The Week the World Wept Over Kids Show 'Bluey'
There was a wackadoo of an international incident this week.
It was an event so shattering that adults around the globe were immediately reduced to tears. There is no known cure for the weeping that occurs surrounding this inciting party: a family of cartoon Australian dogs who might be moving out of their house.
The animated series Bluey, which streams on Disney+ in the U.S., is a phenomenon. But this week—in which the sheer number of grown adults allegedly crying along to its season finale has made headlines across the globe—the show reached a whole new level of relevance. And, now that I’ve seen the episode myself (and sobbed silently alone while watching) I have some thoughts as to why this show has become such a big deal—and a crucial, necessary part of pop culture.
The series first launched in 2018, about a 6-year-old Australian cattle dog named Bluey, her sister Bingo, and her parents Chilli and Bandit. The inherent whimsy of Bluey and Bandit’s wanderlust elicits giggle fits from children enamored by the characters’ rambunctious zeal for playtime. On the other hand, the breezy, yet meticulous capture of how parents relate to their kids on a daily basis, in all its big and small moments, has proven borderline jarring for adults. Understandably, most are unprepared to confront such pointed, accurate feelings in a cartoon meant to occupy their kids for a few minutes while they make dinner. The series crystallizes the experience of something that seems so amorphous and complicated: being a family.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/bluey-epic-the-sign-episode-why-the-whole-world-is-crying
Apparently the writers don't remember the week Sesame Street's Mr. Hooper died, or the time Big Bird lost his nest in a hurricane. Those are the episodes that made me and later my son cry.