Thursday 27 September 2018

S22 Ep.25: Counting On Nia

THESE ARE SOLEY MY OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE

COUNTING ON NIA
Written by
Lee Pressman

Directed by
Dianna Basso

Produced by
Micaela Winter

Air Date
27/09/18

Plot 
Nia is a really clever engine and knows all sorts of things, but when Sir Topham Hatt asks her to take Annie and Clarabel to pick up passengers and take them to Knapford Station, Nia has great trouble finding the right platform.

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I remember how some fans gave Nia some criticism by labelling her as a Mary-Sue. A Mary-Sue is a trope often given to characters who are too perfect. But in this episode, she is clever but not always indicating that she's not perfect all the time and one thing that surprised me is that Nia can count but not understanding what they look like and after researching, there are different looking numbers in African and I like how Nia suffers from a language barrier, it makes her entirely relatable to immigrants who come to a new country.

The dynamic between her and Annie and Clarabel was great to see, I quite like how the two coaches acted like a motherly figure to her. The fantasy moment was probably one of the most subtle moments coming from the writers. It also doesn't feel like it was there to chew up the running time but was more part of the episode, although they could've done without it as a fantasy moment but I think it's part of the rules, but it wasn't bad by any means it was subtle.

I think with that being one flaw, another one would have to be that there wasn't any reason why the Fat Controller wants Nia to take Thomas' coaches, a mere mention of him being away could be good. 

In the end, it was nice and simple and despite that 'Kangaroo Christmas' has yet to be aired in December, due to it being an Australian Christmas episode and despite it being the 20th episode of this season production wise, this episode was a nice way to the end the 22nd series and the Sodor portion. 

Episode Rating
Banjo And The Bushfire - 4/10
Counting On Nia - 8/10

Series Rating (So far):
185/240

'KANGAROO CHRISTMAS' 
WILL BE COMING SOON IN DECEMBER WITH THE SERIES OVERALL.

LOOK OUT FOR MY DVD REVIEW OF 
'HERE COMES THE STEAM TEAM'
COMING SOON.