Thursday 13 September 2018

Season 22: An Engine of Many Colours

Well, this was a nice surprise!


Let’s be blunt here: as good as the Sodor episodes are, especially compared to the international ones, let’s not pretend that there haven’t been bad ones. I’ll freely admit that I judged the episode harshly when I first saw the description.

But then I saw it... and genuinely loved it! Although there are two real sticking points for me.

James’ fear of being painted blue primarily comes from a quote that was made 34 years ago. Yep, it’s another instance of fan service jarring a story completely. Why? Because James has had so many different accidents and incidents over the years, and not once has this ever been brought up again. Hell, it didn’t even need to be brought up here. They could’ve just said there wasn’t enough red paint, only for some to be delivered just as James is repaired.

The other jarring part is that this episode airs halfway through season 22. I can understand why it wasn’t aired during last season since Mattel cut it short. But why didn’t they air it at the start of this one? We’ve seen James many times this season, so there’s no tension or doubt that he’d be painted red again. That’s not a fault on the writing team as they’ve no control over what airs when and in which season. But couldn’t Mattel have...

No, wait, this is a company that just canned two ranges to try and recoup losses rather than look at what they have created, realised they fucked up and take things back to the state where consumers would buy their stuff. Especially since tablets and mobile games are a thing. They’re also thought that taking Thomas worldwide - with the personality of a deck chair - and dominate everything while he’s in those countries was a brilliant idea that would bring viewers in...

Anyway, the episode itself was a lot of fun to watch. It was the best way to showcase what the fantasy sequences are capable of, and they made things much more entertaining to watch. It hid the fact that the story was fairly thin really well, and that’s all they really need to do. Also, James acting like the new paint was a placebo was hilarious.

Another thing I liked was that Stanley actually said something! The character himself has really lost his lustre since The Great Discovery (which is 10 years old now!), and became completely irrelevant as soon as Ryan arrived and had more character than the silver engine could dream of. But I still like him, I like his design and always appreciate when the writers do something with him.

I also really like how the writers handled the theme of “looks aren’t everything, it’s the personality that counts”. As a gay man who sees a lot of arrogant, vain, close minded guys who think only muscles and abs matter, it’s a theme that resonated with me a lot. It made me feel a bit more confident in my own skin and made me feel I was doing something right by trying to showcase my personality more. And anyone who doesn’t appreciate that isn’t worth my time. It’s a theme that kids really need, and the fact they managed to teach that through these characters is fantastic.

Final Thoughts
It’s rather interesting that some of the best, most entertaining episodes in the last two years have starred a main character that I disliked. But it seems like the writers and Rob Rackstraw are really hamming up James’ vanity and it’s working wonders. He’s honestly one of the most entertaining characters in the main fleet now, and this is a brilliant showcase as to why.

It definitely could’ve done without the fan service and it should’ve aired much sooner so the outcome was less predictable than it was. But the journey to the destination was entertaining enough throughout, and that theme is an incredibly important one.
Rating: Great (9/10)

1 comment:

  1. Great review! Can't wait for your thoughts on Rosie is Red!

    ReplyDelete