"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season Four, Episodes 24-26: The Grand Finale

"It's just a dream away
"You've got to leave to stay
"We'll meet again, someday
"Just a dream away..."
 - Mudwell

As we have seen on this journey through "Fraggle Rock", this wasn't your typical children's show.  The vast majority of such series never even get a true final episode, much less a three-part grand finale.  (It turns out that in some parts of the world, "Fraggle Rock" didn't get a "real" ending either because the final season never reached their shores, which is a damn shame.)  This makes the final three episodes of "Fraggle Rock" largely unprecedented.

So let's break it down.  We start with "The Gorg Who Would Be King", which I had not seen before and is a very nice sendoff for the Gorgs.  Through plot complications that are admittedly kind of ridiculous, Junior travels to Fraggle Rock and meets the Doozers and the Fraggles and the Trash Heap and sees more of the Universe he's being groomed to rule.  And he learns, for the first time, that the Fraggles and Doozers depend on his radishes.  That's a fantastic touch; we in the audience learned about this connection between the three worlds in the very first season, remember?  But that doesn't mean the characters know about it, and its a great lead-in for the next two episodes, which act more as a two-parter.

"The Honk of Honks" is a hell of a penultimate episode.  Cantus returns for another Medley, but this time he entrusts Gobo to lead and instructs him to create the trumpet blast that will signal the beginning of The Song of Songs.  The Honk of Honks signals the beginning of the end for the series.  To create it, Gobo must travel to all the different worlds and collect an instrument from all the major characters, and so we have our last significant encounters with Junior Gorg, Cotterpin Doozer, and Phylo and Gunge.  And so we have matter-of-fact interactions with characters who wouldn't even look at each-other back in the first season.  They're finally seeing each-other as people now.

Doc doesn't see Gobo at all.  That's the first major reveal in this episode and, I have to say, it's... weird.  I know what they were going for here; in the special features, the writer clarifies that she was inspired by the inattentional blindness phenomenon (specifically a personal childhood experience with it), and to her credit, she does stay on the "As a scientist, Doc desperately wants to meet a Fraggle, so he can begin to make sense of the strange goings-on in his workshop over the years and this hidden world he's long suspected but had no real proof of" side of the crevasse.  However, it tapdances so awfully close to the deep dark pit of "You don't have to make sense, just ~*~Believe!!!~*~" that it sticks in my craw.

But look at that scene where Doc and Gobo finally interact with each-other.  It's just beautiful.  This character who's been on the sidelines of this wonderful world we've been a part of for so long finally gets to join us.  Remember, Doc has never been able to personally interact with Fraggle Rock until now; once again, we're experiencing the place from an outsider's perspective.  And through Doc's wonder, we get a sense of the joy and awe we had ourselves when we started watching the series all those years ago.

And it is a world that, now that Doc has finally met one of its residents and is so full of questions about, he is going to have to leave soon.  After the Song of Songs (a sequence that I don't want to discount because it is freakin' glorious; basically the victory lap for the whole series with an awesome musical number and darn close to every single Fraggle character onscreen at once), we learn that Doc and Sprocket are moving away. 

They're preparing to move in "Change of Address", and in the opening of the episode, we learn that Doc has been "feeding" the Fraggles.  That's a fantastic little touch, but it's not clear why until a little later.  Gobo heads up to talk with Doc for, it turns out, the second time ever.  And Doc's behavior towards Gobo here struck me as surprisingly troubling -- until it hit me that Doc does not think of Gobo as a person yet!  Goodness, he's been feeding the Fraggles like you'd feed an animal you want to tame, starting with dog biscuits(!?) and moving on to pizza.  We know Gobo as a respectable intelligent being but to Doc, he's a funny little animal that can talk. 

Gobo is, naturally, put off by this.  He runs off and mopes while Doc and Sprocket close the door on the workshop for the last time ever.  Consulting with the Trash Heap, Gobo receives the cryptic advice, "You cannot leave the magic".  Rushing to share that with Doc, Gobo finds himself in a workshop that is completely empty but for a final message from Doc.  Meanwhile, in their new home, Doc and Sprocket long to find a Fraggle Hole (God, this sequence is heartbreaking) but to no avail.  But when all hope is lost, Gobo notices a tunnel he's never seen before, and then...

I have to be honest, readers.  The final three episodes of "Fraggle Rock" made me about a million times happier than I was at the end of most other series I've followed all the way through -- and they have also left me with a deep sadness and sense of loss like I haven't felt at the end of any other series.

That makes this three-part series finale the single greatest ending to a series I have ever seen.  I mean that.  At the very least, I think we can all agree that it is one of the most downright emotional series endings ever made.  It wraps the whole series up in a beautiful bow of a triumphant happy ending and leaves us to mourn the loss of a series that is, honestly, so noble.  And it is beautiful in its nobility, which is why it is so deeply painful to see something so truly wonderful end and... dammit, the words on my screen are getting all blurry again.

When they say "You can not leave the magic", they're talking to us viewers.  I called the series noble and beautiful and I stand by that.  I don't think it's possible to watch this series and not internalize it somehow.  It makes me want to be a better person.  It makes me want to make art that comes from a purer place.  At the risk of sounding cheesy, it is a part of me, as I am a part of it.

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 20 - "Gone But Not Forgotten"

First, the succinct version (since I know you've been missing NoFace; I was trying not to use him so often because I knew I'd be needing him for this one):



Oh man.  Oh, gee, we're at THAT episode.  And right after yesterday's episode too.  Give me a minute to compose myself, guys.  Okay.

One of the things that I have heard tends to alarm people when they revisit "Fraggle Rock" as an adult was the fact that this children's show with colorful Muppet creatures who sing and dance never shied away from the subject of death.  As a matter of fact, death is all over the place in "Fraggle Rock".  The Rock could be pretty terrifying; there are tunnels that can spirit you away to another world, bottomless pits, predatory caves, and vicious monsters lurking around the bend.   Simply put, the show wasn't afraid to get dark as f**k if it needed to.

Yet somehow, "Gone But Not Forgotten" tends to get mentioned most frequently as one of the saddest episodes (the other saddest episodes ever being "Marooned" and "River of Life", naturally).  And I think the reason for this is because while this is a story of how Wembly befriends a strange creature who passes away very suddenly, it doesn't really focus on that character's death.  It's really about Wembly's grieving process.

That's more unusual than you may think.  A lot of children's media approaches the subject of death, but most of them shy away from the subject of grief, because it is so much more painful to deal with.  (Hell, I'm having a hard time writing this review!)  But really, the sudden empty hole in your life is the very hardest part of suffering a profound loss.  It hurts so much, especially when it's a more personal loss, as is the case here.  Given that Wembly is, in many ways, still the most innocent character in the show, it's a tough thing to watch him suffer so, let me tell you. 

