I've not written about anything "Arthur" related in a while. So, let's get back into that. I'm writing about some Season 22 episodes. This season is short it's only 4 episodes, or 8 segments. It premiered on May 13th and ran to May 16th 2019. (Using the PBS airing dates, other country airings may vary).
Season 22 Episode 2b : The Longest Eleven Minutes
I picked this episode because it stuck out to me in a few ways. Some of it has to do with the context of the show itself and the content of the episode at a strange dissonance.
I always start these "Arthur" posts with the monologue, the thing they do at the start of episodes.
The Monologue : Arthur is doing a school presentation talking about inventions people have come to rely upon. It shows how life was like before the wheel (lots of people being killed by mammoths apparently) Before the printing press, and life without the telephone being invented. Ending with the question: I wonder what invention in our day, we wouldn't be able to live without. (The toaster?)
The Episode: It shows Arthur, Muffy, Ladonna, and Buster all on laptops, mobile phone, and a tablet doing internet stuff. D.W comes into the living room and is bored and wants Arthur to play with her. Then internet goes down. This is weird question, how does Muffy's phone lose internet? Like is she connected to Arthur's wi-fi? But wouldn't it go to her carrier's service internet then? I'd think the rich girl would have carrier internet as well. Are the mobile phones in this world the same as the internet carrier? Are we asking a lot of questions and diverting too much? Well,yes.
COMMENTARY / copyright WGBH
Buster is like hit refresh, but that doesn't work. So, the internet is down. Now the kids are confused as to do with their lives. Then D.W says try restarting the router. (This episode was written when someone's internet went down and they went through the stages wasn't it? ) They find out the internet is out on the block. (If people have the same service , I guess)
The episode gets weirder. Like, they apparently don't know what a radio is because they wonder if Arthur's dad is streaming music. (Umm what?) Ladonna seems to know something about the radio. Then, Muffy finds an instant camera and they don't know what it is either. Also Encyclopedias (fine, they win this one) Since encyclopedia's go by a one to three letters they made a joke, that I at least liked.
They might have internet in Argentina/ Copyright WGBH
Okay earlier this episode they have fake Google, called Boogle but Wikipedia gets name dropped,so apparently, what? They save a bird. This episode used the terms selfie, and IRL so, I'm out. They seem to be getting along without the internet; oh it comes back on and it was eleven minutes.
What's funny about this episode in the context of this show is that this show as on the air before the Internet was really more mainstream. (1996) With the books coming out before even that. The kids on this show have been shown to know how to use an instant camera, encyclopedias, and radio. It's funny on the meta level that they forgot all this because of how long this show has been on the air and how they need the newer episodes to fit in for the modern audience. If a PBS station was airing this episode then a season 3 episode after this than it's even funnier. There's even an episode where Arthur messes up a computer all the way back from 1996.
The other meta thing, I really like is this episode is real time, it's eleven minutes long and internet is out for eleven minutes. Implication is there's no time skip (though, we don't see them calling Brain on the phone with dialing or something), yes land lines still exist in the Arthur world. That's really amazing.
The opening shot of the episode is a great touch, there's cobwebs on the outdoor playground and ball in Arthur's yard, making it seem like they've not not used the stuff in sometime.
It would be really easy to say this episode was bad because look how modern society has fallen or Arthur has fallen but, that has nothing to do with this episode. It's a fun episode, you do see how much the internet has become part of our lives where it is part of everything, and we do get kind of lost with out it. Not just kids, but adults too. It's like when the power goes out, it's a strange experience because we depend on electricity. (There's an Arthur episode that mentions this) The episode was fun to watch, it made me laugh at times. They some good stuff in current "Arthur".
Jumping up to season 22 episode 1b because I can relate it to the internet in a way.
Season 22 Episode 1b : The Feud
The Monologue : Arthur talks about people can argue about anything. (Too be fair I don't blue cheese either, so I'm with D.W) And something about having droids taking sides.
The Episode: It starts with Buster and Arthur playing a video game and it freezes. Then Buster tries checking some cords and un-plugs it , Arthur says it was on purpose and Buster thinks Arthur froze the game on purpose. They both think they were winning. This causes them to well, feud. Arthur and Buster tell Muffy and Francine their sides respectively and causes Muffy to take Arthur's side and Francine takes Buster's side. It causes these two friends to feud. Then Fern and Sue Ellen pick sides, and it becomes two sides. (Like politics) (This is also how World War I started)
See, even a trench/ Copyright WGBH
Buster is confused as to why everyone is in teams. So, everyone starts working for their teams more than Buster and Arthur themselves. Binky is the smart one and gets away from all of this. (He's the smart one) Arthur imagines this thing in a super hero world where the feud causes a lobster monster to grow. (What?)
Buster and Arthur talk and are no longer mad at each other. I like how natural it went where, they couldn't be mad at each other long, because they're friends. The team members are annoyed and still want this to go on. Arthur, Buster, and Binky try to figure out how to get everyone to be together again. So yes, the teams are are still split even though, their reason for splitting had already stopped being a reason. Eventually, after some in fighting, everyone agrees to work together and make a great snow fort for a contest.
The contest was faked because they wanted everyone to stop fighting.
When I said this episode can be related to the internet, I bring the idea that people sometimes get in needless arguments on the internet on places like Twitter. The idea of teaming is very strong. Picking a side on a fight because it makes us feel like a team, fighting on the right team , so to speak. The cause of the fight in this episode is really a good idea because it's abstract. WE can tell that Buster accidentally unplugged the video game system, and that Arthur doesn't know how to make games freeze. It gives the characters their own frame of reference to feud and it's over something not very big or over the top, showing even the smallest thing can go over blown. I like how it grows. Arthur and Buster venting to Muffy and Francine causing the girls to take sides on their own and then exploding it.
Again that happens in society on or off line. Binky in this episode can be like many people who are like "what the heck, this is stupid". I like Buster and Arthur kind of just get over their argument because they are good friends and they saw the whole situation as a little ridiculous as to how far it went.
The teams don't let go easily at all, it's like they were feeding on the energy of the feud yet the reason doesn't exist anymore. They're mad at each other without the basis of why. (It feels like politics sometimes a little too much like politics and how people react to politics) The real thing is they are talking about herd mentality because the teams found common ground to stick to guns and argue against the other. It's the energy of that comradery that worked to their own agenda to fight on.
I do think this is a good episode. It does good job at getting a message across without preaching at the viewer. It gives viewers critical thinking to think about the events in this episode. Doesn't it look silly they are fighting over Arthur and Buster, even though Arthur and Buster aren't mad at each other anymore?
Like, I said for the other episode, it looks like season 22 has some gems of writing in it's episodes.
That does it for now, we are going to end an argument now. Tune in next time.
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