I was going to make a post about how Survivor 48 was a wholesome season and a breath of fresh air after the horrible showings they’ve had recently and a triumph of the human spirit as the commercials put it...but apparently I’m in the minority on that opinion. Turns out more people want the cutthroat gameplay and were actually on Thomas’s side. I’ll agree that, since I was barely paying attention during the episode Star was voted off because I was busy doing other things, but it turns out I didn’t need to because nothing happened, it could get a little boring at times. I still enjoyed it, though. It was nice to see people doing the morally right thing instead of the underhanded sneaky thing for a change. I miss the Ponderosa videos because it was all about the cast being genuine people just chilling on the island, and this season was a good substitute for that.
I also want to talk about my experience watching Daniel Tiger for the first time. It’s a long-running show on PBS recently discovered by my three-year old, so naturally we have to have it on all the time now until she gets tired of it and goes back to one of her other current obsessions (it’s July and she can’t get enough of Frosty the Snowman right now). It was the Thank You Day episode in which the wind blows away the thank you notes but Mr. McFeely gathers them up and returns them on his way to the party. I don’t know, something about him showing up notes in hand (or bicycle basket) and singing his jingle hit something buried deep within me and my eyes started watering like I was going to cry. I don’t even remember much about Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood or what it had even meant to me as a kid. I remember some of the puppets, and the character models look just like them...except then I remembered Lady Elaine looking different and acting like a total bitch, so this new version of her is an improvement. Another noteworthy character is Baker Aker. Again, I watch too much TV with my daughter, so it’s fresh in my mind, but Baker Aker sounds just like the Rhombus of Recipes from Elmo the Musical. I can’t find any acting credits on that segment besides Kevin Klash, so I can’t prove they’re voiced by the same person. Some Sesame Street actors do work on Donkey Hodey, and that’s another Fred Rogers spinoff, so it’s entirely possible.
Other than that, I’m looking forward to the new season of Ascendance of a Bookworm next spring. I'm still waiting on volume 10 of the Part 2 manga so I can start collecting Part 3, which is running concurrently with Part 2.