None of the other Fraggles knew Wembly's friend Mudwell, and the episode is wise enough to show how awkward and upsetting Wembly's personal grief is from their point of view.  For my money, this is the most devastating aspect of this episode.  They all want to help, they hate seeing their friend in such a state, but they just don't know what to say.

Rewatching this episode, it's poignancy reminded me a great deal of "Luck of the Fryrish" or "I Remember You".  And it made me wonder if the writers of "Futurama" and "Adventure Time" were influenced by "Fraggle Rock" in a way that runs deeper than the obvious "very funny series set in a richly imagined fantastical world populated with weird but endearing characters".  They at least share the same mindset.

In the end, Wembly discovers a way to keep Mudwell's memory alive, thanks to a very strange quirk of his friend's life-cycle.  And it involves song, which is a lovely touch, and a very Fraggly thing to do.  And the song's lyrics include some beautiful images that foreshadow the events of the final episode, which is just around the corner... 

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 18 - "The River of Life"

Throughout "Fraggle Rock", humans have almost invariably been referred to by the Fraggles as "Silly Creatures".  It's one of the most overlooked ingenious aspects of the whole series.

When we humans are the alien "other" to nonhuman point-of-view characters, you are almost guaranteed to see the rusty old "Humans Are Bastards" trope.  The writers of "Fraggle Rock" are smart enough to not avoid it completely.  But they put an unexpected fairer spin on it: humans aren't evil and we're certainly not intentionally mean, but we do some awfully confusing things sometimes.  And sometimes we do things that would look downright stupid from the outside.  We are, in a word, silly.

The Silly Creature we've been most concerned with in this series is... well, here's where things are going to get complicated, because where Canada and the United States had Doc, played by the irreplaceable Gerry Parkes, other markets around the world had a different human lead.  The fascinating thing here is that nearly all versions of "Fraggle Rock" had an older gentleman as their equivalent character.  You'd think our human emissary into the world of Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs would be a child for maximum audience-appeal points, and a less interesting series probably would have done that (there's a quick moment in "Uncle Matt's Discovery" where a little girl finds a Fraggle Hole that gives us a glimpse of that less interesting series).  But there's "Fraggle Rock" for you, subverting expectations at every opportunity.

In any case, this is one of the very few episodes where the human world directly intrudes on Fraggle Rock.  And your heart sinks at the revelation in the prologue that not only have humans found the "empty limestone caves" surrounding Doc's workshop and the Captain's Inn, it turns out that a few humans have already found an unsavory use for them: as a potential "safe" dumping ground for industrial waste.

I grew up in the early 90's.  I've seen a lot of programs try to do a "save the environment" episode.  An awful lot of them fail because they end up in way over their head; usually the issue ends up either too simplified or too overbearing.  Jim Henson would go to this well quite a few times, and he'd usually do a better job than most.  But I think this is his most powerful take on the issue, one of the best attempt at such an episode ever made by anyone really, and here's why:  At this point in the series, we've spent so much more time in the Rock than in the human world that it feels more like home than the human world does.  We've spent three and a half seasons with the Fraggles; that's basically like going to college with somebody.  So learning that somebody intends to dump poisonous industrial byproducts into the caverns of Fraggle Rock does not strike us viewers as a sad -- but faraway! :D -- tragedy (to borrow a phrase from another series).  No, it is nothing less than an incredible violation of our own home and beloved friends.  It's unthinkable.

And it gets worse.  Because here's the other remarkable aspect of his episode: who is this human who is threatening our home and our friends?  Who is this person who could, just by agreeing to the dumping, doom the Fraggles to extinction and the entire Fraggle Rock ecosystem to complete annihilation without even realizing it?  It isn't some dedicated "eco-villain" a la "Captain Planet" who evidently just thrives on hurting living things for the hell of it.  It's not a random character who is going to show up for only this episode, naively causes harm, learns to not do that, and promises never to pollute again and therefore gets to be an honorary Planeteer (yeah, this isn't the most original observation, but "Captain Planet" was not very good).  And it's not even a big, faceless scary corporation.  No, this episode doesn't go the easy route.  The person who could inadvertently kill all these wonderful characters we've grown to love over the years is Doc.  Yes, dear old kindly Doc, the nicest human character of all.  Doc who we know and love.  Doc, who we know would never in a million years do anything that would hurt another living thng, and certainly wouldn't even think of harming Fraggle Rock if he knew about it.  Holy sh*t, this episode; is it trying to kill me over here?  I need a beer and a good long stare at the wall, guys.

And so help me, it gets WORSE!  Because Boober, the only resident of the Rock who hasn't been poisoned, has tracked the source of the pollution to Outer Space.  And in a scene that is less "sad" and more "brace yourselves, audience, cause now we are just going to tear out your guts and stomp all over them", he kneels down at the entrance to Doc's workshop and pleads with the Silly Creatures to stop hurting his friends.  The thing is, he doesn't know that Doc and Sprocket have stepped out for a while, and the workshop is totally empty... except for us Silly Creatures in the audience... Oh, God...

The episode ends with the residents of Fraggle Rock well again, singing and merrymaking as usual thanks to Doc calling off the dumping project... and with Doc seriously wondering for the first time at those mysterious caverns under his home, thanks to the stack of postcards addressed to one Gobo Fraggle that Boober had left at the entrance to the tunnel to Outer Space. The more I think about it, the more I think this may be the single most profound episode of the entire series.

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 17 - "The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer"

The second half of the final season of "Fraggle Rock" is crazy emotional in its best moments, and I am probably not going to end up spending as much time as I should on this relatively lighter episode.  But I think there are some very interesting ideas presented in "The Trial of Cotterpin Doozer", so although it isn't the kind of crazy tearjerker the last few episodes of "Fraggle Rock" are rightfully known for, there are a few neat things to unpack.

So far, Cotterpin has been the main catalyst in bringing the Fraggle and Doozer worlds together by being one of maybe three Doozers ever who has even talked to a Fraggle, never mind made friends with one.  And this episode reveals that, really, Cotterpin herself IS the connection.  The other Doozers still think of Fraggles as those stupid weird bird-things that crash into their towers and eat their architecture.  A bullying Doozer calls her out and very suddenly Cotterpin finds herself on trial for consorting with Fraggles.  She'll lose her job unless she can prove Fraggles are intelligent beings worthy of the Doozers' respect.  And now that the trial has thus escalated, we've got ourselves the "Fraggle Rock" version of the good old Humanity on Trial story.

It's hard to tell if the Humanity on Trial story really is a rusty old science fiction trope or if it just feels that way, probably because it bookended "Star Trek: The Next Generation".  Never mind that in this series, we have an alien race putting a different alien race on trial instead -- and notice how closely we relate to Fraggles by now that they so easily slip into humans' role!  Humans had Captain Picard to defend our right to exist (we also got the Planeteers, according to TV Tropes; I really need to hunt that episode down because I can't even imagine...).  And the Fraggles get...

