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Sam and Friends BookWhile every episode has it's own thread to discuss and as the season is over, how about a conversation on the season in general?
Ovarall, I thought this was a decent season. It had some strong street stories, but more than it's fair share of meh ones. I'll break it down this way:
The Good
The self regulation initiative has been painfully anvilicious. Painfully. Sometimes they aren't just shoehorned into the episodes, they're driven in with a railroad spike. The Mother Goose and "Grover can Do it All" episodes are prime examples of how heavy handed and clumsy it became. The Mother Goose episode didn't need it at all, and the Grover episode had to stop a (very good) song dead cold in the middle to shove a breathing exercise that was repeated at least 20 times by then. As for episodes that dealt with it, to be fair it was a mixed bag. Some of them handled it nicely without being overbearing, but for the most part, repetitive episodes with hyperactive fairytale characters. Not that this isn't an important thing for kids to learn, mind you. But Crumby pictures already took care of most of them in a funnier, better handled and more subtle manner. And the one time they SHOULD have used the self regulation they didn't. The one where the number 15 was spending the entire episode having the least funny temper-tantrum on television. And you know me. I love George getting upset and Seamonsters eating Scrooge's ice cream. But why was that the one episode they glazed over? Seems like a natural place to put it. I'd say it's the third most annoying initiative behind engineering and nature. Really, Sesame. Next time incorporate this stuff subtly, or confine it to one segment.
Ovarall, I thought this was a decent season. It had some strong street stories, but more than it's fair share of meh ones. I'll break it down this way:
The Good
- While there's something to be said about the over-reliance on the "self regulation" imitative this season (I'll get into that later), I'm glad they handled certain topics that I see many a misbehaved kid struggle with, especially the movie behavior episode.
- It's great to see them continue to have Guy Smiley make appearances here and there, and recasting Ernie has paid off nicely so far. Classic characters should be kept on the street along with the newer ones.
- On that note, Ryan's Elmo has come along nicely. The perfect combination of making Elmo his own and making sure he's exactly how he was left.
- Segi getting a street story. There's such great potential for the character other than insert songs. Having her interact with other, more famous and established characters gives Segi a nice hold on the street and the viewers.
- Cookie Monster was jut excellent this season, and the new Cookie Crumby Pictures were overall very good.
- Hey! New Super Grover 2.0's
- Numericon. Just Numericon.
- New letter and number segments are always welcome. While the Martian Beauty remake wasn't great, it's nice to see Sesame Street redoing old classic skits. A nice compromise between dropping them completely from the show.
- It seemed like there was a subtle shift away from parody segments overall this year (not counting the Cookie segments), and we managed to get a couple great, classic style skits with Muppet characters.
- Strong episodes were really strong, and it's great to continue to see stories about Oscar and Big Bird as well as Bert and Ernie and Grover.
- Cameos by other characters in Murray segments. Why don't they do this more?
- Nice celebrity selection this year. Even the standard "celebrity does a parody of their own song" was for the most part. Even One Direction's song parody had better lyrics than the original, but The Power of Yet was simply amazing.
- Susan and Luis, who haven't been active on the show much made some memorable appearances. Changing the Fix it Shop to a Fix Bikes Shop not only makes it more contemporary, but it gives Luis something to do on the show.
- The letter/number intro songs, as well written and catchy as they are grew very tired very quickly. Especially with no variation other than the number version which only changes a line to fit the number into the song. Really should have made 2 or 3 songs for each and alternated. While I get what they were doing, it seems that it took time out of the show and was vastly inferior to the Murray announcements which at least tended to be ore varied, and thus less repetitive.
- While the strong episodes were really strong, the weak episodes were extremely weak. Some even managed to feel rushed, ruining otherwise potentially good episodes, like the Thrift Garbage Shop episode. But the bad ones were... ugh.
- I understand the need to space episodes out (to an extreme I'll get to) but SW failed to have it work in their favor. Similarly themed episodes ran one after the other, repeat footage from the same season ran within a few episodes of each other as well.
- Said repeating of footage while the parody segments didn't come until the half way point, and even then the later of the half way point. Why were Power of Yet and Spanish Me/English Me within a couple episodes of their debut? Even "Two Worlds" appeared relatively early then again a while down the road.
- Abby is sliding the heck into Stepford Smiler territory. That's a huge shame, as the character still has potential. It's nice to know she's no longer the awkward sausage of the group, but some of that awkwardness made the character work. Smiling and waving Abby? Seems she could have been any character in some episodes.
- While I don't usually complain that such and such a character made meager appearances, what the heck was up with The Count only appearing in a word of the day and the number intros? Didn't seem like Matt was too busy to perform the character
- They're still using the *&^%$ Sesame English Letter segments. They're still using those *&^%$ Sesame English Letter segments! And the can you see the number in the pile of rocks segment. Snoozefest.
- Abby's Flying Fairy School hasn't had a new segment in 2 seasons, yet is still on the program. Reruns of an overly rerun segment in new episodes. Counting the rerun episodes... that's a lot of macaroni dinosaurs!
- 15 and Penelope Penguin are officially the most annoying and abrasive characters to ever appear on the show. Horatio the Elephant and Rodeo Rosie look at them in disgust.
- Not even bothering to utilize the 45th anniversary. A couple rare characters popped up in the background infrequently. Why not bring back the Hidden Gems? Even the inside joke ones? Why not even just open the season with Numericon instead of a weak episode about chicken school? I could complain about the outside refusal to market this with collectibles, books, and DVD's... but the show didn't even change the theme song for the occasion until next season.
The self regulation initiative has been painfully anvilicious. Painfully. Sometimes they aren't just shoehorned into the episodes, they're driven in with a railroad spike. The Mother Goose and "Grover can Do it All" episodes are prime examples of how heavy handed and clumsy it became. The Mother Goose episode didn't need it at all, and the Grover episode had to stop a (very good) song dead cold in the middle to shove a breathing exercise that was repeated at least 20 times by then. As for episodes that dealt with it, to be fair it was a mixed bag. Some of them handled it nicely without being overbearing, but for the most part, repetitive episodes with hyperactive fairytale characters. Not that this isn't an important thing for kids to learn, mind you. But Crumby pictures already took care of most of them in a funnier, better handled and more subtle manner. And the one time they SHOULD have used the self regulation they didn't. The one where the number 15 was spending the entire episode having the least funny temper-tantrum on television. And you know me. I love George getting upset and Seamonsters eating Scrooge's ice cream. But why was that the one episode they glazed over? Seems like a natural place to put it. I'd say it's the third most annoying initiative behind engineering and nature. Really, Sesame. Next time incorporate this stuff subtly, or confine it to one segment.
