I watched a lot of Thomas and Friends when I was little and had my own Thomas train set. I still watch and love it and have my train set to this day. This seems to be one of the most popular PBS Kids and Sprout shows with older audiences, and it's easy to see why. For many years, there were other kids in my class at school who also liked it, even when we were no longer the target audience for the aforementioned channels. Rev. Wilbert Awdry said in an interview on YouTube that the Railway series, the book series it's based on, was written for everyone, not just kids (if you're confused, it was recorded long before YouTube was a thing. I'm guessing it's either a) part of a documentary, or b) a bonus feature on a Thomas DVD or VHS). You're never too old for the original Thomas, but you're too old for its boring reboot, All Engines Go, the second you're born (I'm exaggerating about being too old for AEG, but if you like it, I can tolerate your opinion). I find this show fun to watch, partly because it's about talking trains, which is likely part of the reason why it's as popular as it is, and I love trains. If you like trains, maybe you'll like it too. However, that's not all I like about it, and there's more to Thomas's character than just being a talking train with a face.
It's a quiet and slow-paced (in a good way) show. It lets the story play out on its own, and it's not one of those preschool shows where the plot is interrupted by characters who talk down to the audience or randomly sing every 5 minutes or so. Yes, there are music videos (only in seasons 3-24) and learning segments where the audience is asked questions (only in seasons 8-12), but they're in between episodes, not in the episodes themselves. Just because a preschool show has a song every 5 minutes or so or breaks the fourth wall doesn't mean it sucks, but it's good to have at least one preschool show with uninterrupted plots and characters that don't sing every 5 minutes or so, otherwise, we'd have too much of a good thing. That, and I hate being talked down to (if you're confused, I don't have a problem with fourth wall-breaking depending on how it's handled). For those of you who don't know, Thomas originally wasn't a preschool show, but it became one when Hit Entertainment acquired the rights to it in 2002, and it became a non-preschool show again when the Andrew Brenner era (seasons 17-21) started in 2013.
The realism is one of the main reasons why Thomas is as popular as it is, despite having a few fantasy elements (e.g., the trains having faces and the ability to talk), and that's one of its best aspects. Actual railway practices are present, and the show has taught many kids, including yours truly, how railways operate, what a controller, a fireman (for a train), a steam engine, a diesel engine, and a branch line are, and more. The engines are driven by people and have firemen, and they can't drive themselves. There's an episode where Thomas tries to drive himself, but he drives recklessly and crashes. The engines also have jobs that engines have in real life, like pulling cargo and trucks. Unlike their All Engines Go counterparts and other cartoon trains, they move realistically, and they don't sway from side to side, jump off the tracks, use their wheels like hands or feet, turn their heads, or anything. The characters being trains has an impact on the stories, and the show would be very different if they were anything other than trains. The only big differences between them and real trains are that they talk and have faces and real ones don't. I've heard a few people on the internet say they were creepy in the original model era, but I don't think they're creepy at all because their faces look not too simple but also not too human-like. On the other hand, I find the Jay Jay the Jet Plane characters creepy because they look like airplanes with humans' faces (I've never actually seen JJTJP, but I've seen commercials for it and merchandise from it, and I heard some not-so-good things about it).
A lot of people talk about the greatness of the aspects I mentioned in the previous paragraph, but there are some realistic aspects of the show I like that not a lot of people talk about (as far as I know). In the model era (seasons 1-11), everyone and everything looks real (minus the humans and animals): the machines, the sky, the grass, Tidmouth Sheds, the train tracks, the steam, the water, etc. Heck, I heard somewhere that real water was used in the model era. In those seasons, Thomas and company look like real vehicles or toy vehicles that come to life (I don't know if it'd be safer to say they look like toy vehicles or real ones), and toy trains would probably move just like the engines and cargo if they could come to life in the real world. Their mouths don't move along with their voices, but I prefer them that way because their mouths look like they were sculpted on them and not made to move. Toy trains with faces probably wouldn't move their mouths either if they could come to life in the real world, that is if they don't have mechanical mouths. The Island of Sodor looks like a real place you could actually go to. Don't get me wrong, I like the CGI era too (except for the Big World Big Adventures era), but I like the model era the best for the most part because it looks the most realistic and down to earth, and it's the era I grew up watching the most.
Despite being locomotives, the characters feel somewhat like real people. They tackle issues and scenarios that lots of people face in real life, like having an identity crisis, realization, maturity, the value of friendship and the people around you, how to be a better person, how to feel safe, and more. The engines are very expressive and have a wide variety of different facial expressions, and it's always easy to tell how they're feeling, even when an unfamiliar word is used. For example, the show taught me what it means to feel cross, and whenever the narrator says, "Thomas was cross," it's easy to tell that cross means angry because of the scowl on Thomas's face. Static faces with clear emotions also make it easier for children to connect with the characters' emotions. A child can easily identify a character's emotion and will understand why they feel that way. The engines all have their own unique personalities: Thomas is the cheeky and fussy yet optimistic, playful, and kindhearted little blue tank engine, Percy is the naive, childlike, and thrill-seeking green saddle tank engine, James is vain but lots of fun (like The Engine Roll Call says), Edward is old, wise, full of experience, and the kindest of the engines, Gordon is pompous yet proud and strong, Henry is the easily irritated, sometimes worried and superstitious, yet kind and friendly gentle giant with a love for nature, and the list goes on. They're all quite "human" and relatable, especially Thomas. How? Like me, he can be stubborn at times, yet he's always eager to help out a friend in need and he keeps on trying and never gives up whenever he's in a difficult situation or isn't doing his job too well.
The morals of the stories are told in a mature (though not always dark) and practical way. For instance, in one episode, Henry stays in a tunnel for a long period of time because he's afraid the rain would wash his paint off if he doesn't, and he doesn't care about his passengers, so he gets shut up in the tunnel for not doing his job and suffers the consequences of being lazy on the job. Sir Topham Hatt scolds the engines whenever they misbehave or get into mishaps, or as he would say, cause confusion and delay, yet he also praises them for their hard work. It's like a parent informing their child about their (the child's) wrongdoings or their best behavior. The morals are never shoved into the audience's faces or said out loud. The series shows that certain actions have consequences in a more effective way than just giving a lecture.
There are a lot of funny moments here and there, especially when the characters roast each other (e.g., in the episode where Percy is covered in chocolate, his friends tell him he looks good enough to eat, and he really does!). The humor is mature that older audiences can easily understand it (but they don't use innuendos), and the characters often give each other a hard time just by teasing each other. They're not always this mean, but they basically pull jokes on each other a lot. Heck, even my family does the same thing at times.
Seasons 1-11 and 17-21: 9/10
Seasons 12-16: 7/10
Seasons 22-24: 3/10.
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