Well, they don't get Red or Gobo, like Cotterpin was hoping for.  Actually, they don't get any of the major characters.  They've all evacuated the Rock due to a Poison Cackler egg found nearby that's due to hatch soon.  So in a great subversion, Cotterpin can't pick the most noble or wise among the Fraggles to stand up for the entire Fraggle species.  Fortunately, "Fraggle Rock" is at the point where, as with "The Simpsons", there are lots and lots of terrific minor characters, and lucky for Cotterpin, a couple of them stayed behind.  And thus Cotterpin recruits the two Fraggles who must now step up for the sake of all Fraggles: Large Marvin and his sidekick Feenie.  Oh, dear.

Thus far, Large Marvin and Feenie have been little more than joke characters doing weird stuff in the background.  They are, as stated, not the most noble or wise among the Fraggles.  If you knew these two were your entire species' defendants, it would not exactly inspire confidence.  But they are still the only beings around who are big enough to tackle a Poison Cackler - and that egg that's about to hatch is nested right outside the entrance to the Doozer Dome...

This is the last episode that centers on the Doozers, so it is effectively the end of their story arc.  There was some chatter a while back of a fully animated Doozer spin-off series.  I said it before, and I'll say it again, I sure as heck didn't see that coming.  But more importantly, I wonder if that series is even going to acknowledge the other residents of Fraggle Rock or if its going to be set entirely in the Doozer Dome?  As violently opposed as I am to the very idea of CGI Fraggles (quick aside: on that note, let's not talk about any animated Fraggles.  Let's just not.  Nope), I'd hate to see the Doozers deprived of their context.  It'd be a betrayal of all the work the original "Fraggle Rock" series did to bring these worlds together.

Okay, who's ready for a long string of emotional gut-punches?

"Fraggle Rock" Month: Season 4, Episode 9 - "Wembly's Flight"

Well, here we are already at the final set of "Fraggle Rock" DVDs.  I didn't think we'd be here so early and I'm already feeling pretty down, knowing that the end is near.  Sadly, march on towards the final episodes we must, although we need to talk about network scheduling weirdness first.

The final twenty-four episodes of "Fraggle Rock" were produced as one final season.  In America, HBO ran the first half of that last season as "Season Four", then ran the second half the next year as "Season Five".  I'm going to ignore all this and just refer to the last season as Season Four, partially out of convenience, and partially because, upon review, the first half of this season set is... I'll be very nice and call it a bumpy ride.

And I say that with full knowledge that even at it's worst, "Fraggle Rock" is still the very best children's television program ever produced.  A bad episode of "Fraggle Rock" is still a damn sight more fun to watch as an adult than a good episode of "Johnny Test" after all.  But a bad episode of "Fraggle Rock" (and Jim forgive me but there are some real stinkers in this demiseason; I won't have any regrets skipping past the especially tedious "Space-Frog Follies" and "Mirror Mirror" next time I watch this series) hurts an awful lot more because we know how excellent this show can be.  It just really feels like the writers of "Fraggle Rock" may have hit a wall at this point in the series and that's sad to see. 

I did like a couple of the episodes in this batch.  "Wonder Mountain" is a very funny episode with some imaginative stuff in it, but it feels like it'd be happier as an "Adventure Time" episode. "A Tune For Two" is pretty cute but is rightfully best known for the song "Children of Tomorrow".  "Uncle Matt's Discovery" and "Red's Blue Dragon" have some very nice -even genuinely poignant- character moments, but they also involve a very strange new plot device that is introduced in the former and then utterly ignored except for the latter, which also spoils the poignancy by turning into a tonally discordant wacky slapstick chase scene that seems to go on for freaking ever.

And then there's "Wembly's Flight".  Of the episodes in the front half of Season Four, this one gives me the most to discuss.  And even then, I appreciate this episode more for what it is trying to do than for what it actually does.

Here's why I at least appreciate the idea behind "Wembly's Flight":  It has -up until a certain point- almost exactly the same plot as "Elaroo's Wishday".  A character wonders out loud about how cool it would be to be able to fly.  That character somehow gets the opportunity to make a wish and wishes to be able to fly.

You know how this story usually goes from here, right?  Because this is not only the plot to "Elaroo's Wishday", it's the plot of the early Disney cartoon "The Flying Mouse" and the staggeringly irresponsible children's book "The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings" as well.  At one time, both were listed under TV Tropes' Warped Aesop page and here's why: what usually happens next is that the flight-enabled character is now resented or even hated and feared by their friends and family specifically because they are able to fly.  Because of this, they go back on their wish, wishing to just be normal again.  "You don't want to be different and special, kids," is the moral of the story, "I mean, you don't want to fly, kids!  Why, if you were able to fly, everyone you love would shun you for... some... reason... Well, never mind!  Point is, just trust us kids.  Those grapes are SO sour you couldn't even imagine."

"Fraggle Rock" being "Fraggle Rock", once Wembly is temporarily able to fly (as an aside, the ability is granted to him by a magical creature who looks like a mysterious old man [or a cuter version of a character from "The Dark Crystal"] but self-identifies as a beautiful Fairy Godmother, so we have our second instance of nontypical gender identity in the children's series from the early 80's to go with the awesome female characters and older characters and once again, look at how freakin' easy this is), the story goes in a very different direction.  And after it does, it falters for a bit, but towards the end it does something awesome.  Instead of the old "I'm sad cause I can fly" ending, this episode instead says, "Eff that noise!  Being able to fly would be AWESOME!  And if you're ever able to fly, don't do it for other people's reasons, just do it because it is awesome!"  And so we get a great song about how flying is terrific and the episode ends with a long sequence where Wembly flies around Fraggle Rock, having a blast.

So, really, not the most thought-provoking episode we've seen in this marathon.  But there will be plenty of those in the second half of this season.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 4, Episode 1: "Sprocket's Big Adventure"

(Note: This is the twenty-third episode included on my [relatively] old season three DVDs, but I have recently learned that it was aired and produced as the first episode of season four.  We'll talk about the scheduling weirdness of HBO next week.)

So here we are in the last (or second-to-last depending on what part of the world you were in -- but again, that's something we'll talk about next week) season of "Fraggle Rock" and at this point the Fraggle world, the Doozer world, and the Gorg world have all interacted with one-another somehow.  And the Human world, our world, has interacted just a little bit with the Fraggle world.

There's the obvious fact that humans have met Uncle Traveling Matt on his adventures in "Outer Space".  And now it is tangent time, cause I can't believe I haven't talked about this yet.  "Outer Space" is the Fraggles' term for our world, and I never truly realized the brilliance of that until I considered this show as an adult.  This gives "Fraggle Rock" all the hallmarks of a xenofiction series.  We're seeing the whole world through the eyes of the Fraggles, so the unknown alien creatures living in an unknown alien world, we realize with a little shudder, are us.

