kelani

I'm just an old fan of Mr. Rogers, so I wanted to see how his legacy was being cared for, and I think the show does a very nice job. Far better then other kids' shows. Nothing could ever equal Fred Rogers, but at least the lessons and empathy he taught us are still being taught here.

The characters are adorable; they all have their own stories and personality quirks. Every kid can find at least one character to identify with. The show is also extremely inclusive. Race, disability, adversity, different guardians/home life, and other topics are handled delicately and instructively. Santomero has done a wonderful job coordinating with experts to send the right messages in a way kids can understand.

The Daniel imagination sequences are fun to watch. (I wish I'd had this when I was a kid!). Some of the songs are so good they should be award-winning, but a few are kind of bad. It's difficult to create rhyming lyrics for the vocabulary of a four-year-old, so they tend to recycle a lot of lyrics across episodes that don't make much sense in context. But to be fair, so does every other musical kids' show, and I doubt the kids really notice. But the best part is that every lesson has a memorable tune, which a lot of parents sing to their children to remind them; ex: "Grown-ups come back". That's a great thing. And when they get it right, some of the harmonies are just beautiful.

Some people don't like that the show occasionally shows the kids getting mad. But I think that's a good thing. They are allowed to feel their feelings, and then learn how to redirect that anger into something better..

Annoyances? Not many. One thing that bugs me is when they have Tigey sing. He has this tinny/creepy electronic voice that just sounds terrible. PBS also tends to show episodes back to back with a different Prince Wednesday actor who sounds very different, which might be confusing. Also, some of the adults also occasionally come off as a bit 1950s sanctimonious, but I guess that's necessary for the format.

All in all, a wonderful show.

This is a pretty nice feel-good show. You get to watch a family living in gorgeous country, with an idyllic life, and making amazing foods. If you've ever wanted to live on a ranch, this is pretty much the ranch anyone would want to own.

That said, I know a lot of farmers and ranchers, and all would say they just don't have time for such silly things as doing a TV show. (Her herb garden alone would take a small army to maintain). Elizabeth is frequently shown doing routine ranch jobs in between meals, but she is so prim and urbane, you really get the sense that that's not what she does on a daily basis. Can she handle a chainsaw? Absolutely! But it's pretty obvious her husband and the ranch staff clearly handle this stuff, so it feels like these are contrived scenarios to fill air time. It just doesn't ring true.

I also don't like that the recipes are apparently designed by the show's 3 chef consultants, or are copycats of other popular recipes already out there. The show wants you to believe that she's making something her great-great-grandmother taught her, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

So, it's a nice watch, but would be so much better if it didn't have that reality-esque smell of being constructed.

I like the show, but it has a major problem. It relies too much on the tired and. Ready reality show competition melodrama and "surprises", instead of just celebrating the talent and artistry of the participants.

Better would be to tell the smiths what they're going to make beforehand, and let them pick their own materials, instead of forcing them to build things from usually recycled garbage. That way, their skill in constructing the blade can really shine, and a superior bladesmith isn't going to lose simply because they have never made that item before, or got the bad luck in picking materials.