I did it. I completed the entire series and it was worth the time; it is a well-written and produced series. It never occurred to me how familiar the Brisbane lifestyle is with Honolulu -- it's no wonder there are many Australians here.

My favourite episode was Camping: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-1/camping/

In these short 8 minutes, we explored what can be achieved when we work together beyond cultural and language barriers to make use of the world for our basic needs. It's a peek of what our society can achieve if we don't find reasons for division and tribalism.

We also learned that people in our lives come and go. This episode is the only occurrence where Bluey is beyond tears (no tears during howls). They animated her sobbing!

Jean-Luc's French sounded very informal to me so I suspected a Canadian. The maple syrup on his table somewhat cemented this suspicion and it's officially confirmed: https://www.bluey.tv/characters/jean-luc/. The official site confirms that he was visiting -- I wasn't sure if his family relocated or were just visiting.

If they ever do a spin-off of Bluey's adolescent years, it better include Jean-Luc! I want closure! I'd like to think that Bluey's child in the final scene of the series has Jean-Luc's colours: https://www.bluey.tv/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/DuprFam.png

Finally, Jean-Luc's dinner reminded me of Anthony Bourdain's depiction of Quebecers insisting gourmet in rustic settings: https://www.bluey.tv/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Bluey-S1-Ep43-Camping-006.jpg

Also, no Americans at all in the series! Only Canadians. Hah!

I identify with Chilli the most. She and I do exactly the same thing at the beach: walking along the shoreline alone or try to get some reading done. The heart-to-heart moments with her is often existentially dreadful (I love it!) where she is aware of her mortality and it's understandable given that she seemingly lost her mother relatively early and with her sister being infertile, I wonder if there was family medical history that looms over her. So what a joy it was to see her make it to old age in the final scene! I also love that Bingo is STEM-oriented with the flash-forward showing her winning a science fair along with her curiosity throughout the series. Her bedtime book is about our solar system!

A key takeaway for me from this series is that kids replicate life in their play especially for emotions they can't express. For example, dealing with death: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-1/copycat/ and perceived abandonment: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/space/. It took me a very long time to appreciate what was going on with Mackenzie in Space.

Gotta mention the timelapse of an animator working on the final scene of Puppets: https://www.bluey.tv/watch/season-3/puppets/ They should've also included a short clip of the voice recording session for completeness! It's weird to me that the kids are never credited in this series.

Honestly, I think anyone interacting with kids should watch this series. I feel there's more for the adults here.

Now on to the mini-sodes and bonus bits.