Sprocket, Doc's loyal dog, is a truly horrifying alien creature to the Fraggles.  Earlier in the series, he and Gobo came to a kind of understanding after Gobo helped Sprocket when he was trapped in the tunnels leading from the workshop to Fraggle Rock.  Now, they're friends, which comes in handy when Sprocket becomes lost in the tunnels of the Rock in this episode.

Here's the crazy thing about this episode, and the reason why I love it.  At this point in the series, we are more familiar with the worlds of Fraggle Rock than we are with the human world.  And just now, we're getting to see this world from the point of view of an outsider.  I'd like to point out that most series set in a fantastical imagined world do this in the very first episode/book/whatever.  Meanwhile, "Fraggle Rock" dropped us right into the fantasy world from the start with almost no hand-holding.  It doesn't do the obligatory episode where a newly arrived character is given a lengthy tour and has all the details of how the place works explained to him until the first episode of the final season.  You guys...

Anyway, Sprocket makes his way into Fraggle Rock and, in yet another nice subversion, meets with Cotterpin and her Doozer crew before any of the Fraggles.  And Cotterpin recognizes how lost this poor beast is and shows him the way to his home -- which, she assumes, is the Gorg's garden.  So Sprocket meets Junior Gorg and Marjory the Trash Heap.  The latter turns out to be fluent in canine and helps poor Sprocket find Gobo and the way back to Doc's workshop

And so we have the table set for the major crossovers between the worlds of the final season.  That does it for the third season set.  Next week, we head into the last season of "Fraggle Rock, which includes several episodes I have never seen before.  I'm just warning you, this could get emotional...

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 3, Episode 18: "Bored Stiff"

Okay, let me level with you, dear reader.  This is not the most psychologically dense episode of "Fraggle Rock" ever made.  It is not the most sophisticated.  And yet...

And yet, I think of all the episodes from Season Three, this one made me the happiest.  Look at that climax again!  Look at it!  Great Wish-Granting Creature, we get to see that the Gorgs and the Fraggles are finally dancing and singing together in the spirit of harmony -perfect harmony, if you will- to one of the most delightful earworms on the song score so far!  And they're doing it to help each-other because...

I think I need to back up a little.

Okay, so Ma and Pa Gorg are feeling romantic (At this point, the Gorgs are basically a much less cynical version of Chuck Jones' Three Bears), but the spot where they first made out is infested with Fraggles.  Pa finds a nasty potion, Boredom Juice, in the shed and is determined to saturate the whole Fraggle tunnel with the stuff.  But Junior is worried because he has begun to befriend the Fraggles in earlier episodes, most notably "The Great Radish Caper".  The Rock gets sprayed, the Fraggles suffer fatal amounts of ennui, and it's up to Junior and Gobo to save everyone with a magical song-and-dance number -- and of course, they'll have to deal with their differences and work together to do so.

So at first glance, this episode is just fun.  The aforementioned song-and-dance number is truly terrific and showcases the wonderful physicality of these characters.  And I still have the "Touch your nose / then touch your toes" song in my head.

But dig a little deeper and you've got a beautiful case of character development here.  We got hints of it in earlier episodes, but now it is very clear that "Fraggle Rock" has a genuine gosh-darn myth arc going on here.  This is the episode where Junior and the Fraggles finally start coming to an understanding.  Consider this: in the first season, the Gorgs were almost straight-up antagonists!  For a Gorg to even talk to a Fraggle was unthinkable back then!

And given that Fraggles have already befriended Gorgs and Doozers, there's only one other world left to fully connect with...

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 3, Episode 9: "Wembly and the Mean Genie"

I have to say, I don't envy the "Fraggle Rock" writers here.  For two and a half seasons, we've learned that we can all get along and with a little effort and understanding, everyone can be friends.  And now here we have an episode that has to say, "Welllllll, not everyone who says they're your friend is, kids.  Matter of fact, in your life, you're probably going to have some relationships with so-called 'friends' that are downright poisonous.  All we can do here is maybe help you recognize that most insidious kind of bullying early enough to stop it."

The realization that not everyone who says they're your friend has your best interests in mind is a pretty soul-crushing experience, isn't it?  We all have someone in our past that we wonder why we ever hung out with them.  Thankfully, none of them were magical jerkasses (I'm assuming; I don't know who you associated with in the dark, regretful times of your life, dear readers).  Unfortunately, poor Wembly is not going to be able to say he never hung out with such an awful being.

The magical jerkass in question is -and this is brilliant- a Genie.  Genies are very powerful supernatural beings that get trapped in bottles for unreasonably long periods of time.  Once you let them out, they are so happy to be free, that they grant you wishes.  Or, in the understandably less popular stories, they're so angry about being trapped for so long, that they wreck havoc.  You can probably surmise from the title which approach this Genie takes.

Ah, but Genies are also in part defined by the certain rules they must obey.  And this is why the metaphor in this episode is ingenious: the whole solution to this conflict hinges on Wembly realizing how dangerous this "friend" really is and being brave enough to wish he would stop.  And better yet, we learn the Mean Genie has a sympathetic side and is willing to listen to reason. 

As a very important aside, I have noticed that "Fraggle Rock" takes pains to humanize every antagonist.  Yes, even in the episode that reinforces the lesson from this one, the pretty nightmare-fuel-erific "The Incredible Shrinking Mokey" (man, talk about a non-indicative title!)  As a mater of fact, there is only one character, Wander McMooch, who can truly be classified as a straight-up villain.  Tellingly, he's in a grand total of two episodes because he runs so contrary to the show's intent.

Anyway, I would be regretful indeed if I did not mention that this episode had one of the greatest, craziest musical numbers in the whole season.  Mean Genie may be a magical jerkass, but he's got a pretty awesome kid-friendly psychedelic/punk rock thing going on.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 3, Episode 8: "Believe it or Not!"

I'm very happy to report that despite yesterday's lousy episode, season three may be the overall best season of "Fraggle Rock" thus far.  The writers and performers know the world and the characters very well by now, and they're freed up to tell much more sophisticated stories.

Today's episode is a doozy!  I was going to pass it over for discussing a more popular episode like "The Secret Society of Poobahs" or "The Bells of Fraggle Rock", but the more I think about "Believe it or Not", the more it fascinates me (and besides, Tough Pigs already did an excellent writeup on "The Bells of Fraggle Rock", and who wants to celebrate the Winter Solstice right after the Autumnal Equinox anyway?)  I remember reading that the story was pitched as an exploration of the subjective nature of reality, which is mind-blowing.  It's one of the most psychologically dense episodes in a series full of them. 

