Paradigm-shattering: Bluey's greatest episode ever is filled with magic | Blue

Yesou get nervous watching an all-time great show, try something different. Too many sitcoms have damaged their reputation with a failed feature-length special; too many dramas have that extra season where the formula changed, it didn't really work, and now their inclusion in the pantheon comes with a little asterisk. But if any program can be trusted to take a risk, it's Bluey.

Bluey is Australia's second biggest television show after Mr Inbetween, and by far the country's most popular television export. One of those very rare shows aimed at primary school children (and even younger ones) that is genuinely and unironically loved by parents, it purports to tell simple stories about a talking blue-heeled dog, aged seven years old, living in Queensland with his sister and their mum and dad.

But what a world is there just beneath the surface. While four-year-olds laugh with a dog having a childish good time, Bluey continues to hit adults with deep emotional wisdom, mostly about parenting, particularly how it can be a liberating adventure if correctly adopted, but it is more often allowed by idiot moms and dads. be a knot of regret and anxiety. Bluey comments on the simple joys of life and others that your child's childhood can unlock, if you let it. There is a lot to be said about friendship, marriage, ambitions, dreams, sadness, loss and love.

Yes, this is all in a cartoon about brightly colored dogs who live in houses and drive cars. But not only that: all in a cartoon about dogs whose episodes only last seven minutes. Each of the 152 installments to date has been a masterclass in the economics of screenwriting. Bluey frolics, has fun, argues that you'll stay awake thinking for hours after the little ones are all put away, then gallops off again in less time than it would take to put away that pile of overdue laundry.

But not now. The all-new episode, The Sign, is an extremely risky and paradigm-shattering 28 minutes. It's epic. His lively Australian canines respond to the Killers of the Flower Moon. But there's no need to worry: everything that makes Bluey magical is intact.

Big changes are underway. Bandit, the tireless and imaginative father who tends to make stay-at-home dads feel painfully inadequate, has found a better-paying job, but in another town. A for sale sign is placed outside the house. Bluey doesn't want to move and, thanks to the best silent face (by a drawing of a dog) in the series since Pat realized that Rusty let him win at cricket, we see that Bluey's mother, Chilli, doesn't want to move. doesn't want to go there. either.

But first, there's the matter of the bandit's brother, Radley, marrying his girlfriend (and Bluey's godmother), Frisky. When Frisky gets cold feet and takes off, Chilli's cousins ​​Bluey and Bluey, Socks and Muffin, take a road trip to try to find her.

The life lesson here is that adults sometimes have to make major changes in their lives, and while these may seem to cause unhappiness, it's hard to know what's in store, especially since adults They don't even know it either. At school, Bluey learns the story of a farmer who loses a horse, setting off a chain of events that seem lucky or unlucky, but turn out to be the opposite. This fable is woven with great skill throughout the rest of the episode by Bluey's genius creator/writer, Joe Brumm.

The school scene also features certain types of Bluey dialogue that parents everywhere love. Asked to tell sad stories from his life, a child said: My father doesn't live with my mother and now he is alone all the time. Another responds, in a disposable whisper: Our mother loves your father.

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With all that romance narrative casually tossed aside, The Sign moves on confidently, doling out shorter versions of what could easily have been entire episodes of Bluey on an interruption-plagued car ride, a cop scattered (voiced by Joel Edgerton) and a coin-operated telescope.

No (more) spoilers, but the ending shifts from sad to happy and back again several times, completing the theme of events you can't control, creating emotions you shouldn't take to heart. There's a cute little twist, a reveal about a minor character that will have longtime adult fans cooing, and a steady stream of robust and funny jokes. Bluey is a classic, and there's no sign of that changing anytime soon.