THESE ARE MY OWN OPINIONS AND ARE NOT INFLUENCED FROM THE THOMAS & FRIENDS FANBASE
WINTER GAMES
Written by
John Loy
Directed by
Campbell Bryer
Produced by
Suzie Gallo
Air Date
15/06/24 - CAN
19/09/24 - US
Plot
Thomas and Diesel improvise engine versions of winter sports to escape a blizzard
Like I said in 'Night Lights', this show lacks variety. Just how many episodes are we going to have that showcases Thomas competing to Diesel and they both end up getting stuck or crash, despite having the power to jump and move as implied at the end of this episode, and then they tell the audience what the moral is despite knowing the message in one second after Gordon told them to work together, collaborate, but through a crappy forgettable song.
The Thomas and Diesel being competitive storyline has been used so many times in this iteration of the show that I think it was about eight? I don't know because most of the episodes just feel the same but this one is set in snow that's the only difference that we get but that doesn't mean it has variety. We also have snow puns through the episode too because this show actually thinks puns are suppose to be funny? Just like how explaining a quip makes it more funny for some reason because this show doesn't trust its auidence.
You might say that in the original series, the competiveness of Thomas and Bertie was overused. But overall, it was only used five times and there had been very wide gaps between those episodes. In the classic series we only had two episodes that were seven seasons apart, which was 19 years apart, and we didn't get another racing story between them until ten years later in 2013 when S17 aired and even then we only had one or two episodes of them racing two seasons apart. That's because the original series at least had a variety of stories to tell through its array of different characters and doesn't have the requirement to make more than one story of them racing which is something, as I said earlier, that Mattel has been lacking serverly in this iteration of the show, just like the show's merch line, the Minis range has more variety of characters than the Motorised, Wooden Railway and Push Alongs all together!
Even if they had added in different characters in AEG, I know that Duck and Donald are returning next season, they'll either be forgotten or regulated as cameo characters in the aftermath offering nothing new to them because Mattel thinks having a restricted cast is better than having variety, look at Toby or Yong Bao.
This is just another bland, boring Thomas and Diesel being competitive episode offering nothing new or different that I can't suggest anything constructive on how to make this episode any better. I hate this episode and I hate this overdone trope.
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
The Slowest Race in the World - 2/10
Bruno's Blustery Day - 9/10
Night Lights - 7/10
For Love or Muddy - 1/10
Percy's Duck Dilemma - 4/10
All for the Nest - 3/10
Winter Games - 1/10
Overall Rating (So far):
78/230
78/230