An Ode to Bluey
‘Just watch an episode of Bluey’ a friend told me at work.
I was a bit confused by this recommendation, I was aware of the show but as a twenty-one-year-old who does not spend much time with young kids, my post- exam watch list included shows like Schitt’s Creek or the Crown, probably not a children’s show.
But I had a spare hour recently and thought to myself, ‘why not?’ I went to ABC iview and I watched a few of the seven-minute episodes. I have to say I thought it was brilliant.
Bluey follows a blue heeler puppy who lives with her parents and her sister, Bingo, in Brisbane. Everyday activities like going to the movies and getting ice cream become hilarious adventures.
The show covers several topics that are of high importance for both children and parents. There are so many things to love about the show.
It has a strong emphasis on the importance of imagination and playtime, Bluey and Bingo spend their days making up games and stories, often including the parents as well. Even when the target market for Bluey is growing up in a world of screens, the sisters show how fun traditional play can be.
Another aspect I love is how involved the dad is with the family life. It is often something we overlook in children’s shows is that the mother is far more involved in the storyline and the father is more of an absent character. This tends to reinforce gendered stereotypes that we have about family roles. However, Bluey’s dad is very involved with playtime, housework and taking the children to various places.
However, probably my favourite part was seeing Brisbane portrayed in children’s animation. You can easily spot the City Cats, the Queenslanders, jacarandas raining on the footpath in Spring. Even an episode about taking the bins out had our distinct red and yellow lid bins. All of those things allow us as viewers to create social connectedness with the place many of us call home.
We often overlook the importance of Children’s TV, but it does play a pivotal role in our formative years. Shows like The Wiggles, Hi-5 or Playschool are pretty ubiquitous amongst most Australian children. It is something that is a strong part of our cultural identity.
It is worth looking at this idea in light of the recent government budget announcement that The Australian Government has announced a welcome $20 million in funding for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation, supplemented by $30 million in funding for Screen Australia.
However, mandatory broadcasting hours for children’s content have been scrapped for commercial networks at the request of commercial tv executives. Currently, there is a requirement for commercial television stations to air at least 55% Australian-made content. That content quota remains, but regulations around specific allocations for documentaries, drama and children’s content are being removed.
This is a concern as commercial networks may choose to fill that quota with more drama and documentaries, as opposed to children’s television given that it is more expensive to make.
There is also the question of how to make the big streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime invest more in Australian content, as they currently do not have local content quotas imposed by the government. This is a difficult question though as streaming services do not have a clear broadcasting schedule, unlike traditional TV networks.
These changes effectively leave children’s content at the mercy of the ABC and SBS, neither of which received a budget increase this year. Therefore, it remains to be seen how this additional children’s content funding will be distributed amongst the networks.
I do hope to see more programs like Bluey over the next few years because it shows how good our local kids’ content can be when it is done well. For anyone out there young or old, who is looking for a wholesome watch over the holidays, I could not recommend it enough.
Article written by Alex White
This article appeared in the Torts Illustrated 2.5. Begin Again (2020) Publication