Sesame Street Season 46 Episode 4609 - What I Love About Art

[Oscarfan]

My only quibble with this episode (and most episodes this season so far) is the song . . . is it just me, or does it sound like the songs are written a little "rushed"? It sounds like the lyrics are just thrown into a melody and some of the verses sound like mouthfuls being crammed into the tune. Maybe it's just me.

That's precisely how they're done, though. The writers write lyrics into the scripts and them the music director "farms" it out (his exact terminology) to someone in his team of composers to set it to music.

 

[D'Snowth]

I don't doubt that, but what I mean is like what you've pointed out before with certain foreign dubs of songs, where they have extra verbage they have to squeeze into a line, the songs recently seem like some of the lyrics are really crammed into a certain line or verse, making it sound more like rambling. I have no doubts the songs have to be written and composed quickly for use on the show, but it's kind of more telling and obvious as of late. But then again, I'm no songwriter or lyricist, so like I should talk anyway.

 

[antsamthompson9]

I hope someone like @Daffyfan2003 tunes into this episode on PBS tomorrow. It's worth watching just to see Telly at his best.

 

[CoolGuy1013]

So, What I Love About Art. I guess it's time for me to talk about what I love (and hate) about this episode. I'm actually a bit of an artist myself, often drawing in school once I finished my work (not really important to the episode, but something of note nonetheless). But is this episode a work of art, or just a mess? Let's find out.

The cold open features Grover talking about the many different things one can use to make art, fetching each one as he discusses it. Of course, since this is Grover we're talking about, he ends up making a big mess. It's actually kinda funny seeing it all happen.

Now for the street story, which mainly just features Telly, Abby, Elmo, and Big Bird making artwork, with Telly freaking out whenever Abby makes art "wrong". Since that's really all there is to it, I'll probably just go over (fittingly for the episode's title) what I love about the story (and get to the less good stuff later).

1. I love Abby's more creative ways of making art, such as using rubber chickens as paintbrushes or making sculptures out of crayons. Telly may not be amused, but I sure was.
2. Big Bird's drawing and painting looked really beautiful.
3. I loved Telly freaking out over Abby making her art supplies fall out of the sky, thinking she made it "rain junk".
4. This one's somewhat of an extension of number 3, but it actually felt in character seeing Telly freak out over Abby's more inventive ways of making art, even claiming she's "doing art wrong".
5. Telly's sculpture he made at the end of the episode looked really cool. I love all the recycled materials in it.
6. The song, while ultimately pointless, is pretty catchy nonetheless.

And that's about it for things I loved. Now onto the less good stuff.

1. As I said earlier, there was really no purpose for the song to be there. It's catchy, but overall really pointless. And the brief reprise at the end is even moreso. I don't know why most of this season's songs don't sit right with me. I hope that changes.

All in all, this was an actually pretty good street story in my opinion. Probably one of the better ones so far. Looks like this streak of overall average episodes might be over...

But enough about that, time for the letter of the day, which is A. We don't get a letter (or even a "letter") segment in this episode, instead getting a bit that's pretty much a "letter" segment, except it never even mentions the letter at all. It's uninteresting. What is interesting is that this bit actually didn't premiere in an episode, but rather in the 2015 special The Cookie Thief (which I'll review later as part of Episode 4935, which coincidentally also has this bore in it). Other than that, not much I can say.

Now for Murray Has a Little Lamb, which features Murray and Ovejita going to art school. Like the music school one I previously talked about, nothing entertaining really happens here. It mainly just features them making pictures of fish with oil pastels (which, admittedly, is an interesting choice of material) and then painting over them. If there is one thing I found amusing in this segment though, it'd be Murray making...something...out of clay and asking "What the heck did I make?" That was actually a little funny.

Now, it's time for the number of the day, which is the biggest number they've used in the HBO era so far, 18. We actually do get a segment this time, featuring a man painting tiles in time lapse and arranging them to resemble an 18, all while people count to 18 in the background. I expected them to use this the second I heard 18 was the NOTD (either that or absolutely nothing), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
I've always enjoyed this bit, especially because it premiered in one of my favorite SST episodes as a kid, "Hurry Up, You're Running Out of Time" from season 39. And the NOTD was actually my favorite part of that one, not just because of this bit, but also (and moreso) because of the "18 Sandwiches" song. That song is definitely in my top 10 favorite Sesame Street memories.
But back to this episode (and segment), even if it's not quite my favorite, I still really enjoy it whenever it's in an episode.

So, what more can I say about these EW repeats. They're badly cropped, they edit out over half the original segment, and they're just an excuse to cut corners and keep money. I will admit that it was interesting to see something form the early 2000s (and I mean very early 2000s) air on SST today. But other than that, it's just the same old same old. And this is only the fifth episode in the HBO era with EW, the FIFTH! I still have a lot more where this came from...

Overall, this is definitely my favorite episode of the season thus far. Sure, it has its weak moments, but it has really good moments too, and is well deserving of an 8/10. It's no masterpiece, but it's good enough for me. Stay tuned for next time when I review "Say Thank You to Your Face Day".