It’s not often I feel the need to live-tweet anything I’m watching, especially anything I am watching with my children, but the brand-new extended episode, Bluey: The Sign, left me with opinions I wanted to share with the world. And here we are now, on a long overdue entry in Parental No-Scope.
Life happened, and I haven’t had the time to share it here. School, work, travel, illness, family, holidays. It never stops. So, my writing has taken a backseat, but that is a story for another time. I think the most relevant story right now is our bedtime routine.
Bedtime has been a nightmare for us since she started kindergarten in September. Every night is a fight, and we all end up exhausted the next day. In the last few months, we have started a “wind-down routine” to help get my 4-year-old daughter down at night. About 45 minutes before it’s time to sleep, we lower all the lights and watch about a half hour of a movie. The movie usually lasts three to four nights, and she always looks forward to that quiet time with Mom and Dad before bed.
I’ll be honest; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But the extended episode, Bluey: The Sign, came out right after we finished Encanto—again—and its 31-minute runtime was the perfect length for our new routine. Bluey has always been the best of the kid’s shows, and after 174 episodes, that still rings true. So, of course, we jumped to watch it instead of starting Lilo & Stitch for the fourth time.
Here’s the thing, though. I wasn’t prepared for what 31 minutes of Bluey could do to our family. Normally, we are in and out in under 10 minutes. Jokes are made, lessons are learned, and everyone moves on with their lives. Bluey: The Sign did what 173 other episodes didn’t: it brought us together, had the kids asking questions, and evoked empathy in my 4-year-old that I’d never seen before.
My son is nine going on 19, so he never wants to hang out with us anymore, especially not for “kids” movies. He would rather be playing Roblox on his new gaming PC in the bedroom. Occasionally, we lure him out with the promise of snacks, but today, he popped up on his own. He sat for about 15 minutes with us and then said he was leaving, but suddenly appeared again and finished the show. I didn’t say a word. I was afraid I’d spook him. It was nice to have all four of us winding down together for more than five minutes.
The boy child was the first one to react to the show. During the first few minutes, we see Bluey talking to her class. Everyone seems to be chatting about what is going on in their lives. One pup said, “My moms…” causing my son to pause and say, “Two moms?” which prompted a great conversation. He understands that anyone can love anyone, but he didn’t get how the mom part worked. The next line was about a mom and a dad who didn’t live together anymore, which he also can relate to, as I’m separated from his father.
“Bluey: The Sign really packed a whole lot into its half-hour runtime, and a lot of it isn’t just for kids, which is why Bluey is great for parents, too.”
The real storyline in the show, however, is about how Bluey’s family is moving. Dad gets a job in a new city, and they need to sell their house. Bluey and Bingo spend the episode trying to stop it from happening or complaining. There is a secondary storyline about Frisky, too, which allows everyone to go on an adventure. Bluey: The Sign really packed a whole lot into its half-hour runtime, and a lot of it isn’t just for kids, which is why Bluey is great for parents, too. There is an actual plot, jokes that are funny, and real emotion and lessons learned.
But we are here to talk about the kids right now. My 4-year-old chattered along and had all sorts of commentary, but it wasn’t until the last two minutes or so that I really saw her connect with something on a screen for the first time. Usually, she is half paying attention, mostly just looking at the animations and not listening to what they are saying (don’t I know that feeling). This time was different, and honestly, she didn’t know what to do with herself.
Bluey: The Sign spoilers are on the way! Right at the end of the episode, the whole family is packed into the car. The house is empty. They are ready to move on. Through a series of events, Bingo’s lucky coin sparks a series of events that cause the buyers of their home to back out of the sale. Dad gets a call, gets out of the car, walks to the “For Sale” sign that Bluey has been trying to remove the entire episode, and rips off the sold sticker.
Mom, Bingo and Bluey don’t know what Dad heard on the phone, but they watched on from the car, intrigued and hopeful. Dad powerfully rips the sign from the ground and throws it and the whole family dogpiles on him—literally. It was a truly great moment, and I was bawling my eyes out. But my daughter fell into her dad’s arms, just sobbing at the same time.
“It was a truly great moment, and I was bawling my eyes out. But my daughter fell into her dad’s arms, just sobbing at the same time.”
I gave her a few moments, and she couldn’t identify why she was crying; she just needed to. She said the song was sad, and we had a talk about what happened on the show, and what empathy was. First, the song is called Lazarus Drug by Meg Washington, who played Calyspo in the episode. It’s a stunning song, and when I went to look it up on YouTube, someone with 127 followers shared it. In less than a day, it received over 38 thousand views and 237 comments.
You can see the original music video for Lazarus Drug, posted by Meg Washington over two years ago, below.
It, too, has thousands of streams and a sudden influx of comments, all mentioning Bluey: The Sign. Something tells me these aren’t small children. The comments vary from “When Bandit ripped out the For Sale sign” to “The Sign is everything I love about Bluey taken to its maximum. As someone who moved a lot growing up, the heartbreak of having to say goodbye to friends over and over never got easier. Incredible song, made the ending hit like a truck.” There is an entire world of people watching this “children’s show.” It is really something special.
Bluey is changing the game for children’s television, really taking “family programming” to a place where it truly is a joy to watch for everyone. Bluey: The Sign brought my family together without my needing to ask, threaten, or bargain, and it got our kids asking really important questions. More importantly, to me, though, it was the first show my daughter connected with emotionally, and although she might not understand it fully, it is a moment I will never forget.
