"The Sign" from "Bluey"

Every time this newsletter hits your inbox, it comes with a promise: That it’s about stuff like “Bluey,” but that it’s not actually about “Bluey.” I figured enough had been written about “Bluey,” and would continue to be written about “Bluey,” that I could clamp down and not write about “Bluey.”

But I saw “The Sign,” and it opened up my vise. 

“The Sign” is the latest episode of “Bluey,” but you likely know that already. The episode wasn’t just supersized in length -- 28 minutes compared to the usual 7 -- but also in discourse. The coverage has been rapid and the page titles have been optimized:

• USA Today: “Is ‘Bluey’ over after emotional ‘The Sign’ episode? What we know”

• Vox: “Is ‘Bluey’ ending? ‘The Sign’ explained -- and the show’s future”

• Vulture: “Is ‘Bluey’ Ending? ‘The Sign’ Controversy Explained”

• The Atlantic: “Is This The End for ‘Bluey?’”

• Bloomberg: “Is ‘Bluey’ Ending? Disney’s Worried Biggest Kids Show Ever Is At Risk”

I understand the existentialism -- “Bluey” is a public good, and ending it would be tantamount to a city defunding its library system (and no mayor would ever dream of doing that). But all the talk about whether “Bluey” will have new episodes distracts from what’s actually in “The Sign.” It’s an elegiac meditation on the nature of home, a madcap romcom about the perils of miscommunication, and, very atypically, an episode disinterested in Bluey and Bingo’s imagination. The show seems as stressed as the Heelers do about the changes that may be coming, and that stress leaves no room for play. If this newsletter were a kids TV show, I’d say there’s a lesson in there.

Let’s get the plot stuff out of the way. Bluey’s family is selling its house and moving out of town so they can move for Bandit’s (the dad’s) new job. Everyone is ambivalent at best about the move, and Bluey is in despair. She tells her class, “My dad is moving us to another city, and I’ll never see any of you ever again,” and all the dogs howl with sorrow upon hearing the news. But she has a plan to prevent the move: Remove the “For sale” sign in front of the house. Easy! 

At the same time, the house is having one last party in the backyard. Bandit’s brother, Rad, and Frisky, the kids’ old babysitter, are getting married out there… but maybe not? Rad wants Frisky to move after the wedding, Frisky does not, they get into a fight, Frisky calls off the wedding, and there’s a race to restore the status quo before everything falls apart.

The plots are a nifty piece of screenwriting -- two different sets of characters trying to figure out what decision is best for them. The grown-ups’ different approaches -- the Heelers unmoving in the face of headwinds while Frisky lifts her sail to fly away as fast as possible -- are familiar to any of us who obsess over major life decisions. Bandit says he just wants his kids to have a better life, and that a new job and more money will lead to that. Frisky likes her life as is, why mess with a good thing?

“The Sign” wants us to stop worrying and start living. When Bluey’s teacher hears the Heelers are moving, she tells Bluey a parable about a farmer who has good and bad things happen to him, but it’s never clear which is which. The farmer’s horse runs away! Bad luck! “‘We’ll see,’ replied the farmer.” Then the horse comes back with three more horses. Good luck! “‘We’ll see,’ replied the farmer.” One of the horses throws the farmer’s son off its back and breaks the kid’s leg. Bad luck! “‘We’ll see,’ replied the farmer.” And on and on. 

The grown-ups in “The Sign” aren’t as enlightened as the farmer. Their decisions -- and their potential mistakes -- are all they can think about, and in a way it’s all the episode can think about, too. As the adults are scrambling around town trying to pack up the house and save the wedding, the kids are accessories to the grown-ups’ tasks. This is a radical shift for “Bluey,” which nearly always centers the kids even when it’s the parents who generate an episode’s action.

Think about “Take Away,” a classic episode from Season 1. Bandit takes Bluey and Bluey’s sister, Bingo, to a Chinese food restaurant to grab dinner. The genius of the episode is it knows what happens the moment you take kids on an errand: the errand becomes about the kids, not you. As they wait for the food to be ready, Bandit just wants to read the newspaper. But instead he has to occupy the kids, taking Bingo for a “bush wee” when she can’t hold it any longer, navigating their hangry pleas, helping them play shopkeeper, the usual. 

Bandit is annoyed, but the show is more interested in the kids’ games than his side-eye. Then Bandit gets a fortune cookie that says, “Flowers may bloom again but a person never has the chance to be young again.” Just like that, he’s reminded of what’s important, and they decide to dance under a faucet so they can all feel young together. Lesson learned, heart stirred, episode over.

“The Sign” is too stuffed to pay full attention to the kids’ joy. Other than the attempt to lift the “For sale” sign out of the ground, all of the kids’ games happen in the corners of the frame. It’s their turn to be background players -- the parents’ decisions are too big, too weighty, too high-stakes. Meanwhile the kids are still nattering on in the backseats, or on the porch, or on the dance floor. Their worlds keep spinning even as the grown-ups are stalled out waiting to make their decision or waiting for their decisions to be made for them.

I’m not sure whether this inversion of “Bluey’s” usual dynamic is intentional, but I’m not sure that matters. “The Sign” felt true because all that stress and all those extra moving parts made the episode more mundane than the usual “Bluey.” It held the show to the ground when usually a Bluey episode soars like a dreamy fruitbat in the night’s sky. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The farmer would say that’s the wrong question to ask.

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We watch three episodes of “Bluey” every morning before school. My 4.5-year-old cannot read, but she can identify the episodes based on picture alone. I asked her to recount the plot of “The Sign,” and here’s (a mildly edited version of) what she said: 

They were gonna move, but then they saw a different house on the telescope. See, the wedding was canceled, but then, like, Bluey’s grandfairymother tried to lift up the sale sign and then she left when she called Maggie. That was the kids’ grandfather, and then she came back and Bluey had to sit in the front seat. And the kids were sitting in the backseat -- Bingo and Socks and Muffin. Close to the end of the show, the wedding, she changed her mind, the wedding was gonna go on. And then she decided to put on lights in the cage -- like a little tent -- she put on pink lights and rainbow lights. And they danced. And that’s the end of the episode.

A good reminder to put the lights on in all of our cages.

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