I'd argue Peppa Pig is not crap, it's quite funny and surprisingly watchable by grownups. Not something I'd watch by myself, but I didn't get bored when I watched it with my daughter. Of course, the art style is no good, intentionally so, I suppose for budget reasons.

I'd argue Bluey is "a better Peppa": similar kind of humor (slightly more elaborate, but not by a lot) but with great artwork.

Try Hey Duggee - it's not as explicitly British-coded, but there's a ton of stuff in there if you were watching Spaced in your late teens and now find yourself a parent…

There are plenty of great TV shows and movies set in London at least.

Its weird - I know about little american towns like Boulder, Colorado. I've never been there. But I know what it looks like because its featured - or at least mentioned - in plenty of movies and shows.

But the population of Boulder is just 100k. Australia has lots of way bigger cities - like Brisbane, Queensland (population 2.8 million) or Perth, WA (2.4 million) that are never depicted on screen. Even on Australian TV, I basically never see brissie or perth shown at all. I only know what they look like because I've visited.

But maybe that's normal in the english speaking world - at least outside the US. We've gotta raise our game and make more good content.

Peppa Pig doesn't attempt to portray a particular place afaik. Axel Scheffler's books often have visual references to Blackheath/Greenwich, with particular places often recognisable. Perhaps you think those are crap too, though.

Were you longing for all locations being on hills, or endless roadwork done by Mr. Bull?

They definitely have been using it in tourism campaigns, especially with Bluey's World: https://teq.queensland.com/au/en/industry/what-we-do/marketi... https://readytorumble.com.au/advertising/for-real-life

It really is an amazing place to live (although hot in the summer!), but career opportunities can be limiting in Australia and Brisbane. Catriona Drummond touches on the same in her substack [1] mentioned in the OP:

> As I mentioned, before Bluey I’d resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted to achieve something resembling my ‘full potential’ on a technical level as an artist, I would have to not only probably move to the United States [...] > Even deeper than that, was the pervasive thought that perhaps for my whole life I was just never going to be in the right place at the right time. That being from somewhere like Brisbane just meant I was doomed.

[1]: https://goodsniff.substack.com/p/creating-bluey-tales-from-t...

It is!

I'm afraid I don't have the specific episodes burned into my brain well enough to remember the names of them all. :)

That said, one that's burned into my brain is when they're walking along the South Bank riverside; the episode is apparently called "Ice Cream". The shot at ~0:48 in this video: https://youtu.be/cBti7aQBMk4?si=o3sWwfKJwQ-VEa8e&t=48 Is approximately from here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Y1UmtCK5si8drVaD7 - It's not exactly the same as the show, but that's more a limitation of Google Maps; I bet you could recreate the shot. There's also usually an ice cream vendor just about there. :)

The bridge in the background is Victoria Bridge, the clock on the right is the Suncorp building (I think now demolished), the weird multi-part building next to it is Brisbane Square Library (now also a Suncorp building), and the arched building to the right of that is the Treasury Building (formerly the casino).

The rest of the shots in that episode are from various other parts in the parklands if you walk along it, including the lagoon beach, fountains, and walkway. The whole area (and the ibises) are an iconic part of Brisbane, as a legacy of Expo 88.

Aside from that, I think quite a lot of the shots in the city take place in real places, whether recognisable places like Mt Coot-Tha or random shops in the suburbs.

One of the last scenes from "The Sign" is based on the Mount Coot-tha Summit Lookout. Lots of fond memories there, including a proposal in my family.

And it's 20 minutes from the CBD!

A bunch of them are literally filmed in Brisbane! Famously, it was used as NYC in Thor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMAzGeL4TW8

Can i take a moment to say I admire the strength that it takes to try 7 cycles. We gave up at 5, it became too heart breaking. Keep positive mate, I wish the best for you.

> Bluey is the best children's cartoon _for adults_ of this generation.

One of my regular hangouts often puts Bluey on one of their TVs and I know for a fact there have been multiple occasions where no one at the bar even has children but we're all sitting there drinking beers while watching the antics of a family of cartoon dogs.

One of the things not talked (much) about is how families are much more isolated now - since the average person is from a two-child family, and has a two-child family, most of their peer group growing up and when they have kids is in the "same boat" so they don't really have insight and experience of what the youngest years brings.

Even the basic idea of "kids like games, make things games" that permeates Bluey is likely unknown to many new parents.

> Bluey takes some weight off as you realise (and talk to other parents about Bluey) that some things are just universal and you're possibly doing better than you think.

No question, the I can't count the number of times I've sent the "Baby Race" to other parents who ask me "When did your kid start to talk?"

We watch the Bluey bike whenever the kids say "I can't do it!" or the Dad can't draw episode.

Or the curry quest, when I had to travel for work (after all the pandemic "no work travel").

Bluey's dad is an inspiration, like the puppets episode is so funny & I keep saying "Bauxite" in random times without context.