Red and Wembly venture out into the Gorg's Garden seeking adventure and they find one in Skenfrith.  Skenfrith is a little furry, vaguely Stitch-like whatsit.  Oh, and his appearance and character depend entirely on what other people think of him.  If you like Skenfrith, he remains a cute little guy.  If you're friends with him, he'll start to imitate you.  And if, say, Skenfrith takes up residence in your long-neglected basement without your knowledge, and you're kind of afraid of what might be lurking down there when you go down to clean, he turns into a monster.

So on the one hand, this is a funny romp with the Fraggles and the Gorgs and their encounter with a magical little creature with weird powers.  And on the other hand, it is an episode of a children's program about how we project our fears onto people we don't understand.  It is warning its young audience that their prejudices and phobias are only going to make them believe that whatever -or whoever- they're afraid of is scary and monstrous, and of how deeply harmful it is to project our worst expectations onto others.  And then it offers some reassurance (along with another series thesis statement): If you get to know somebody who may seems strange or different, you might just see they're not so scary after all.  And remember this is in 1985.  Holy s**t, guys

I already mentioned how I'm in awe of "Fraggle Rock" right?  Cause if I haven't, it bears repeating here.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 3, Episode 4: "The Grapes of Generosity"

Here we are in season three of "Fraggle Rock".  Once again, I'll be picking five especially interesting episodes to discuss over the week. Today will be a little different because thus far, I've only reviewed episodes that are objectively good.  Today's episode is... well, I hate to say it but it is not good.  Actually, it's bad.  But it's the reason why I disliked this episode that's why I'm bringing it and up at all.

And to be fair, "Grapes of Generosity" isn't even the worst episode I've run into so far.  Yes, I regret to say this but sometime near the end of the second season, I ran into the first episodes of "Fraggle Rock" that were honestly real duds.  "Red's Club" basically ignores the most heartwarming moments in "All Work and All Play" and Red treats Cotterpin horribly throughout.  "Doozer Is as Doozer Does" delivers a deadly earnest anti-peer pressure "just say no" message as if it's required by broadcast law (to be fair, it was 1984), with all the enthusiasm that implies (by the time we get to the scene where Wrench Doozer runs into an Uncle Matt postcard Gobo very conveniently left on the bridge he happens to be crossing, I could see the writer's crying, "Eff it!  For Chrissake, we're puppeteers and you want us to do an anti-drug message episode?!")  Furthermore, both episodes seem to go on for f-ing ever.

Basically, a bad episode of "Fraggle Rock" tends to feel like a betrayal of the characters and setting the writers have taken so much time and effort carefully constructing, or of the no-longer-surprisingly mature and non-condescending writing.  They're good markers for how incredibly awesome the series is as a whole.

So here's "The Grapes of Generosity".  I suggest, if you'd like to suffer slightly less through this episode than you would normally, to get a powerful drink and take a sip when you hear the word "generous(ity)".  I'll meet you down here on the floor.

The plot: So, there are these magical grapes that appear to a Fraggle who needs to learn to be more generous (drink).  They appear to Gobo, who's aw-shucks real happy to find the Grapes of Generosity (drink) but heck, he doesn't need them!  He's plenty generous (drink) as it is, right?  But the Grapes of Generosity (drink) are SO delicious, that Gobo ends up eating them all because... well, because we got a moral about generosity (drink) to give here so he's going to have to act wildly out of character for plot reasons, deal with it.

Anyway, Wildly-Out-Of-Character-And-AWARE-Of-It-Which-Makes-it-Worse Gobo eats all the Grapes of Generosity (drink) partially out of naked greed, partially because of a misconception that this will make him more generous (drink -- by the way, at this point it probably looks like I'm exaggerating but I am not.  So help me, the script really is like this).  But then Mokey arrives to clarify that if a Fraggle eats all the Grapes of Generosity (drink) by himself, he actually -shocker- becomes LESS generous (drink) and also becomes weightless (wut).

Well, you gotta admit, at least that last plot twist was... I'm going to use the word "different".  Be generous (drink), or the laws of physics are just going to give up on you.  Gosh, that's all well and good for fraggles, but what are we humans to do?  (Never mind the horrifying fridge logic - Gobo is damn lucky he lives in a system of caves.)

Anyway, Gobo ends up rescuing Red (ugh, speaking of characters acting weird for plot reasons).  And because he did this out of generosity (drink), he -uh- gets his weight back.  I guess because those were enough dodgy Chroma-key effects for one night.  And the characters all eat the Grapes of Generosity (drink) and good times are had by all.

What an overwrought, exasperating episode!  It's actually painful to see the main characters act as ridiculous as they do here.  At the same time, it's a good reminder of how much we expect from the show at this point in the series.

(And as lousy as it is, this episode at least has a fantastic reminder that it is 1985 in the Uncle Matt sequence.)

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 2 Episode 15: "Manny's Land of Carpets"

Great Gorgs, we're here already!  We're at one of the episodes I was most excited to revisit and discuss and I'm stunned that it's already here in Season Two!  Seriously, having first seen it as part of TNT's rerun of "Fraggle Rock" sometime in the early 90's, I assumed "Manny's Land of Carpets" would have come from much later in the series; perhaps even the final season due to its go-for-broke "It's the end and we want to go out on our own terms, so look at what subjects we're tackling NOW!" mentality.  But nope, it's already here in the second season.  I'm floored.

So then, let us discuss "Manny's Land of Carpets", also known as the episode where the concept of God is accidentally introduced to the Fraggles and almost completely destroys their society.

(Obligatory "I am not looking for Dark and/or Edgy Subtext in something innocuous; that really IS the subtext" disclaimer.)

Okay.  Obviously this is an unexpected place for a kids' show with cute singing puppets to go.  It all starts innocently enough.  To save his sensitive ears, Sprocket hides a malfunctioning radio that Doc has been trying to fix deep in the tunnel leading to Fraggle Rock.  Gobo assumes this is a gift from "The Wish-Granting Creature".  See, an earlier postcard from Uncle Matt introduced Gobo to the concept of Santa Claus, as filtered through Matt's misinterpretation-prone brain.  No, this isn't a Christmas episode (in hindsight, that would have been incredible) but it is our first clue that there's something an awful lot more interesting going on here than the supposed bland "advertising/technology is bad" message some folks apparently got from this episode according to a few episode guides I've seen online (by the way, what the hell happened to all the "Fraggle Rock" fansites out there?!)

Gobo enlists the aid of Wembly and Boober to bring the strange machine to the Great Hall so the other Fraggles can enjoy it, but Boober protests.  Whatever this thing is, he says, it doesn't belong in the Rock.  Boober is outvoted, and the Fraggles bring the radio down to the Hall.  At first, it is a wondrous thing, a magical box that occasionally plays music when the signal comes through -- but sometimes they can hear the voice of the Wish-Granting Creature himself.  He tells Gobo of a wonderful place where "your happiness is guaranteed".  Another Fraggle messes with the dial and the Wish-Granting Creature promises him endless "all you can eat" food and pleasure.  Eventually, even Boober is seduced with the prospect of truly spotless laundry.

