No other series gets the strange, hilarious magic of play.
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This article was originally published on May 23, 2021.
Weve republished it following the release ofBlueys special episode The Sign.
Im not greatat playing with my kids.
My 4-year-old loves to hand me stuffed animals and declare they are my new babies.
I cant fully enter her headspace or shake the part of me that registers how absurd it is.
I bristle at the repetition.
The unicorns giant embroidered sparkly eyes stare at me reproachfully.
Blueypremiered in 2018 and swiftly became popular in Australia.
It has been slower to catch on in the U.S.
There areBlueystuffed animals at Target now.
Blueyhas released over 100 episodes, each of which is seven minutes long.
They laugh so hard I wonder if theyre hallucinating.
It registers differently with me.
There is a history of major leaps in childrens TV.
At the same time, every era gets childrens programming that reflects that generations ideas about parenting.
Modern parents are supposed to be playmates authority figures who are also engaged participants.
Brummis the person most responsible forBlueys uncanny insight into kids.
That was a paternal aesthetic from another time.
But they are feelings and situations he has already processed, considered, and prepared.
He had his own children by then and was unimpressed by most of the kids television he saw.
Working onCharlie and Lolahad been inspiring, but shows like it were few and far between.
Kids TV drives me insane.
Its the same story over and over.
Someone breaks Dads favorite thing.
They all go, Oh my goodness, what are we going to do!
And they spend the whole afternoon making some craphead version of it.
Then its, All I needed in the end was for you to say sorry.
Brumm leans back in amused disgust.
They dont give a shit!
And it would be largely based on the way he played with his own kids.
It just made me laugh.
In 2015, he made a one-minute pilot episode, the barest sketch of what the show would become.
It features Bandit pushing Bluey on a swing.
Its a kids fantasy of the playground and simultaneously a dads fantasy of fatherhood.
It was too adult, too strange.
The kid goes all the way around the swing while the dad plays on his phone?
But makingBlueythe way Brumm wanted would still be an enormous challenge.
But Brumm wanted it to feel like a distinctly Australian series.
Brumm has learned how to collaborate with other directors and animators, storyboard artists, and producers.
But writing the show is something he cant figure out how to share.
Theres no writers room onBluey; its just him.
The show is intimately bound up with his life.
Markets is set at the same marketplace Brumm wanders with his family.
Calypso is a loving portrait of an influential teacher in one of his daughters lives.
Sleepytime, among the shows best episodes, is about his familys haphazard sleep habits.
I wish I had some more help, but I havent found anyone, he says.
Its so personal to me.
Thats not what kids do.
Its hard to argue with Brumms vision of how kids behave.
The characters whine and fuss, although thankfully not to grotesqueCaillou-esque excess.
Bluey can be domineering; Bingo gets lost in her own world.
Blueyhas no setrhythm for how an episodes action will play out.
This is essentially kids-TV sacrilege.
Dance Mode is about the feeling of going along with something even when youre privately unhappy.
This is among the handful of episodes I have walked away from in tears.
For children,Blueys lessons are interesting suggestions, not direct appeals.
The parent side is whereBlueys behavior modeling feels more pointed.
Theyre the ones learning something.
The adults make mistakes and get snappish with one another, but their imperfections are small and sweet.
The show is never judgmental, but its hard not to compare myself to these damnably patient cartoon dogs.
I dont begrudgeBlueyits magical imaginary of idealized parenting.
It creates envy and longing and a touch of shame.
It often leaves me feeling as though I come up short.
But it has also made me examine my behavior as a parent.
And I think it may inspire me to be more capable of playing along.
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