All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.24 - The Accidental Bad Guy

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

THE ACCIDENTAL BAD GUY

Written by

Tracy Nicoletti

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

15/06/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

Percy takes a game of superheroes and villians too far.

This was a much better episode compare to the one that I'd reviewed yesterday but it feels a wee bit of a rehash of the episode 'Rules of the Game' from S1 and it just feels the same with Percy playing with Diesel and Kana but ending up with being broken or derailed. The only difference is Percy was emotional over being called a bad guy by his friends whereas Thomas in the former episode realised his mistakes and learns that not everyone can have the same fun as you. But it still has the usual AEG style of writing where the message is being told instead of shown because it doesn't trust its audience who would get the message during its runtime. Despite that, the episode was fine overall.

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

The Accidental Bad Guy - 6/10

Overall Rating (So far):
84/240

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.23 - Winter Games

  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

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.22 - All for the Nest

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

ALL FOR THE NEST

Written by

Eva Konstantopoulos 

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

1/06/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

A gull lays an egg on Cranky and he refuses to move until it hatches.

I really don't see the need for the seagull's egg to give Tess, I still hate her, a reason for her appearance and for her story. You could just change it to maybe Cranky being broken and cannot move and the episode would play out the same, there would be nothing different plotwise because the title for this episode as well as the synopsis makes it sound like the whole seagull and its egg is an important factor to the story but it was simply a plot device for Tess wanting help and that's it or you cannot have Cranky at all and have Bulstrode trying to get unloaded by Tess but she was busy and cannot do it and it's STILL the same story. There are different ways you can tell the story and it's the exact same thing without the egg!

That's all I can say about the episode to be honest as I find this episode to be not good. I still don't like Tess and I didn't like how she 'why didn't you ask me?' about Bulstrode's dilemma when they were telling her, a minor nitpick but it annoyed me when watching the episode and its showcase of its consistency problem.

  

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

Overall Rating (So far):
77/220

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.21 - Percy's Duck Dilemma

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

PERCY'S DUCK DILEMMA

Written by

Peter Gaffney

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

1/06/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

Percy discovers that the ducks are migrating, so he tries to get them to stay.

I honestly think the episode could've been for Bruno since this story is more akin to someone who could be new to things, especially since kids struggle adapting to new things. Have Bruno go though what Percy did in the episode until someone tells him that the ducks have a schedule to leave. Sure it's a bit similar to Percy but with Percy it just feels like he's been on the Island for a while since the show had many passing seasons and he just realised that ducks migrate when surely he would've known about that by now and this wouldn't be an episode set in the past since Beresford was in the episode and was introduced in the show's second season. 

It just doesn't feel right to give this to someone like Percy when continuity is a thing. The episode isn't bad but it could've been better. The song, meh but at least it felt like it added something to the episode though it could work fine without it.

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

Overall Rating (So far):
74/210

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.20- For Love or Muddy

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

FOR LOVE OR MUDDY

Written by

Sam Bissonette

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

25/05/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

Kana gets a clean fast job while her friends are stuck with a muddy slow one

I really don't see what Kana was learning here? No one complained about her having a nice, clean job and no one complained about her going to the mainland and they weren't having any trouble at all with clearing the mud apart from complaining about how stinky it was and that's it. Sure she wants to help her friends but like I said they were doing fine so why can't Kana learn that she can't feel bad about not helping her friends all the time because she was given an important job, regardless, and that was to take passengers since they're working on a railway, though looking from this show sometimes it's hardly serving people, instead of wanting to be with her friends. 

The message of her not trying to feel bad all the time is something I think kids could learn from instead of whatever the episode was trying to say. 

There's nothing much else to discuss, most of the episode was just Kana going to the mainland and Thomas and the others clearing the mud and complaining about it and that's it. Sure there was a rain storm and Kana was to deliver the sand bags to prevent another mudslide but that was it and I feel Kana didn't get anything out of it since the line was cleared anyway. 

This was such a bland, boring repetitive episode and even if Gordon was pulling coaches for the first time in this show, as some people have pointed out as something big, it doesn't take away the bad that was this episode towards a bland character who had personality in past episodes but never bothered to do anything with else with her afterwards. 

If they were going with the don't feel bad all the time message with Kana actually going through a dilemma, this could've been a good episode but they chose not too and we were given this.

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

Overall Rating (So far):
70/200

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.19 - Night Lights

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

NIGHT LIGHTS

Written by

Andy Yerks

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

25/05/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

Thomas & Nia's light play comes to James' rescuse in the dark 

It's actually refereshing that we finally have an AEG episode that's not focused on Thomas, Nia, Percy, Kana or Diesel all the time. James was actually the most entertaining character in this episode since he act so much like his original series counterpart with his boastful nature along with his impatiences and annoyance so credit to Andy Yerks for doing that and also James' annoyance towards Thomas in this episode when it comes to the lights he was wearing feels relevant to me since even, quite obviously, I can't stand the characterisation of Thomas in this show overall. Edward could've taken Gordon's place since those two had much better chemistry together but I don't think Mattel wants to have an engine that they don't see as something profitable.

The song was, as usual, pointless filler that could be filled with James going into different directions, it would be repetitive but it would at least add something to the story when it comes to James' old lamp acting funny and James realising his own stupidity, yes we had that in the episode but progression would've been nice to see James' growth instead of Thomas and Nia singing a song about playing at night where it adds nothing to the story. 

However, despite the usual AEG tripe that the writers have to come up with, the episode itself wasn't that bad. I do like James in this episode and is little progression towards Thomas and Nia and I think if you remove the typical AEG stuff, it could be one of those stories that could work in the original series. 

I think it's good that AEG adds in some variety for a change but it's a shame that, very likely, it would be once in a blue moon because Mattel thinks people want to have a restricted cast with episode ideas that are almost the same instead of variety, just like this show's merchandise line. 

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

Overall Rating (So far):
69/190

All Engines Go! Review - S3 Ep.18 - Bruno's Blustery Day

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

BRUNO'S BLUSTERY DAY

Written by

Daniel Share-Storm

Directed by

Campbell Bryer 

Produced by

Suzie Gallo

Air Date

18/05/24 - CAN

19/09/24 - US

Plot

Bruno and the engines team up to complete an urgent delivery in windy weather.

One interesting thing about this episode was its inspiration from the writer himself, I suggest giving it a read. From reading it all and seeing the episode I love how it shows Bruno struggling asking for help, especially with Executive Functioning which is something that I'd learnt from reading his backstory. This really increases the representation for people on the spectrum through Bruno and I loved it and while I much prefer the message of the story not telling us the message and rather showing it, it didn't diminish my interest in it at all. 

I would've criticised how Bruno has the power to move himself as a consistency problem like with the many other inconsistencies the show had but with Bruno asking for help to be pushed down Canonball Curve to save Diesel adds purpose to the message of the story and that works unlike some of the other episodes that makes an inconsistency for the sake of plot when really it wouldn't even matter like Thomas, Kana and Diesel trying to save Percy in the previous episode or Thomas said that he couldn't plough through field or swim despite that we've seen him and his friends doing that multiple times.

It's nice that we got to see Bruno with some character development as well when it comes to the subject matter too. I also love Bruno's shed and thanks to Daniel's backstory of the episode, I'd learnt that the hexagons on walls was to block noise from outside the shed, very clever addition since Bruno is representing children on the spectrum. I don't have any other big problem with the episode. It was a nice episode and it's great that we finally got a Bruno episode this season. This would have to be the highest rated episode so far for me.

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

Overall Rating (So far):
62/180