While this series has a lower rating compare to my views on S22 last year, I pretty much enjoyed this more than what last season had provided. I feel that the stories do fit into the mould of the shorter time limit whereas some episodes from last season feel a bit more unfinished. I feel that the new writers had made the stories for characters like Rajiv and Shane a bit more entertaining and gave them some character development and some more personality.
I will say that there had been some stinkers this season but in my opinion, they were more focused towards Diesel. I feel that his episodes are becoming more of the same and I also feel that he had been overused in this era. I get it that he's the main antagonist but perhaps focus on some other diesels maybe and give Diesel a bit of a break. Percy's episode I will say was alright but among older fans I believe that the two new writers, Camille Ucan & Rose Johnson, do have a lot to learn about the characters after all this is their time writing for the show and who knows what was going behind the scenes when they were creating the series. I will say that '
Thomas Makes A Mistake' was not their best episode but I hope they try and come up with something a bit more better rather than something with a standard plot line. I will say on a positive note to welcome them aboard to the series.
I think Nia should have more episodes explored around her outside of her positive attitude. I say have her dealing with some culture shock since she's living on the Island of Sodor, it would be relatable to immigrants who go into that situation themselves. I also think have her dealing with toxic people too when it comes to the subject of racism, some people might find that as a touchy subject especially towards children.
But other shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers had dealt with this topic over the years.
In 1969, African Americans were still segregated and can't be allowed to swim in pools because of that. The late Fred Rogers (1929-2003) had created a scene in one of his episodes of him and an African American cop named Officer Clemmons, played by François Clemmons, paddling their feet in a swimming pool. It showcased the moral that no matter what colour of skin, we are human beings in the end. I never had any childhood memories of Mr.Rogers because his show was never aired out here in Australia, a crying shame in my opinion, but watching it as an adult I love how he created that message and seeing people loving that moment even back when they were children. It was subtle but powerful.
Sesame Street had dealt with that issue as well.
In 2002, Big Bird invited his pen pal to Sesame Street, the pen pal is a bird, however when he arrived, Big Bird invited him to play with his friend Snuffaluffagus. However the bird friend didn't want to play with someone of a different species and Big Bird stood up to defend Snuffy towards his pen pal. That was all done in response to the aftermath of 9/11 when the world had changed drastically a year prior and racism towards muslims was at a high rate because of the tragic event and the terrible people who had caused it. It could be an interesting and ballsy move plus Nia's name means 'purpose' in Swahili and you can have an episode where Nia has a problem with a bully based on who she is but she knows that her name means 'purpose' and have her showcase to the bully that she has a purpose to be on Sodor. Sure we had '
Heart of Gold' but that was more on the subject of Toby being a strange looking engine. I like Nia, although not a favourite of mine and I hope we see more of her in the coming years. I also hope we have more development toward characters like Hong-Mei too and Ashima as well.
Some people have been complaining about the reused assets and while I do understand what they are saying I will say they shouldn't treat it like it was done for the first time. The classic series had done this as well, particularly S4 comes into mind and when you look at stories that were used by the narrow gauge engines, Duke's stories had used sets that are from the Skarloey Railway and in '
Rusty to the Rescue' the set where Rusty met with Douglas and Percy was reused as the 'Other Railway' and not to mention that BoCo, Daisy, Diesel and Mavis were used as random diesels, even as a kid I knew it was them. Jam Filled was like Britt Allcroft and David Mitton, you have deadlines to meet and more important assets to make and so cutting corners is the way to go to save some time and money. You might say that the model sets are different because they have 'one set' while Jam Filled has multiple in a computer. In fact there were 70 model sets according to Model Railroder
via this article and I still standby this comparison. Sure it's not good to reuse assets but doing things in a working environment is a different world compare of doing it in a hobby environment.
Edward and Henry didn't have any dialogue in the episodes, but I don't see why that has to be bad? Sure they have a legacy but creative wise, what would they used for? Also some people need to understand the difference between those two. The reason they left the shed was because they are hard to write for and look at their stories over the years, they are very limited in what can work for them are much more easier for them to be secondary characters. As someone who writes a fan made series, I can understand why the writers don't use them that often, sure I praised '
Old Reliable Edward' and while yes it is a good episode, it's pretty much the same as any Edward episode that has that kind of story in the end and it was more focused towards Gordon. '
Henry Gets The Express' was a good episode too but that too was more focused towards Gordon as well and while Henry has his grumpy persona, I don't think that could work especially towards a modern day audience who might think its a bad influence on kids. Look I like these characters and I don't think they are bad or anything but they aren't that interesting unlike Thomas, Percy, James, Gordon, Toby, Emily etc. Plus I said this multiple times in the past when it comes to Edward and Henry. Their past stories pretty much forced them a leading role for the sake of them being part of the 'Steam Team' and we had terrible episodes for them like '
Henry's Magic Box' and '
Edward Strikes Out', do we really need something like that again? I sure don't want those stories ever again.
As shown during the credits of '
Steam Team To The Rescue', the successor of Andrew Brenner had been revealed and its director David Stoten who had worked during the Brenner/McCue era when Arc Productions was around before its bankruptcy in 2016. I wish him all the best and I'm quite keen on seeing what he contributes to the show. So welcome aboard and farewell to Andrew Brenner, you had contributed great things to Thomas from episodes to specials. I am a bit sad that he didn't contribute to this season though.
In the end, I enjoyed this season and I think it was a better improvement. Sure it's not the best but I find it more entertaining over last season.
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