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Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Arthur: Season 20 and Season 21 : Buster's Second Chance / Francine and the Soccer Spy

Arthur  PBS 


       Back during the 20th anniversary set of posts I did back in 2016, I stopped at season 19 because season 20 hadn't premiered yet, it was to start the month after I was doing the post.  Over that time , season 21 also premiered.   There are also the noted reaction by some to say , "Arthur is still running and has new episodes?" to that answer yes.  Also the show will at least be running to a season 25.

  Let's start with season 20.


   Season 20 ran from October 2016 to June 2017. Somethings to note about this season: Arthur seasons got shorter over time  but,this one was the shortest producing  7 half hours.  The animation studio also changed, again, leaving 9-Story and WGBH went with another Canadian studio, Oasis Animation.   D.W's voice actor changed again (for those that don't know Arthur's sister is voiced by males) , and Arthur's voice actor also changed again. (because they use male children for his voice too).

       We are looking at the first episode of the season with the first half 1a called "Buster's Second Chance"  which premiered on October 10th,2016.
 

 
 Monologue : Arthur says that Buster has always been his best friend, and flashback to when they first met. Then a montage of them doing best friends stuff. Yep Best Friends until this week. What hold on what?

   Episode:  Buster is unhappy that the Brain won  the statewide science competition because the report was Brain finding types of bacteria in the drinking fountain. Buster says he knew there was something strange about that fountain.   Arthur tells him everyone knew the water tasted like feet (what?)  and that Brain was the only one to go study it.   Buster gives a  backstory on his not studying.  He was brought to a pre-school for "brainy kids" he stuck a marble up his nose and not where it was supposed to go. If he didn't try to outsmart the test he says, then his life could have been different.


       Buster says he would have just as smart as The Brian. Arthur suggests time travel but, not really. Buster reads time travel comics and fall asleep , guess where this episode is going?  He sees a passage way that sends him back in time. Back to the time  with the marble.  Where he impresses the teacher with magic and puts the marble in the right spot.  He wakes up and finds out that he is a genius now.   (Also all smart people wear glasses in Buster's mind, apparently)
Hmm , what?/ Copyright WGBH 


    Buster's life is different because he wears glasses and goes to a different school in the mornings and the other one he normally goes to in the afternoon. He tries to wave at Arthur but I don't think he's friends with him in this alternate universe.  Apparently, because Buster is smart now and didn't meet Arthur, Arthur has become a gang-leader (kind of joking) but he does become the leader of the tough customers.  His nickname is Specs. (get it because he wears glasses)  Buster goes to find Arthur and doesn't know where he went then finds him at the comic book store. Buster finds out that since he went to the fancy pre-school he never met Arthur at the park and they didn't become friends. (How does Buster know Arthur? Well it's a dream don't question it)
EEEEEEH/ Copyright WGBH 

 

       Arthur ended up being a tough customer.  Buster jumps out of a time warp (he wakes up) and everything is back to normal.

      I guess this episode's  moral is that a different paths in life result in different results, they kind of did this idea before in this series. The other is at the end where Buster decides to study something to prove  a point and do it with his best friend.  It's a fun episode where you see some of the outlandishness of Buster's fantasy.


  Now to season 21. As of this writing this is the most recent season running from October of 2017 to February of 2018.  Like season 20 it was produced with only 7 half hours. Apparently, the produced this season with season 20. Meaning they cheated or something.



    Now the episode we picked is  "Francine and the Soccer Spy" episode 3a.

   Monologue:  James Bond parody.  Yeah that's all I have to say, they open with Francine playing Double O eight because why not?

  Episode:  The soccer team looses. Ladonna's family is going to be having a new family come over to visit.  Francine trains the team with a new play she hope doesn't get out. Meanwhile, Ladonna goes home to help meet this new kid named Danny. Francine goes to visit  Ladonna and she sees Ladonna and Danny playing some soccer and Francine does what normal people do, hides behind the bush like a crazy person.   Francine doesn't hear the full conversation and jumps to the conclusion that Ladonna is a spy.
I'm Ladonna and I wanna have fun...sorry wrong show/ Copyright WGBH 


         So Francine does what a normal person does and spies on Ladonna. Danny comes by around the same time of course France gets the wrong information again thanks to some flies bothering her.   She decides to have a meeting and tells the others on her team that there's a spy.  Also this show said the word selfie I'm out.  Since Francine is an idiot ,she messed up the camera footage and her team doesn't believe her.  Francine tries to set up a sting to prove Ladonna is a spy. (Francine's losing it) Since she has out of context powers again.   When Francine sees  Ladonna with Danny she calls them spies.  Then Francine makes herself look like an idiot  and finds out that she is an idiot.  Seems everything ends up well so, there we go.
 
Out of context this looks strange/Copyright WGBH  

   I'm hard on Francine in this episode and because  this episode is really forcing itself to work into the plot.  Unless they are trying that kind of humor where the guy using the leaf blower at the same time Francine is trying to hear Ladonna and Danny's conversation ,  then the flies because she stupidly hid behind full trash cans or the part where she uses the camera wrong. It works to the point where the other characters still give Ladonna the benefit of the doubt because none of Francine's stuff makes any sense, meaning at least they are better than a lot of the internet where context gets lost.   The Danny character takes it in stride though, I think Francine apologizes.  It's not a bad episode per say, it just kind of bugged me personally.

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