Will “Bluey” end? “The Mark” – and the future of the show – explained.

If you don't have kids or are living under a rock, let me introduce you to someone. Her name is Bluey. She is a 7-year-old girl who lives with her younger sister Bingo, her father Bandit, and her mother Chili in the rural Australian city of Brisbane. She's also a dog, a blue heeler, to be precise. And cartoon. And it's really big.

The brainchild of Australian animator Joe Broom, Animation is for Kids bluish It premiered in its home country in 2018 before taking the rest of the world by storm. In 2023, bluish He was The second most popular streaming show In the United States, where it was watched for 731 million hours.

But analogy is better bluish's power lies in the mental space of tens of millions of young fans and the wallets of their parents, who have bought enough books, toys, albums, juices, cakes, etc. Even theater tickets To make bluish Brand With an estimated value of $2 billion. (As Bluey herself might say, it's too much.) dollarbucks.)

This is the reason for the last episode of bluishwhich hints at a possible end to the series, was extremely shocking — not only for its child audiences and their parents, but also for major media companies like Disney that rely on a never-ending supply of content like… bluish.

But like childhood itself—for both children and the parents who watch them grow—there's nothing quite as beautiful bluish It is meant to last forever, unchanged. And this may be the lesson the show has been trying to tell us all this time.

Bluey, Hxplained

You have to watch bluish — And you definitely should – really understand what makes it so superior to the vast, often polluted river that is children's television content. It's funny in a way that 5 year olds and 45 year olds can appreciate.

But it pays bluish In the realm of the masterpiece lies Broome and his colleagues' ability to incorporate real-life themes into the rich world of their childhood. Aging parents, Infertility, Parents fighting, Sibling rivalry: Each of these complex themes gets its moment among Keepy-uppy games. And not in an educational way, especially after school. lessons bluish Both children and parents were not told; They lived.

You can see it for yourself in the latest episode, released globally on April 14, a 28-minute special titled “SignalBandit has a new job, one that Chili tells the kids “could provide them with a better life” – but one that requires selling their beloved Brisbane home and moving across the country.

Any sudden, big move can be traumatic for children – and that's exactly what Bluey responds to. She becomes fixated on the “For Sale” sign outside her house, thinking with perfect childish logic that if the sign is removed, the house cannot be sold.

But life does not stop because of one child's crisis, either bluish Or in the real world. While Bluey struggles with the sign, her beloved babysitter tries to decide whether to go ahead with the wedding, while her mother, Chilly, deals with her doubts about the move.

Spoiler alert for all our 6-year-old readers today, readers made clear: The family, in the end, doesn't go through with the move. It has been An unusual decision For a show that did not generally stray from the challenges of reality.

In our house, at least, the ending was greeted with a flood of what my son and wife called “happy tears.” But much of the anxiety that has greeted “The Sign” has less to do with the episode itself than with the episode A very real opportunity It could mark, if not a complete end to bluishat least a big change.

If his current incarnation ends, there will be a flood of “sad tears.” But it will also confirm why bluish Very cool – and very unusual for children's programming.

Longest shortest time

bluish It's the closest thing a multi-billion-dollar media property can have to an actual artisanal production. She remained defiantly Australian, even down to the accents and language. Broome writes or co-writes all episodes. He kept production at his own studio in Brisbane, rather than subcontracting his production to cheaper countries.

All of this makes for grandiosity, and exhaustion, which critics reject I noticed it creeping in Broome's description of his position in the bandits. he He told Bloomberg Businessweek Earlier this month, he expressed concerns that it would repeat itself, and that the quality could not continue to rise. The slowness in announcing the fourth season, in addition to the feeling of a soft ending for The Sign series, It sent fans into a panic.

As you can imagine, studios like Disney and the BBC have a huge financial stake in continued film production bluish I have no desire to see it end. The streaming ecosystem needs a constant supply of new content to keep subscribers hooked and bring in new content (which is one of the reasons they're so excited about Dystopian Possibility of creating content using artificial intelligence). If quality suffers, it's a small price to pay to keep the IP flowing.

It is not clear what will happen with bluish Next, even though the producers are involved in the show I promised the fans It will come back in some form. But Broome spoke of his reluctance to replace the actors who play the voices of Bluey and Bingo as they get older, and the fact that as his daughters get older, he can't draw on their experiences as he once did.

I can relate. My son, who cried “happy tears,” will soon be 7, and he is getting older bluish region.

This is one of the party's basic facts Longest shortest time This is parenting. On top of the sleepless nights, the endless hours, and all that joy, raising a child is a long experience of loss. We lose the 1-year-old with his arms outstretched to be held, the 4-year-old bravely walking into his first day of preschool, and the 6-year-old who just wants to cuddle on the couch and watch… bluish. They've been replaced by new people we can't wait to meet, but the people we knew and loved, they're gone forever.

Maybe that's why I love bluish Very, very much, I wish it was over now, at its peak. Watching it is a time capsule of a moment that I will hold on to with all my might, even when I know I can't. I think Brom knows that too.

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