Parents love Bluey and dont find it annoying like other kids shows
We covered annoying children’s TV shows the other day, but now it’s time to talk about one of the best TV shows ever created for children: Bluey. Bluey is the story of a 6-year-old Blue Heeler puppy named Bluey, her little sister Bingo, and her parents, Bandit and Chilli. In it’s own silly, realistic, and heartwarming way, the show tackles a variety of real-life issues ranging from the daily mundane, like making breakfast, to heavier topics, like mortality and miscarriage (Season 2’s “The Show”), and everything in between. It’s a really great show that has something for both kids and adults.
This week, 10 new episodes from Season 3 of Bluey dropped on Disney+. Season 3 is supposed to have a total of 50 episodes. 39 are now streaming in America, with the remaining 11 reportedly due out by the end of the year. Our household discovered Bluey in early 2020 and it was something we all enjoyed watching together during those first months of the pandemic. I know we are not alone in loving this show as a family. I mean, how many of us have kids who have played intense games of Keepy Uppy?! We are literally going on 3.5 years of Keepy Uppy at this point.
While kids’ programs like Blippi and Caillou tend to drive parents up the wall, many have a soft spot for Bluey. Speaking to Yahoo Life last fall, Melanie Zanetti, the Australian voice actress who plays Heeler matriarch Chilli, shared how one friend described it as “the only show that doesn’t make me want to bleed out my eyes when I have to watch it for the hundred-thousandth time.” Zanetti attributes the show’s “universal” appeal to both its uniquely Australian charm and its playful spirit. While mom Chilli certainly holds her own, Bandit the dad (voiced by musician Dave McCormack) has emerged as a fan favorite and fictional parenting icon thanks to his enthusiasm for playing with his kids, creating inventive games and being hands-on at home.
“Bandit did get a lot of kudos because he was a dad who was playing with his kids and using his imagination,” said Zanetti. “We see less of that from men in media. And a lot of young dads I’ve talked to have said, ‘I feel so grateful that there was a depiction of a dad just not being a bumbling fool.’ In my age group, dads want to be good dads; they want to be there for their kids. It’s a generation where there were a lot of fathers who weren’t there or they don’t have a strong emotional connection to them because they didn’t have that closeness. And I think millennials and Gen Zs particularly really want be those [more involved] parents.”
In an interview with Yahoo Life last August, Bluey executive producer and Ludo Studio co-founder Daley Pearson also noted that both Bandit and Chilli represent a “new generation of parents” who come across as more relatable and “human.” (Case in point: One Season 3 episode in which Bluey and Chilli appear to be confronting the age-old struggle of parenting while nursing a New Year’s hangover.)
“We often get messages from people saying that it’s like the makers of Bluey have put a camera in their homes as it’s so relatable to their family life,” Sam Moor, a producer and production manager on the show, told USA Today.
They’re also capable of apologizing to their kids when necessary, acknowledging their flaws and admitting when they don’t have all the answers (or the patience to play another game of Keepy-Uppy). At the same time, their playfulness is infectious.
Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder who shares daughter Olympia with wife Serena Williams, is among the parents who “get inspired” by the Heeler family, he recently told Yahoo Life’s So Mini Ways. “We’ll dress up the house, with these homemade signs, to be like a metro station [like in] an episode with trains,” he shared. “We’ll use rolling chairs to be the ‘trains,’ and I push them.”
As of right now, my family and I have only watched five of the new episodes, but I’m sure we’ll have finished all 10 by the time this post is published. The episodes we’ve seen so far are on par with the rest of the series. One of the episodes alludes to a character struggling with infertility and my 9-year-old and I spoke about what that meant afterward. I think for me, the biggest appeal of Bluey is that every single episode says so much in just 7 minutes, without the cheesy gimmicks that children’s shows usually employ, like annoying songs or ridiculous, over-the-top characters. Every character is awesome and relatable.
And just to throw it out there, because I’m always down to converse about Bluey eps, my favorite ones are “Sleepytime,” “Camping,” “Daddy Dropoff,” “Flatpack,” “Baby Race,” and “Pass the Parcel.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pLHLnpmirJOdxm%2BvzqZmcWplboN5e8%2BaqZ6mpKisrbvVnpabpKWaxqCtzZ2Wnaeeqayntc2dlqKsj5a7r7vYoqWgl5yeuKarzq2fnqqPoLalv76sn6ivo2Q%3D