The Fraggles are thus separated into three factions with staggering speed, each group arguing with ever-increasing fervor over which of the Wish-Granting Creature's promises is the true one.  And all the Fraggles are ready to split up and leave the rock for good, wandering the unknown world in search of a better one promised by a wildly misunderstood disembodied voice.  Until, after a bit of soul-searching, Gobo finally decides that the box really doesn't belong in Fraggle Rock and, frankly, that they're all better off without this confusing Wish-Granting Creature.  So they bring the thing back to Doc's workshop (and in the surprisingly poignant epilogue, Doc wonders aloud what kind of awful impression people around the world would get from the things broadcast by his town's local radio station.  Remember, this was a pre-anyone-can-get-on-the-Internet 1984.)

Holy sh*t, guys.

This episode is f-ing fascinating.  I want to note how very different "Manny's Land of Carpets" looks and feels from any other episode of "Fraggle Rock".  It honestly looks and feels an awful lot more like a classic "Twilight Zone" episode.  There are frequent ominous cross-fades, and the climax is shot almost exactly like the end of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street".  And there's that eerie red light on Doc's radio, reminiscent of similarly unnerving features on all the slot machines, telephones, and other devices Rod Serling loved to imbue with a malevolent intelligence.

More importantly, what struck me even harder during this episode, aside from the brilliant central concept and general "I can't believe they're actually going there" awesomeness, is seeing how much "Fraggle Rock" has matured.  The Fraggles would lose a lot of their innocence in the back half of Season 2 (this episode was soon followed by the more famous "Fraggle Wars"), and it would be the start of many more subtle and thought-provoking stories told in the Rock.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 2, Episode 14: "The Secret of Convincing John"

Identity continues to be a major theme in this season.  This episode is one of my favorites that confronts that theme, since it finally gives me a reason to talk about Wembly.  Revisiting "Fraggle Rock" this time made him bar none my favorite character in the series.

Let me put it this way: Red is the character I tell people I identify with the most, Wembly is the character I actually identify with the most.  In some respects, he feels almost like a prototype version of Dory from "Finding Nemo"; the cute, funny comic relief character with a funny psychological quirk -- that, it turns out, actually causes the character a lot of personal grief and their friends a great deal of annoyance.  All the while, they're terrified of losing their friends, since their friends are the only thing keeping them stable enough to function.  Wembly is a fantastic character because we see both how he'd be almost impossible to live with and why the other Fraggles choose to do so; he's still so endearing, you love the little guy to pieces.

In the beginning of this episode, a moment of indecisiveness on Wembly's part almost causes a disaster and he's wracked with guilt afterwards.  He seeks the extreme psychological counsel of Convincing John to, err, convince the indecisiveness away.  Convincing John is Jim Henson's other signature character on "Fraggle Rock" and I think he only appears two or three times in the whole series.  But oh man, what a fabulous character!  Half pop-psychologist, half televangelist, and all crazy-awesome.

Now the way this kind of story usually goes (hey, there, "Wuzzles"), the character who has been changed is either miserable and wishes to go back to normal, or they gradually turn back to normal because of "Status Quo is God" reasons.  "Fraggle Rock" being "Fraggle Rock", they're going to take this in a direction we don't usually get to see.  This time, it's Wembly's friends who miss the old Wembly.  Meanwhile, Wembly doesn't want to change back, but he doesn't realize that decisiveness has turned him obnoxious.  Worse, he may bring his friends into even more danger than he would have as a neurotic if he stays this way.  Of course, it turns out that Convincing John is pathologically indecisive too...

One of the greatest things about "Fraggle Rock" is how the characters all have some pretty deep flaws, but they're all realistic flaws.  Gobo is brave and kind, and also arrogant when he's not being Emo.  Red is bold and sensitive, and she's also stubborn and kind of a brat.  Boober is reliable but a black hole of fun, Mokey is compassionate but self-important, Wembly is loyal but annoying, and Traveling Matt is courageous but insufferably condescending.  And we love them all the same.  They're our sisters and brothers under the feathers and felt.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 2, Episode 8: "All Work and All Play"

Identity has been a major theme so far here in Season Two of "Fraggle Rock".  We've already talked about Boober and Sidebottom.  I will let a more knowledgeable/qualified person discuss the apparently genderfluid nature of the Trash Heap in "The Trash Heap Doesn't Live Here Anymore".  And in the (considerable less heady) episode just previous, "Mokey and the Minstrels", we learned that wanting to be something hard enough doesn't necessarily mean you get to just be that thing you want to be.

And in some respects, today's episode appears to underline that point in red crayon.  It is a hell of a lot more interesting and moving, though.  First of all, this is the very first time we get to enter the hidden world of the Doozers.  Turns out they had a tiny city tucked away within the walls of Fraggle Rock all this time, and we finally get to go inside and meet these little bug-gnome creatures on a more intimate level.  Up until now, the Doozers have always been kind of alien, but this episode sets out to make them more endearing.

I like how Flange from "The Great Radish Famine" is still kind of our emissary into this world; that's great continuity that is!  But the hero of this episode, and in fact the Doozer we will be primarily familiar with for the rest of this series, is his daughter Cotterpin.  As an important side-note, if you've been paying careful attention to this series so far, you'll notice that Cotterpin is our fifth well-rounded female major character in a series full of awesome female major characters and Goddammitsomuch mainstream fiction writers, look at how easy this is!!!

Anyway, Cotterpin is "different".  She's never really been interested in building towers out of radish candy sticks.  Cotterpin, much to the consternation of her parents who are both builders and wish for her to be a builder too, wants to draw in her Sketchbook instead.

Oh, tais-toi, mon coer... 😪

The problem is, building towers out of radish candy sticks is kind of the defining trait of the entire Doozer species.  So Cotterpin decides, instead of going through with Doozer Confirmation, that she'd rather be a Fraggle when she grows up (oh, honey child...)  She has some reason to think this could happen; there is an old Doozer legend where a Doozer who stopped working and started playing all day transformed into a Fraggle.  Now, Cotterpin befriends Red during this misadventure and it is basically the most adorable thing ever.  (Not least because Cotterpin shares a voice/puppeteer with Mokey.  Subtle and awesome, that.)  Red loves to swim.  Doozers are physically incapable of swimming.  And Cotterpin realizes in shame that she'll never be as awesome as Red -- but Red promises there's no reason they can't stay friends.  And excuse me while I turn into a blubbering wreck.

Anyway, Cotterpin returns to the Doozer city in deep shame and has a long talk with an adult Doozer.  And here's where a brilliant episode has its most wonderful moment, since it isn't her father or her mother that she meets upon returning.  It's the Architect, the leader of the Doozers.  And while he has been an authoritative figure towards Cotterpin so far in the episode, here he says that he's realized that he and she have an awful lot in common, and... and...

