You get nervous watching an all-time great show try something different. Too many sitcoms have dented their rep with a dud feature-length special; too many dramas have that extra season where the formula changed, it didn’t really work, and now their listing in the pantheon has a little asterisk beside it. But if any programme can be trusted to take a risk, it’s Bluey.
Bluey is the second-greatest Australian TV show ever – after Mr Inbetween, obviously – and by far the country’s most popular television export. One of those very rare shows for primary-school kids (and those even younger) that is genuinely, unironically beloved by parents, it purports to tell simple stories about a seven-year-old talking blue heeler dog living in Queensland with her sister and their mum and dad.
