"Do something instead of being afraid." - Let's watch 1990's Earth Day Special!

Remember back in 1990, when Gaia appeared in front of a kind-of-evil Robin Williams in the glorious form of Bette Midler and would've died if not for the valiant efforts of Neil Patrick Harris in-character as Doogie Howser M.D.?



All joking aside, yes, it's the cusp of the 80's and the 90's.  Yes, looked at from a certain angle, it's the weirdest "Always Sunny in Philadelphia" Prequel / "Ghostbusters" and "Back to the Future" Sequel ever.  And yes, this is a nearly two-hour movie where Gaia appears in front of a kind-of-evil Robin Williams in the glorious form of Bette Midler and would've died if not for the valiant efforts of Neil Patrick Harris in-character as Doogie Howser M.D. (and as far as I know, Michael Eisner wasn't involved).  And yes, there is a scene where Midler-Gaia, in a last-ditch effort to save herself, litters, and the litter lands near E.T. (who's just kind of there for reasons unknown), who turns it into a book that teaches some children and IDK, WTF.  But dang me if I wasn't genuinely moved by this special.  I mean, that bit with Kermit and Robin...


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Sketch of the Day!

In honor of all the adorable amphibians out there, meet my #Salamandersona!

"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 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.)