Aw, damn, here we go again:



I hope you like that .gif; we're going to be seeing it a lot in this series.

Season two, it turns out, has many episodes that further the overarching plot of the series, notably "A Friend in Need" and "A Cave of One's Own".  This one, by far, is the best of them all. 

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 2, Episode 6: "Boober's Dream"

As we have seen in several of the episodes I've already highlighted, "Fraggle Rock" can be surprisingly psychologically dense.  So it isn't that surprising that they'd go ahead and do an episode about a major character being haunted by a nightmare manifestation of things he has kept deeply repressed.

I feel like I'm going to have to do the same kind of disclaimer I had during the "Walk the Dinosaur" analysis.  This isn't me looking for Dark and/or Edgy Subtext in Something Innocuous, this IS the subtext of the episode.  Boober has been having reoccurring nightmares about a being known as Sidebottom.  That's the "fun side" of Boober that he always keeps locked down "in the bottom".

That's fascinating.  As I said before, Boober is basically the foil for the carefree other major Fraggle characters because he cares about *everything*.  He's practically turned worrying into a lifestyle.  He never gets to let himself have any fun at all, so any normal fraggle impulses he ever had are now incarnated as a hyperactive agent of chaos.  (It just dawned on me that this is "Fight Club" with Fraggles...)  Sidebottom would come back in a couple of other episodes, both of which are very funny, but he'd lose the slightly sinister aspect of his personality, which made him more interesting.

By the way, shut up about the basic dream-sharing premise of "Inception" not being the most original idea in the world already. XD

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 2, Episode 5: "Uncle Matt Comes Home"

You guys are ready to see No-Face again, right?  Cause this is another episode that blindsided me.



We wish our friends "bon voyage" and see them off on their long journey, hoping they will experience fun and excitement -- and secretly expecting them to stay essentially the same when they come back to us.  And on the other side of things, that voyaging friend kind of expects life back home to be in a kind of stasis until they return.  It's fascinating because this is all kind of a ridiculous assumption, and we should know that it's ridiculous, right?  Time marches on!  The cruel, inevitable march of entropy spares no living thing.  Yet it's always a huge shock, whether we are the returning person or the expectant relatives back at home, to see just how much has changed.

This episode nails that feeling beautifully, and let's talk about it before I start bleating "Landslide" at you.  Uncle Traveling Matt, as advertised in the title, has come to visit Fraggle Rock after exploring the human world for, let's say, about a year.  When he left, Gobo was much less mature (indeed, he even looked younger thanks to some early installment weirdness regarding his character design.)  Matt still treats his nephew as a naive little kid, a well-meaning but misguided older relatives often do.  And honestly, it's heartbreaking to see (the reprise of "Every Mornin'" is a hell of an "I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying" moment.)

Uncle and Nephew eventually reconcile, but it takes surviving a rough journey and some intervention from Wembly before they come to an agreement.  At the end, the feeling is more bittersweet than anything, but at least the two explorers of Fraggle Rock have come to respect each-other.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 21: "Gobo's Discovery"

All joking aside, "Gobo's Discovery" blindsided me.  I remembered this one as the episode where Gobo gets all emo and there's an invisible monster or something.  I did not recall the reason for Gobo's angst, and while there is an effectively scary invisible monster, the real invisible monster here is all in our hero's head.

Gobo, as I have already mentioned, is our de-facto leader and an explorer.  In this episode, we learn that he never really called any of this into question, but a particularly terrifying visit to Doc's workshop got him thinking.  And he realizes that he never asked for this life; it was kind of thrust upon him by his uncle.  There's a long path of risky decisions and shattered childhood dreams stretching behind him and a lifetime of danger and fear in front of him.  All of this causes Gobo to suffer what can only be called the Fraggle equivalent of a mid-life crisis, and he spends most of the episode moping in bed.

That's some heavy stuff for a kids' show isn't it?  I don't think this is the kind of problem you're going to see tackled in "Super Why".  This is where "Fraggle Rock" is at this point in the series.  No subject is off-limits.  This is the kids' show that isn't afraid to go there.

The other Fraggles are desperate to get Gobo out of his depression.  And mind you, that's before the invisible monster (the one who is not inside our hero's head) attacks the Rock.  At that point everyone is clamoring for Gobo to get off his fuzzy butt and help drive the beast back into its lair.

The conclusion to this episode is kind of fascinating.  As an explorer, Gobo has developed skills that none of the other Fraggles have.  He really is the only one who can save everyone from the monster because he knows where it came from and how to trap it.  And he learns that even if exploring isn't what he's always wanted to do, at this point it's what he's meant to do.  So, kids, even though you may grow up and not be where you dreamed you'd be as a child, other people are going to be counting on you, so it's almost kind of selfish to mope all day that you grew up to be an accountant instead of a rock star.  Again, that's pretty heavy and unexpected, but it's another big step in humanizing (or Fragglizing?) Gobo. 

Next week, we'll start in on season two - and I'll be writing the reviews right after watching the episodes this time instead of all at once.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 20: "The Garden Plot"

Full confession: I had forgotten completely how awesome this episode was.  It is, on the surface, a "just for fun" episode.  It's a very funny episode, but there are a couple of interesting things going on in it.

Up until now, the Gorgs were mostly a gang of big, bullying ogres. They had a few funny moments, but they weren't very sympathetic.  For the first half of this episode, that hasn't changed an awful lot.  Junior Gorg is still treated as a very intimidating threat to our Fraggle heroes, and the bulk of the plot covers his plan to destroy the Fraggles' tunnel into the Gorgs' garden once and for all.

The Fraggle temporarily left to face this attack while Gobo deals with another crisis is Red.  Now, I've already talked about two Red-centric episodes and here's my chance to explain why I love her so much.  Red was my favorite character by far as a child, mostly because she was awesome and funny and active and loved to swim.  So in other words, I loved her surface features.  Rewatching the series now, she really won me over.  It's because she has all the marks of a "Strong Female Character" -- except she also gets to be insecure and vulnerable and emotional, as seen in her incredibly moving solo song here.  She gets to be a character, with admirable, sympathetic, and even contemptible traits.  Mind you, this is all in a show with five fantastic, well-rounded female leads and where incidental characters are more likely to be girls.  Look at how freakin' easy this is, everybody!

Junior's plan to destroy the Fraggle tunnel fails for convoluted plot reasons that leave both him and Gobo badly injured and delirious.  And this is where a great episode turns wonderful.  The characters all sing a silly song together to keep Gobo's spirits up and it turns out Junior knows the song too.  And we have an adorable flashback to Pa Gorg singing to a baby Junior.  Pa and Ma both return to a ruined castle shortly thereafter and their first concern above all else is whether their son is safe.  This is where we finally see another side of the Gorgs, and finally we have a real reason to sympathize with them; they're us but, uh, larger.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 19: "The Great Radish Famine"

So before we get into the big ideas in this episode (about which, in the good old bad old days of the Internet, essays were written.  Long ones), let's talk about world building.

