a guardian angel returning to heaven.
season 3, episode 43. © BBC, Ludo Studio
Chili credits her mother with encouraging her love of drawing horses.
We've seen Chili's father in previous episodes, but never her mother. The implication, of course, is that Chili's mom died when Chili was fairly young, and Chili never got to have proper closure with her. With this context, the concluding scene of Chili thanking her illustrated pegasus and saying goodbye to it as it flies into the clouds, is a touching moment. It should be evocative for anyone who's ever lost a parent, grandparent, or other family member before their time.
- Flat Pack
In this episode, Bluey and Bingo play out evolutionary history with a bunch of cardboard packaging from a patio swingset that the parents are trying to assemble. It's one of the episodes that highlights the imaginative nature of children, and how everything -- even trash -- can become a toy.
- Grandad
At the end of this episode, Chili and her father are sitting on a dock, and Chili reminisces how her dad used to take her to this same lake when she was a child, and that it was "a long time ago". To this, her dad replies, "No, it was just yesterday.", as the image of Chili fades to a child version of her.
The entire episode is a meditation on growing old, and wanting to be able to do the kinds of things that you did when you were young, even if your body won't let you do those things. The final line sends it all home by emphasizing how fast things change, how fast children grow, how short our lives are, and how important it is to be there in those precious moments with the people who you love in order to create the memories that will last a lifetime.
season 2, episode 27. © BBC, Ludo Studio
Chili and her father reminisces about the times he took her to the lake as a child.
It's one of a handful of scenes in the series that makes me cry every time.
- Pass the Parcel
This is one of our favorite episodes. It features a series of children's birthday parties, in which the children all play a customary Australian game called "pass the parcel". This game probably isn't familiar to Americans. It consists of children sitting in a circle, and passing a multi-layered gift-wrapped present around while music plays. When the music stops, whoever is holding the present gets to unwrap the top-most layer. This continues until all the layers have been un-wrapped.
In the episode, one of the dads (the father of Lucky, who lives next door to Bluey) is offended at the idea that there is a small present (such as a bracelet or stickers) in every layer of wrapping, and enough layers for every child, so that every child gets a present. This dad says that in "his day", there was only a single present in the middle, and only 1 kid gets a present. So at the next party, he insists on playing the game "the proper way", by wrapping one large present in the inner-most layer, instead of filling each layer with smaller presents.
At first, the children are heartbroken that they don't receive any presents, and many parents give this dad very angry stares as their children leave the game to cry at the lack of presents. However, the child who ultimately receives the present in the middle loves it, and sees it as way better than the stupid bracelets and stickers they they had gotten before. So when his birthday comes up, he asks his mom to play pass the parcel "Lucky's Dad's way", with a present that is as cool as the one he received. Again, the children are annoyed at not getting a present, but they are all impressed by the final present, and start to warm up to the idea. By the end, the children come to love Lucky's Dad's rules, especially when the present ends up being something that they can all share.
season 3, episode 14. © BBC, Ludo Studio
This episode encouraged my own daughter to want to play Pass The Parcel at her birthday party.
The episode starts off as a criticism of "participation trophies", but results in Lucky's Dad eventually coming around to the idea that the important thing is that the kids just have fun, regardless of which rules they play. It's all a bit far-fetched, and only works due to contrivances of its own writing. All the birthday parties have all the same kids (and parents) attending, and the child who happens to get the first big gift just happens to be the one who hosts the next birthday part. This means the children all experience the transition together, and can all gradually warm up to the idea.
In reality, each child in the friend group would have other outside friends, such that each party would have different children. The change in the game's rules would, therefore, be upsetting to any child who hadn't previously experienced it, and there would effectively be a hard reset in the children's attitude towards the game in between each instance.
In any case, my 13-year-old daughter really loved the idea of Pass the Parcel, and actually asked that we play it for her birthday. So I came up with a compromise between the sanitized modern rules, and "Lucky's Dad's rules". I put one decent gift in the middle, but then also put smaller gifts in some of the outer layers. The one child who unwraps the inner most wrapping would, therefore, get a cool present, but the other kids would still have a decent chance at getting something as well. It worked out rather well, and we'll definitely consider it for my son's future birthdays as well.
- Family Meeting
This might be our family's favorite overall episode. Because it's about farts, and farts are funny. My whole family thought the idea of holding someone on trial for having farted was hilarious. When you live with someone, you have to kind of get used to their bodily functions. Everybody farts. You either find a way to cope with it, or you probably end up in an unhealthy relationship.
- Camping
This episode features Bluey making a temporary friend while camping. The friend only speaks French, so they can't really directly communicate with each other, but still seem to understand each other perfectly fine. But the friend's camping trip ends before Bluey's does, and Bluey is heartbroken to find that his friend isn't at the campsite anymore. However, the 2 had planted a tree seed in a creekbed together. In the epilogue, we see a montage of the tree growing over the years, followed by a teenage Bluey returning to that very same tree, and once again meeting his old friend.
season 3, episode 47. © BBC, Ludo Studio
Rusty is one of the best characters, and episodes
focusing on him are always highlights.
