Bluey charms everyone from toddlers to 10-year-olds, stoned college students to parents and grandparents. Creator Joe Brumm’s innovation is that a kids’ show can also be a perfectly adult sitcom, with creative storylines aimed squarely at mom and dad. Bluey and Bingo’s parents, Bandit and Chilli Heeler, can be great role models, true; they can also be exhausted, hungover, stressed about everything, and ready to cry.
Us, too. Add in jaw-dropping animation and wonderful music from a team led by Joff Bush, and Bluey might be the first great work of art that entertains young kids. Few adults stayed up past their children’s bedtime watching Mister Rogers or Arthur, but Bluey is almost as popular with older generations. That’s why, in an age of content overload, Bluey traveled so far from its beginnings on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, past streaming dominance on Disney+ to becoming a worldwide, all-ages phenomenon.
Below, I’ve done my best to rank every episode from worst to best. But worst is definitely relative, and even No. 154 is still better than a single minute of Cocomelon. I’ll explain why I enjoy some episodes more or less, but none of them are bad. Above all, this list is a love letter to a show that made everyone in my family feel seen.
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154. “Magic” (Season 3, Episode 114)
The episode called “Magic” has probably the least imaginative wizardry of any episode in Bluey. It’s just a Stars Wars Force push for the whole six minutes, and it doesn’t get put to more creative use than briefly forcing Bandit and Lucky’s Dad to dance. Besides that, Chilli’s proclamation that magic is “stronger in some than others” feels uncharacteristically elitist, and contradictis the message of other, better episodes.
153. “Backpackers” (Season 1, Episode 36)
The premise is nice, but backpacking turns out to be little more than a series of dull conversations with garden gnomes while toddlers punch Bandit in the stomach — a repetitive physical joke that doesn’t quite land. Even cousins Muffin and Socks can’t imbue this travel game with a sense of adventure.