That's one criticism I've heard about it actually, but not sure how much it's actually true. Basically that people love Bluey because it appeals more to adults, but that may make it not as good as other shows for child development (which adults might find boring).

I don't know that I buy that though, I think the shows that claim they're for child development but are insufferable to adults would be better of just skipped entirely, probably those skills are better learned from real life play and interaction than tv.

Of course there's also the mad science of cocomelon and their 'distractatron' https://www.readtrung.com/p/why-i-love-bluey-and-hate-cocome... - nothing can be worse than that.

> Popular shows of 80-90s avoided trauma and ambiguity. Everything was simple and morally clear.

Popular western shows did; I've started watching the Gundam series, the first set started in '79 and while superficially it looks like your generic saturday morning cartoon, it starts off with trauma (many people killed) and while the villains are obviously evil - genocide, nazi ideologies ("sieg zeon"), etc - they also get more character development than what the protagonists get. The villains are the underdogs, only 1/30th the size of the "federation", and the good guys have a new set of superweapons that seems to win and kill their people on every occasion. There's two episodes where a "villain" character is introduced as a lover, ambitious military man, etc, then gets killed, his would-be wife killing herself in the next episode.

Anyway, that's just recent experience, I'm sure if you revisit some of the 80's / 90's shows you'd see more trauma / ambiguity too. I'm thinking of the X-Men series for example.

Even if Bluey was strange Australian propaganda to make fatherhood desirable and respectable, it still wins because it actually works at it.

Avoiding the "dumb sitcom dad" has been done before a few times, and well (Bob Parr of Incredibles; Stoick the Vast of How to Train Your Dragon; King Fergus of Brave could be some examples) - but Bandit just is a dad; he's not perfect, he's not brilliant - but he's there (except when he has to leave) and he loves - his children, his wife, himself.

And even though he says "I'm not taking advice from a cartoon dog" we all end up doing so.

Bandit singing "99 bottles of thing on the wall" in a couple episodes is just fantastically real.

A professor once said that some of the best art is really a head-fake.

Bluey is about half a show for kids and half a show for parents. It shows the kids neat things and fun ideas for play and it quietly whispers to the parents, over and over again, "You're doing fine."

Why are you bawling your eyes out listening to Aussie music?

Oh, just some real estate things ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ngwtA3WRK8

Peppa Pig is in general funnier than Bluey. Visually, I also agree, Bluey is far superior. I just can't help, as a parent, the feeling of inferiority as there's no way two working parents have the energy and patience to make everything a game with their kids. That's the main crux of why I prefer Peppa.

Peppa Pig is more ... "cartoony" if I can use the term, whereas Bluey is more "real life" - and I don't think it is just the animation (rounded rects live!) - Bluey is established with a continuity and detail that makes it seem we're looking into a real world as opposed to vignettes created for our amusement.

The creator of Bluey worked as an animator on Peppa Pig and wanted to create something like that for his home.

We've acquired a handful of their books and they're just not great for reading to a toddler. The dialog is in speech bubbles, and the layout is more like an episode. I have to come up with filler text and structure on the fly. Give me a Franklin or Little Critter, any day.

My wife and I cry tears of laughter everytime Sean shows up.

And for those new to this - don’t miss the episode Cricket (3,47) which makes my wife tear up everytime.

The ability to tell a clear and focused narrative that has humor and a lesson in 8 minutes is stunning to me. I have legitimately used it with grad students learning to write a paper. Nothing is wasted, not a line not a shot.

The Pool (s1e22).

They accuse mum of fussing while dad's all about fun, but soon come to realise there's good reason mum makes a fuss, and everyone starts having less of a good time when they realise they needed those things mum was fussing about.

(I'm dad).

My daughter started commenting on people's appearance around age 5+ because she learned it from Peppa Pig. Everyone always talks down to and about the Daddy pig constantly. They try to incorporate some 'good' behaviors in the story but certain 'it's just a joke' jokes end up leaving more impressions on the kid than the shoehorned moral of the story. It took us a while to teach her how it can hurt others if you comment on things (even if they are technically factual statements). On the other hand, she learned some simple but useful things from Bluey that we weren't successful in teaching effectively. e.g. She learned to speak up and tell when Dad(me) was overdoing 'fun' things (literally an episode with exact same concept where Bingo has to tell her dad the same thing). She learned to be compliment and acknowledge many things verbally (instead of saying 'why do I need to say it, they know it already').

Theres a video somewhere of some guy reviewing Bluey and Peppa.

"This episode of bluey is about the trauma of growing up and experiencing change with references to these 3 popular films"

"And in the episode Peppa goes to the beach, Peppa pig... goes to the beach"

It's just not as wholesome and Peppa is kind of a brat. And the whole picking on the dad thing kind of got old after a while. It just doesn't really offer any thing of any value to my child.