Danielle Watches Fraggle Rock Season 3 - Episode 4 : Blanket of Snow, Blanket of Woe
Welp, this week it hit 115 degrees for the first time of the year. We’re not going to see under 100 degree weather until late September most likely. So it’s a good time to take a break and review a nice winter episode. (Oh yeah, and sorry for the two week break again, blahblah tired, blah blah scuba training, blah blah Diablo season 6.)
Our episode today opens with Doc finishing up some work and about to play “fling and fetch” with Sprocket when the phone rings with Miss Ardath checking up on some advertising copy he’d promised to finish by today. And he isn’t done. And he has no ideas. Whoops! (BTW this is a nice shot.)
Meanwhile, down in Fraggle Rock...
Mokey’s knitting but she’s kind of bored of it, and Lanford has a cold because she forgot to cover him.
And then Red comes in all upset because Mokey didn’t fix Red’s skates like she promised. Red twisted her ankle, and what’s worse - Gobo’s team won!
Red seems to have scallop shells as part of her shoulder pads. How does she have scallop shells?
Boober comes in to remind Mokey to get frozen radishes for soup which causes her to scream in frustration.
And then we get possibly the loudest of all continuity alarms. Mokey says, “Every time I try to help all I do is let everybody down.”
Oh take a moment to appreciate three seasons of established character boiled down to one line.
Well, Red just thinks that Mokey should stop offering to help if she’s not willing to follow through. I’ll talk more at the end of why this is not so simple maybe.
Boober says it’s okay but goes on about all the things he wants to cook (I love Boober when he’s into things) and let’s drop that there was a big snowfall last night. This causes Mokey another freakout when she realizes that knitting she didn’t want to do? That was for a tarpaulin for Madam Trash Heap.
Whoops.
(Fun fact - as a kid I did not connect “tarpaulin” to “tarp” and thought it sounded like a nice word and must be something cool. Not quite.)
Meanwhile, up in the garden, Junior is picking frozen radishes for soup - guess the Gorgs aren’t that different. So we got a theme alarm.
Junior calls his hands paws and says they have pads. This just raises more questions. Ma also drops her mother’s name - Queen Esmerelda - and it seems explicit that Grandmother Gorg is dead. Though “May she shed in peace” is an interesting way of putting it.
(BTW radishes kind of suck in stew, I tried it once.)
Well, turns out that not having a tarp is kind of a big deal as Marjory is frozen solid. Philo and Gunge are in fine form with the high melodrama. “The sting of a simple salutation!” And then they sing a song, the title song (That link is from the Jim Henson Company so it’s not going anywhere {I hope} so I’d watch it. It’s a pretty good scene.)
In the middle of the song Philo and Gunge decide to ice skate because reasons. After the song Mokey admits her part in this tragedy, and of course Philo and Gunge turn on her as a “promise breaker” and ask her what she’s going to do about it.
I’ll talk more at the end but...knitting a tarp for a big heap of trash is a REALLY big job for one little Fraggle. Like a huge job. Like....how would she even carry it out by herself? The thing would be enormous compared to Fraggles.
Be better to get the Doozers to help. Steal all their radishes again and promise to give it back when the job’s done. They can drag it out with their heavy machinery.
Mokey says she only offered to knit the tarp because she didn’t want Marjory to think badly of her, but with all her wisdom you’d think The Trash Heap would have seen this coming.
There’s an aside with the Doozers that pretty much is just here to remind us they exist.
Gobo and Wembley are harassing Red about losing, and it’s kind of weird, Gobo calls Red “braid brain” but he and Wembley both gasp when Red calls Gobo “hat head.” Like, wtf, is this a “how dare anyone insult Fraggle Jesus at all?”
Well when Mokey comes down to inform them of Madam Heap’s condition they’re all so distressed and unsure of where to turn that even Red does not protest when Gobo reads Uncle Matt’s latest card.
It’s about Matt’s failed attempt to molest a statue. Guy gets lonely in Outer Space apparently.
Boober comes in with soup for everyone, and this time it’s not exploding. This gives Mokey the idea to dump the soup on the Trash Heap to thaw her out.
Seems legit.
Everyone has pretty heavy duty winter wear. It’s kind of neat to see a costuming change this extensive.
The soup helps a bit and Marjory is able to move her hand, but Philo and Gunge aren’t that thrilled. “Once you’ve known the whole Trash Heap it’s hard to settle for just a finger.”
...
...
GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!
Well Marjory manages to say “More soup” and the Fraggles at least have the start of a plan.
