I’m back – sorry it took a while. The holidays were great though and I hope you guys had a lot of fun as well. I will be picking my watch-a-longs for the season soon. To be honest, I have a whole bunch I want to see BUT, I might be watching them with friends which is certainly a huge change so I don’t know if that will make for good review candidates (since I won’t necessarily be able to watch every episode as it airs).
In the meantime, though, let’s wrap up last season’s shows starting with Spy x Family.
What a lovely little episode to come back to!
As you have no doubt picked up on, I am a fan of Bond. I’m actually a fan of just about everyone in this show so that’s not really saying much but a good boy like Bond is always going to thug at my heartstrings.
I have mentioned it more than once, an aspect of Spy x Family that has just always tickled me pink, is how they give characters these amazing powers, like Bond and Anya but don’t fundamentally change their nature. In a lot of shows that I have watched, having a kid or dog with these types of mental powers that also have an important role in the story, would mean that the character ends up acting pretty much like a regular adult most of the time, maybe with a few eccentricities or cute moments to set them apart.
What I mean is that they would be a telepath or clairvoyant first who just happens to be a kid or a dog. But Spy x Family really insists upon the fact that Anya and Bond are a child and a dog first who just happen to have a few unusual skills. And they act like a child and a dog first.
As such, Bond is an incredibly smart dog with the ability to process and analyze information possibly beyond that of any real dog, but he is still a dog. He is still motivated by what we think most dogs are motivated by, he is not going to grab complex social cues or know the greater context of situations. He is going to act on instinct and favour short-term gratification and he’s not going to have any deep thoughts about things that don’t directly relate to him. Because he’s a dog.
But he’s also a very good boy. He’s kind and has an instinct to protect others and he thrives even more on being loved than being fed. Ok…so that might be a little unrealistic, but you know, it’s a show!
It was a joy to see the impossibly talented and utterly clueless Mr. Forger get to interact with the golden-hearted Bond for an entire episode. And just as you would expect, Loid misread and misinterpreted the situation at almost every turn except when it really mattered. At the end of the day, he saw a dog that was doing his best and he thought, that’s a good boy. And at the end of the day, that’s what I saw as well. And I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end this season.
Oh, and we also saw a very skinny dog. Does anyone else think that wet Bond looks a little like Anya’s headmaster? Do you think that’s a coincidence?
I enjoyed this season quite a lot. I loved the boat arc and I like the more comfortable groove the entire family is settling into. I can’t wait for another season!