There are, generally speaking, two approaches you can take with creating a setting.  You can do what most shows do and focus on the story and just make stuff up along as you go, making sure you keep everything moderately consistent -- or not.  Or you can do what the writers of "Fraggle Rock" apparently did: invent an entire imaginary world from the ground up and then play in the giant sandbox. 

That's kind of amazing.  I can't think of another children's program that sinks so much energy in creating a consistent fantastical ecosystem.  "Great Radish Famine" is the first episode that spells out explicitly the fact that we've been exploring a completely realized interconnected world.

There's a damn good reason why they spent so much time on this world, and you can think of this episode as the "Fraggle Rock" writers' thesis statement.

Up until now, we've been primarily concerned with Fraggles.  We have only very briefly visited the Gorg World, and the Doozer World.  Both Gorgs and Doozers have been presented to us from the Fraggles' point of view as mildly interesting (or dangerous in the Gorgs' case) Others.

This episode marks our first extensive visit to the Gorg and Doozer worlds.  In particular, this is the first time Doozers become actual people to us viewers.  Up until now they had about ten lines of dialogue in total and were basically fantasy Mound Termites -- if Mound Termites were adorable little bug-people who build their giant nests out of piles of candy.  They'd be developed even more in later episodes, as would the Gorgs (we'll get to them tomorrow).

The key concept in this series is that all three of these species are intelligent, noble, profound, and dependent on each-other in some way or other -- and each one thinks that they have nothing in common with the other two.  And the brilliant thing is that, in point of fact, Fraggles are very different from Doozers who are in turn very different from Gorgs.  This episode throws them all into a crisis with apocalyptic stakes and if they're ever going to survive it, they need to at least acknowledge they each depend on the other while having to deal with their differences.  (Note how parts of this episode illustrate the sheer difference in scale between the three worlds!)

The very greatest scene in this episode happens in the last few minutes.  We get one of the most genuinely sweet songs of the entire show in a scene that honestly gets me every damn time.  And immediately afterwards, we see a hilarious and surprisingly cynical dip into (dare I say?) political satire.

And here's the wonderful part.  After all that, we get some reassurance from a voice of authority character that even though that last scene looked bad, very bad, things are going to be alright.  This was the big turning point because the various worlds are now at least aware of each-other.  They know they have at least one thing in common, and it set the stage for more crossovers between the three -but really, four- worlds.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 18: "The Minstrels"

One of the reasons why "Fraggle Rock" is so acclaimed has a lot to do with the music.  Music had always been part of Muppet productions, whether it furthered the story, helped define a character, or was sung just for fun.  "Fraggle Rock" took Muppet music to a whole new level.  By the time we hit "The Minstrels", the first episode of the show explicitly centered on Fraggle music, we've heard songs written in the style of every imaginable popular genre and even a few unpopular ones.

You probably already know this, but Cantus was Jim Henson's signature character on the show (though he performed a few other characters, including Convincing John).  Henson could only work directly on "Fraggle Rock" a few times, since he was busy with other productions at the time, most notably "Labyrinth".  And Cantus, who only shows up for maybe one episode per season, almost feels like he's entering the Rock from another world entirely.  Now we'd had a couple of mysterious, dreamy moments before in the first season of "Fraggle Rock", particularly in "The Lost Treasure of the Fraggles", "Finger of Light", and "Capture the Moon".  Here we're confronted with a mysterious, dreamlike character. 

And here I hate to admit it, but as a very young child watching "The Minstrels" for the very first time, I was right with Red in her frustrated cries of "Who IS this guy?"  Weren't older characters supposed to give straight answers?  Or explain everything?  Cantus broke the rules and blew my mind to smithereens.  I'd never seen a character like this before in a kids' show and I wasn't entirely comfortable with him the first time I watched this episode; he was too cryptic and strange.  Of course, by the end I was totally on board with him.  To this day, I think he's one of the best characters on the show. 

The writers of "Fraggle Rock" were in the middle of a streak of amazing episodes.  I was lucky enough to find the old "Fraggles Search and Find" VHS back in college, and I used this episode and the next one I'm reviewing to introduce people to the series.

"Fraggle Rock" Month - Season 1, Episode 17: "Marooned"

Well first, here's the succinct version of my reaction to "Marooned":



Okay.  This episode's gonna make you cry.  A lot.  (If it doesn't I want nothing to do with you.)  Let's try to discuss it without breaking down again.

One of the main reasons why I have such nostalgia for Jim Henson's productions where so many other shows I watched as a child are forgotten is this: the Muppeteers weren't shy about making their young audience feel ways about stuff.  The Muppets could go to some pretty unexpectedly sad places as discussed here, and there were moments in "The Muppet Show" that blindsided and haunted me both as a child and as an adult with their open poignancy.  It certainly helps that, above all things, the Muppets are sincere.  "They are vain and hopeful, selfish and generous, complicated and true," wrote Roger Ebert in his review of "The Muppet Movie", and this quote has stuck with me forever because it is dead on, "They mirror ourselves, except that they're a little nicer."

So what we have here in "Marooned", which many "Fraggle Rock" fans agree may be the best episode of the first season and perhaps the finest episode of the entire series, is essentially a bottle episode (of the Trapped in a Freezer subtype).  And it is a character development episode, as so many bottle episodes are.  And, again, like many bottle episodes do, the two characters being developed here are two characters who haven't had much to do with each-other and don't seem at first glance to have anything in common.

But Great Gorg is this one effective.  And for me the reason is this: the two characters trapped by a cave-in here are Red and Boober.  At this point in the series, we don't know much about either character.  Boober serves as kind of a foil to the other Fraggles; while other Fraggles don't seem to worry about anything, Boober worries about everything.  The only thing he seems to have a grip on is laundry; it's the thing he's in charge of, so it's the only thing he feels he has control of in his life.  And as for Red... well, I'll discuss her in more detail in a future episode review.  But right now, we know that she's a very active wild child who has some insecurities carefully buried deep inside.

In short, we have two characters here who, I just realized here, kind of personify two very different reactions to anxiety.  You can either let it control your life, or bury it deep within you to save face -- but also make it all the more intense when it does break out.  When Red and Boober find this common ground, it's incredibly moving.  The song they sing together during this moment is haunting.  People, this is up there with "Feed the Kitty", the "Married Life" sequence in "Up", the "Souls don't die" scene in "Iron Giant", and the flower scene in "Brave Little Toaster" in terms of, "You can gauge whether you raised your kids right based on their reaction to this."

(I'd be remiss if I did not mention that this episode also has one of the most downright adorable Doc and Sprocket B-plots.)