THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
DRIVING WINSTON
John Loy
Directed by
Campbell Bryer
Produced by
Suzie Gallo
Air Date
11/05/24 - CAN
19/09/24 - US
Plot
Winston, Sir Topham Hatt's new track car, causes problems by not seeking assistance.
This might be a nitpick, but I don't understand why the Fat Controller was making such a fuss that he didn't have anyone to take him anywhere when he knew he was going to have Winston? Why not just have him to say 'No need to worry Thomas, for I already have someone else to takeover Emily for me.' and loe and behold we're introduced to Winston. It's a minor piece of criticism but it's just annoying, same as how he was telling Thomas that he would have to change his name because he lost his hat, why is that any time the show makes a joke they have to explain it? TFC saying that he would have to change his name is good enough and doesn't need to be explained especially to its audience.
While the episode was generic with the usual three strikes formula of Winston making mistakes and has the usual tell don't show of the episode's message because they think the audience needs to be told for some reason, it really wasn't too bad since Winston, I feel, had more character in this episode than what he had in the original series. While Winston has patiences and sensitivity but can be easily distracted in the original, his original persona didn't offer much for stories beyond S16-17 and was often used as a device for the Fat Controller to take him places away from the road.
Winston's AEG persona can be used for other stories, though more likely for the same type of stories that AEG had reused plenty of times such as racing or something or maybe perhaps he could do more than just driving around as TFC's chauffeur until he realises he's good enough as he is. That depends though if the production team at AEG are willing to focus on the other characters outside of Thomas, Percy, Kana and Diesel since they would rather restrictions instead of doing something new. Sure the original series had stories focused on Thomas and the Steam Team but at least tried to give other characters outside of that some time to shine, even though some like Duck, Bill, Ben etc. weren't given a care for the younger audience of the show.
It would be nice if AEG has variety for once.
Series Rating:
What's the Buzz - 4.5/10
Bells are Ringing - 4/10
Abraca-Diesel - 2/10
Overcommitted - 2.5/10
Sandy's Fine Mess - 4/10
Nia's Green Surprise - 3/10
Duck Duck Whoosh! - 1/10
Choo-Choo Check In - 5/10
Percy's Little Problem - 3/10
Fill-In Friend - 4/10
Cake It Easy - 1/10
The Can-Do Crew - 6/10
Pizza Picnic Problem - 3/10
Travels With Terence - 2/10
Crab Crossing - 1/10
Driving Winston - 6/10
Overall Rating (So far):
51/160
51/160
