Vintage Vibes and Fresh Finds: Every kiddo, teen and adult needs to watch 'Bluey'

One thing that’s been weighing heavy on my heart lately is the prices of streaming services. It’s getting out of hand. Just yesterday, I canceled my Spotify premium account that came with Hulu (with ads), because I wanted Hulu without ads. It was not only unnecessarily complicated to do so, but now I pay $11.99 a month for Spotify and $17.99 for Hulu without ads.

Now you’re probably wondering why I would cancel a subscription that was essentially giving me Hulu for free, and in hindsight, I agree it may have been a mistake, but in the moment, I really wanted to watch “The Bachelorette” without interruptions every 15 minutes. Personally, if I wanted ads, I would’ve paid for a cable box.

I digress. I’m still a part of the problem; I caved on getting almost every main streaming service: Max, Netflix, Amazon Prime and now Hulu. But I simply can’t help it, I love television. Disney+ is also a recent add-on to a shared account with my friend. I wasn’t watching a ton of content on Disney+ after “Percy Jackson” ended, so I didn’t deem it worth my money anymore.

But something last week sparked inside of me after seeing a clip of “Bluey” (2018), and all of a sudden, I knew I needed the service back. Granted, “Agatha All Along” is coming soon, too, but “Bluey” was absolutely the main draw for me to get the service back.

The first time I watched “Bluey” was about two years ago. I had a friend my age who was obsessed with it, and, frankly, I thought she was crazy. I chalked it up in my mind as being something that would air on PBS Kids, and while that may still be true even after watching it, it’s one of the best kids shows I’ve ever watched.

“Bluey,” at its core, is a kids’ show. It has all the important life lessons you should learn as a kid, like when to include others, apologizing to your sibling, entertaining yourself, etc. But the parents are so involved in every single episode that adults can also take lessons from them.

The episodes in “Bluey” are complex in the way that they don’t depict parents as wise teachers who always correct their kids and know better, but they also often admit fault and have to grow.

I don’t have any kids, and I have a lot of friends who love “Bluey” that also don’t have kids.

The life lessons the show teaches are complex and layered, and I often find myself wishing I had personally learned some of the life lessons that they show Bluey and Bingo learning from sooner.

There’s something so healing, too, about watching a show where both parents want to grow just as much as they want their kids to learn and grow — whether that be with each other’s help or on their own. I think the parents in this show inspire a lot of the younger generation to want to be good parents, and “Bluey” is kind of visual evidence of what that can look like.

Talking more logistically, the animation and art style is simple, but still engaging.

In many episodes, there are lots of little quirks the animators made sure to add to the characters that make them feel extra authentic and kid-like. Like when Bingo picks up pinecones or one of them acts a little clumsy for seemingly no reason. Not to mention, the theme song is also adorable.

The voice of the kids, too, is something I find kind of unique. Bluey’s producer, Daley Pearson, made a conscious choice to have the kids in the show voiced by real kids, which adds an authentically adorable factor to the show. You can often hear where the kids go off-script because, well, they’re kids with short attention spans. A bonus bit from the “Crazy Christmas Lights” episode is when Bingo’s voice actress is kind of talking to herself versus reading off the page. Plus, the Australian accent just adds to the cuteness factor.

So, next time you’re wondering what you should watch, whether you’re 12 or 22, maybe consider turning on “Bluey” for a little wholesome addition to your day.