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Bluey

@blueyofficialchannel

· YouTube

Bluey is a show about a family getting along, told through the games they make up at home.

Bluey is a blue heeler pup who lives with her mum, her dad and her little sister Bingo. An episode is usually one made-up game, played out until the game ends, with Dad in nearly all of them as whatever the game needs him to be. The show is drawn animation, it stays at home or close to home, and the games keep turning into how the four of them get along.

Analyzed by KidSight

WHAT IT MEANS AT EACH AGE

0–2

Too young

Nothing in Bluey will upset a two-year-old, and nothing in Bluey will land with one either. The stories run on people talking things out at ordinary speed, and that starts making sense around age three. A two-year-old watches Bluey for the color and the movement.

3–5

Good fit

Age four is where Bluey fits. The stories stay small, a game in the garden or a squabble over a toy, and the feeling is the plot rather than a lesson added at the end. A four-year-old follows a whole episode without you explaining a line.

6–8

Good fit

Bluey keeps working at age seven. Nobody in the show stops to explain the lesson: the characters work the argument out between themselves, and the episode ends before anyone sums up the moral. That is what keeps Bluey from talking down to a seven-year-old.

9–10

A little old

Nothing in Bluey is a problem at age nine. The stakes stay small and domestic, which is the point of the show, and also why a nine-year-old starts reaching for something else.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT

Family life

Friends

Birthdays and celebrations

WHAT IT TEACHES

Empathy and kindness

Working out conflicts

Making friends

WHAT TO KNOW

Steady and easygoing

SUMMARY

Bluey is about a family getting along, and the arguments get settled on screen, in the moment, rather than explained afterwards. That is why Bluey works at age four and still works at age seven.