i think, dollars for donuts, there might not be a more compelling piece of television than an episode of Bluey. I don't watch it often, but every few months my partner will put on an episode, seemingly at random, and by the end of its eight minutes, without fail, I will be a sobbing mess, with eyes as spigots.
I don't know why, except for its effectively written characters — or rather, a deep love from the writers for finding the humanity in the characters through each one's desire for exploration of their own emotional immediacy. I worry about sounding like "oh this children's show is so good" when a given show merely uses bright colors and competent basic storytelling to capture one's attention span. But part of the romantic era is embracing our feelings as we experience them, especially as they overpower us or leave us in tears!
This evening's episode was Space, and it ended up being a fascinating and open-for-interpretation exploration of isolation as a fixture in one's emotional landscape. It recalls elements from le guin's The Dispossessed and certainly 2001: A Space Odyssey (and I imagine Interstellar, though who has seen Interstellar); and I think stands on its own as an equal to any of these. Perhaps a ridiculous claim! But it's as effective science-fiction storytelling as anything I've seen in years, and manages the feat in under ten minutes rather than a comparative three hours, and simultaneously probably isn't even the best or most-affecting episode from its season! This one we put on at random; un-before-seen and uncurated. Maybe there's a magic to the unknown that we merely always forget we already knew was there.
excitingly, this episode got nominated for Greatest Work of Art of All Time for 2023 at the minnmax awards! it was wild to hear it out of the blue — i saw all of four episodes of bluey last year, and it's neat for other people to unexpectedly resonate with this as strongly as i do