Gobo and Mokey overhear Ma Gorg telling Junior to pull vegetables out of the root cellar (that have been there 100 years. ...How?) and they get the middle of a plan.
They follow Ma and Junior into the kitchen. Junior has made Ma some Fraggle Shaped salt and pepper shakers.
Mokey finishes her planning when she hears Ma Gorg chew out Junior for bringing greaseberry seeds up from the root cellar. She says they make soup taste nasty.
Which is odd, since they use the greaseberry plant to make Gorg Butter. The salt must really change the flavor.
Ma and Junior sing a song about how once you know how to cook it just is by intuition. Especially for something like soup.
This is legit.
This is a neat song not for being catchy - though it is - but there’s a pretty involved dance number between Ma and Junior. Junior has more complicated steps but they’re both really moving.
Just a small appreciation for bothering to do this shot.
Mokey gets the idea to pose as the pepper shaker so that she can sabotage the soup.
Meanwhile back at the workshop Doc is really sucking at writing ad copy. Also, it is apparently Winter from Outer Space all the way to The Universe. Sprocket is still bitter about not getting fling and fetch - though Doc says he promised Miss Ardath first.
Meanwhile in the kitchen, Gobo is either being a misogynist or a glory hog and he’s trying to convince Mokey he’s “the most qualified in terms of experience.”
Bullshit.
Mokey gets radishes all the time and thus would have way way way more experience with Gorgs. So...no Gobo, you are not the Fraggle for this job. I’m not sure what wandering around in caves being a pissbaby makes you qualified for, but it isn’t this.
Also, funny joke when Mokey makes a dig at him being too short.
Mokey is not about to let Gobo die for her sins and insists that she is the one responsible and so she has to finish it.
Interesting about this shot that you might not notice - this is not a mini puppet in a Gorg hand. This is Mokey’s full head puppet and her human hand in some kind of rig or prop hand. So this is a super complicated shot.
Well the sabotage works and the soup sucks ass.
Ma is insulted when Junior says the soup is horrible, so calls Pa down to scold him. Pa likes the soup, but Pa likes greaseberries. So Ma is upset and has Junior throw the soup out. (Apparently the bad breath from greaseberries can last for months.)
Probably the worst part of the episode is this really long gag of Junior falling on ice on his way to dump it on the Trash Heap to get some compost out of it. It doesn’t add much.
Well, Marjory is revived by the soup, and she likes greaseberries too.
Mokey apologizes for spacing on her promises and Marjory is quick to forgive.
Especially if she gets more soup, which Boober delivers. How’s she going to stay warm though? Mokey has like one tenth of a Trash Heap sized tarp she’s been carrying around - maybe even less than that. They just going to sew all their scarves together or something?
Doc finished the ad and is going to play fetch with Sprocket, even turning down a date for Bridge with Miss Ardath.
Overall Ratings:
Episode : 8/10
This is a pretty good episode with a lot of nice character moments and some pretty funny jokes. Good use of new costumes and modified sets, though it’s a pity Red is put out of the episode’s action mostly and has to sit with her sore ankle. This plays Mokey off Gobo for most of the episode, but luckily he doesn’t cause too much trouble.
There are some slow and filler bits mostly around songs, but I can’t blame it too much for that. Impressive camera and staging work they overall really made things feel real and detailed. No mistakes like not removing the smaller flowers from the set like in Invasion of the Toe Ticklers. Though the skating effect was a little weak, but I guess they were really into that kind of thing.
Message : 5/10
Really mixed on this one. It also kind of wanders a bit.
At first it seems like “don’t take on more than you are willing or able to do” but that’s a bit of a parent message not a kid message. Kids get voluntold to do things and pressured into promising to help more than they’d likely over extend themselves volunteering. Perhaps older teens could benefit from that. There’s some overcomplicated stuff where Mokey was volunteering so people would think well of her, but that’s not followed through.
The message seems to end as a more straightforward “don’t break promises” which is fine enough. Though Mokey seems to have taken on things that people barely had business asking her.
Songs: 8/10
The songs are both pretty catchy, and they did a good job of making them interesting to watch. I especially appreciate Goodtime Goomba Soup. It’s nice to see the Gorgs interacting positively. A lot of times they’re bickering, so some family bonding over cooking and dance is great.
Random Observations:
Oh I would lose my shit if someone sabotaged my soup, not gonna lie.
Running gag of everyone hitting Red’s ankle - including Red - which was pretty funny.
Boober is great in what little support role he has.
Ha ha Gobo is short.
Like seriously though, the show always seems to forget that Mokey spends the most time in The Universe.
Who even says tarpaulin, I have literally never heard it outside this show.
