Bluey Tidbits

Like, I don’t think Bluey is the best show ever created, that would be a pretentious thing to say. I actually have quite a bit of criticism with a decent amount of episodes.

But its lowest rated episode is a 7/10.

It’s got 86 episodes rated within the 8/10 range, and 24 that are 9/10, with its highest being a 9.9, and its former highest (a perfect 10) being review bombed by one piece fans because they were jealous of it.

This phenomenon did not start in the depths of ironic 4chan. It came from parents realizing this was for them, too. It’s deliberately written to provide lessons on parenting and adult life through the same play the kids are learning with. Read anything from Joe Brumm and you would know that.

Sure, if all a person watches is the same show over and over again, I understand how that can create some frustrating dialogue when trying to discuss writing in television. But that’s not necessarily an incorrect way of consumption. (Psst. If you’re a Bluey fan looking to expand your horizons and happen to like weird humor you should check out Community. Joe has cited his writing to be heavily inspired by it and it totally shows.) You don’t need to keep engaging with someone when you already know they won’t get your point. It’s probably healthier for both of you.

No one has to enjoy it. Or like it. You can even dislike it for all I care. Mute it if you don’t want to see it! But being a jerk to other people for enjoying it and pretending like it there isn’t a reason for watching it is rude. Is cringe culture dead, or only for the “weird” things you like?

Be kind to each other. It’s all we’ve got right now.

A diversion from covering the house layout… sort of related to that though…

In "Trains", we're simulating a light-rail or heavy-rail transit system. Dad is the conductor (and motive power) for the two-seat high-frequency lawnchair train that circulates between stations located throughout the house.

Bingo uses this train to travel to work as the head vet at a vet's office: she drops her child off at daycare on the commute in, and picks them up on the trip home.

Bingo's home station (call this Stop 1-1) is at the foot of the stairs in the "two door" room on the lower level of the house. The train comes in through the door from Mum's art room. Bingo boards the train.

The next stop, Stop 1-2 - Daycare (Kiwi Playroom) -- Mum is in charge of the daycare. Bingo has to sign her child in and then gets on the next train to continue commuting to work...

Mum is also Bingo's co-worker at the exotic animal vet located at Stop 1-3 - Vet (Kitchen). Note Mum can beat the train between the two stops; she is also pretending to work as an assistant to Bingo, who is the head vet.

Later on, we see there are other stops. We also observe that trains can skip stops by running express at times, or by annoucing they're not stopping. It's unclear whether the following stops are on the same loop as the first three stops. The same Dad-powered train appears to serve all the stops, but they could be on different lines with some stations on both lines allowing for transfers.

Stop in Laundry Room. Bluey and her cat have this stop as their home base. Call this stop 2-1

There is another stop, apparently between the laundry room stop (2-1) and the vet stop (1-3) (where Bluey needs to take her sick cat), this stop in the upstairs hallway near the bathrooms. Call this stop 2-2.

Dad doesn't stop at 2-2 because the sick cat is an emergency. But in doing so, it means he's gone from the downstairs, all the way past the main floor where the vet is, up to the upstairs, then back down to the main floor, where the kitchen is to stop at the vet and then at Bingo’s home stop.

Trains and stairs

Dad’s lawnchair train doesn’t look like it’s the kind of cog railway that can climb steep inclines or stairs.

(Like the train in The Sound of Music)

Trains don’t like stairs.

So just to rehash this again -- We go from Bingo's home train station (at the foot of the stairs) to the daycare station, (the Kiwi playroom) and that's not an issue, because those are both on the same floor. But then they go from the playroom into the kitchen (to go to the vets stop.)

Those are on different floors!

Then we see the train travel from the laundry room (which I assert is on the lowest floor from past discussion) to the upstairs hallway stop by the bathrooms (where the Grannies are waiting) to the vet stop in the kitchen. These are all on different floors!

Plus Mum is able to routinely beat the train from the daycare to the vet (since she's pretending to be two different people)

How is this possible?

Easy answer, it's pretend. Maybe there's a pretend train on each floor and Bingo or Bluey have to transfer from one train to another and we don't see that.

Over-complicated answer: The house contains a system of helices (helixes) to allow the train to glide between floors at a reasonable grade, trading a much longer travel distance for ease-of-pushing for Dad. Mum can just take the stairs, which will always be faster.

There are some real-world railroad examples of these kinds of spirals; the Spiral Tunnels in western Canada's Rocky Mountains are a classic example, and they are a very common approach in model railroading to allow trains to change elevations in a relatively compact space.

These would take up an incredible amount of space in a house and make Dad dizzy!

But it would be funny.

It’s totally possible too, there are parts of the house we haven’t seen, and that’s where the spiral ramps are located.

I don’t remember if I previously posted about this or not and Tumblr’s search function isn’t great. Anyway, I like this one:

In “Quiet Game”, Dad and the kids are walking in the downtown…

They pass by a bookstore.

They go past this guy.

In the window beside him is a copy of a Bluey book about the “Fruitbat” story.

Wanted to add on to this post with an even subtler detail I found in this scene.

I think this other book by the leaning dog’s snout is “The Beach!”

Now, it’s extremely difficult to make out, but I believe you can see the sand, the ocean, the sky, the title, Chilli’s tail, and Chilli’s Hat.

In “Grandad” we learn that the forest/wetland/lake area adjacent to the farm where grandad lives is where Chilli grew up. She knows the area well, learned to swim here, and carved her name into a tree. She must have done this when she was young.

There’s what looks like another carving in the Heeler’s house, on the side of the china cabinet by the dinner table.

If it was just a drawing, it would have been cleaned up already.

Bluey and Bingo don’t seem like the type of kids who draw on the walls or furniture. They stick stickers on the interior of the SUV but that’s different. And they did mark up under the porch with chalk drawing notes in “Tradies”, but that was different too.