- Cricket
This is another one of my favorite episodes of the series. It's a Rusty episode, and Rusty is one of the best characters on the show. It is about everybody playing a game of cricket together at a party, and the adults are all frustrated by their inability to strike out one of the children, and being amazed by how incredibly good that child is at cricket. The episode is a montage showing the challenges Rusty had to overcome in order to learn all of his various batting techniques.
The episode culminates with Rusty, finally ready to end the game and stop for lunch, deliberately hitting a gimmie catch to his much younger sister. Catching her brother's fly ball and getting him "out" completely makes her day, in one of the sweetest moments of the series. It then flashes-forward to adult Rusty being introduced as a pro cricket player in front of a stadium full of cheering fans.
- The Show
In this episode, Bluey and Bingo give a little Mother's Day show about how Bandit and Chili met, and the birth of Bluey and Bingo. At one point, Bingo, in character as her mother, puts a balloon up her shirt and pretends to be pregnant. But, as the children are casually going about their performance, the balloon suddenly pops.
By itself, this imagery is uncomfortably symbolic of the worst fears of anybody who has ever been pregnant (or who's partner has been pregnant). I know I was an anxious wreck whenever we had a obstetrician visit when my partner was pregnant with our son.
But it's Bandit and Chili's reaction that really sells this scene and adds extra context and depth to the scene. Bandit tightly grips Chili's hand as the 2 stare in shock at what just happened. The scene implies that Chili may be familiar with the feeling of losing a pregnancy.
season 2, episode 19. © BBC, Ludo Studio
season 2, episode 19. © BBC, Ludo Studio
This episode implies that Chili had a miscarriage.
- Baby Race
This one is for all the parents out there. Being a first-time parent is hard. And it's easy for any first-time parent to wonder if they're doing the right things, and if their child is developing normally and healthy. As for me, we are struggling to get our 3-year-old son potty trained, and my daughter suffered from a speech delay when she was young. This episode channels all of those fears and anxieties, as Chili and Bandit try to teach Bluey how to walk, while all the other children are already walking.
At one point, Chili is feeling particularly sad and dejected, when another mom reassures her that she is doing "just fine". As Chili is telling this story to Bluey and Bingo, the children (ironically) ask her if Bluey ever did learn to walk. Chili responds by recounting the experience of Bluey's first steps. She was just standing at the sink, doing the dishes, when Bluey, all on her own, pulls herself up against the side of the kitchen counter, and starts walking towards Chili with her arms outreached. Chili turns to see this, and a prideful tear starts rolling down her eye.
- Sleepytime
This is my single favorite episode of the series, and it makes me tear up from start to finish every time.
Chili tries to put Bingo to sleep by reading her a bed-time book about the planets of the solar system. Bingo then proceeds to have a vivid lucid dream about flying through the solar system with her stuffed bunny toy, all set to an arrangement of Gustav Holst's "Jupiter, Bringer of Jolity" movement from his The Planets symphony. As she explores the solar system in her dream, in real life, she sleep walks and drops her stuffed bunny in the hallway. Without her bunny or her blanket, she lies cold and shivering on the floor, dreaming that she is trapped on Pluto. When Chili find her, she picks her up and tucks her back into bed with her stuffed bunny, which warps the dreaming Bingo from the icy fringes of Pluto to the warmth and comfort of Mercury, closest to the sun. The sun tells her, in her mother's voice, that she loves her, and will always be there for her, as Chili tucks little Bingo back into bed.
It's a beautiful examination of the imagination of young children, and how we parents (moms in particular) are the absolute centerpiece of their universes. Everything they do revolves around us, and we parents are the bringers of comfort, security, and happiness. Just being close to us gives them hope and comfort.
It's also a humorous exploration of the sheer difficulty of bed time for young children. While Bingo is dreaming and sleep-walking, Bluey is restless and keeps waking up her parents for one thing or another. She has to go to the bathroom, and wants a parent to go with her. She wants a drink of water. She's too cold and needs a blanket. She wants to sleep in bed with mom and dad. At one point, sleepwalking Bingo even crawls into bed with Bluey and Bandit, and repeatedly kicks Bandit as she dreams about running and jumping across the surface of Jupiter. If you're a parent, you definitely know the feeling of having to get up for work early in the morning, but you can't sleep because the kid in bed with you just won't stop tossing, turning, and kicking you. But thus is the burden of parenthood.
How is it possible for children to be so small, but to take up so much space in a bed?!
I consider this to be the most imaginative, thoughtful, and relatable episode of the entire series, and I have a hard time imagining that any episode -- perhaps from any kid's show -- will be able to surpass it.