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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Thomas and Friends Season 20: The Christmas Coffeepot, Over the Hill

After a three-week hiatus, we are back with more Thomas and Friends reviews! My next one was meant to be a retrospective on Duck and the Slip Coaches, but I'm having a hard time trying to put my thoughts down on paper (or Word document, in this case!), so that may be on the backburner for a while yet. I don't know whether or not it'll actually be completed at this stage, but right now, let's talk about season 20's winter episodes, starting off with the Glynn duology.

Note: This post contains minor spoilers for The Missing Breakdown Train.


When Glynn made a small appearance at the end of The Adventure Begins, I was left disappointed. Considering that all he had was a rubbish, incorrectly proportioned Trackmaster model, I expected way more than a mere twenty second appearance - even Bertram contributed more to his sole appearance on TV, and he didn't say a word! As a result, I wrote off Glynn as pointless, but then these two episodes came around and overrode my initial thoughts entirely.

Now, I'm gonna discuss the two episodes individually; first we'll talk about The Christmas Coffeepot, and then Over the Hill.

Part 1 - The Christmas Coffeepot
First off, there's Marion. I really like her character as a whole. Out of the Brenner characters, she feels the most well-developed. She's rather scatterbrained at times, but whenever Bill and Ben cause trouble, she's motherly but stern with them, and that was great especially in season 18. Marion's role here does make sense; a talking tree (or at least, you think it's one) is not something you see every day the same way miniature engines or dinosaurs are uncommon in your life.

That being said, her subplot didn't really lead to much and was dropped without finality much like hers in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure with the Arlesdale trio. I guess there were plans to make them two episodes - one about Marion and her "talking tree", and the other about Glynn's restoration - but there wasn't enough material for both without coming off as filler so they were strung together as one whole episode a la famous Paul McCartney songs like "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and "Band on the Run".

(Yep, there's your obligatory Beatles analogy in one of my reviews!)

Anyway, the episode on whole felt like Hero of the Rails, but whilst similar, it happens a lot more quickly (as in, you could cut so much material from the 2009 special and nothing would change) but it still feels cliched in terms of story. I mean, why would Thomas and Percy worry about Glynn being scrapped when they could've simply presented him to Sir Topham Hatt before he was sent to the Steamworks? At least try something new once in a while to freshen it up!

There's also a couple of minor problems; Thomas' reaction to seeing Glynn for the first time in years didn't feel emotional or compelling (I mean, he had a bigger reaction to seeing Hiro and they interacted regularly!) and felt disappointing. The other is a plot hole within the series; do humans age in the Thomas universe? Thomas the Babysitter implied that babies can be born, and Happy Birthday Sir showed that humans could actually age. Is this the railway equivalent to The Simpsons or something? Come on, work with me here.

Of course, it doesn't mean the ending was bad; it had a very good lead in to Over the Hill when Stephen's jealousy is hinted at.

Part 2 - Over the Hill
For both episodes, there's the mention of a railway museum. I love this idea a lot, and I wonder how it can be expanded upon in season 20 as well as 21. And with the possibility of Hugo being involved, anything could happen. We'll see in a couple of months.

Possibly the strongest aspect of Over the Hill is Glynn and Stephen's dynamic. I really love its development over the episode; at first, Stephen shows jealously and vulnerability when Glynn gets the Earl's attention (at least it ain't Thomas this time!) and when he tries to bring the coffee pot down to size, Glynn fires back without overreacting. That was brilliant, funny, and brilliantly funny all at once.

And then there's their race. Oh, my God, is it hilarious or what?! There's that "Eye of a Tiger"-esque music building up to what could be an epic race but then it turns into a pair old engines simply puffing along the mainline grumbling about the younger generation barely going at, what, five miles per hour? And then Gordon and James shout at them and Glynn and Stephen get their own back by babying them!

*several seconds of laughter later*

...oh dear...

One issue I have with the UK dub is that it changes "glass of milk" to "cup of tea" - why? The "glass of milk" bit was funny because Glynn was treating Gordon like a baby, but when he says "cup of tea", it feels more like "want some ice with that burn?" which is greatly disappointing and doesn't feel funny. It doesn't hurt the episode, but it's something I wanted to point out.

There is a lot to love about Over the Hill, even the small things like the opening flashback about Glynn and Millie's interactions with the old farts. Forget about The Great Race - Stephen and Glynn's is a great race in itself!

Final Thoughts
Out of season 20's episodes thus far, The Christmas Coffeepot and Over the Hill were the last episodes I was expecting, and I was pleasantly surprised by both. They finally gave a character like Glynn a chance to shine and they did him justice for the series. In fact, thinking about that gives me appreciation that the loose ends of The Adventure Begins are finally tied up, and it also helps that Judy and Jerome got their own screentime and a place of their own at Arlesburgh in The Missing Breakdown Train, which I'll cover in the new year.

As for my ratings, The Christmas Coffeepot gets an 8/10 because of the overuse the cliched "saved from scrap" tropes that have been played to death, but it doesn't make it a bad episode, though. Over the Hill, however, gets a full 10/10 for being fun to watch throughout. They're a great way to bring Glynn into the fray and I hope we see more of him in the future.

...or should it be in the past?

Average Rating: 9/10

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