Now, it should be worth noting that Thomas and Bruno don't share the spotlight together often in All Engines Go with the only examples that I can think of is the All Aboard mini-series short "The New Platform" where Bruno basically made Thomas late with his delivery to Sir Topham Hatt's birthday party all because he didn't see any mechanics and the recent episode "For All The Marble" where Sir Topham Hatt enlisted the help of Thomas and Bruno in delivering a precious marble statue of his great-grandfather to Vicarstown Plaza.  So when you have Thomas and Bruno stretching their comfort zones when Bruno's beloved map gets carried away by the wind, is it better than what we had before or will we need to depend on our friends to get us back on track again?  My answer to that is...well, it's better than their last adventure but yet I can't help but feel like this could've been so much more. 

What do I mean by this?  Well, remember "Crowning Around" from Season 23 of the original series and how Rajiv learned that he could still be really useful even without his crown?  That's the kind of story I thought we were going to get here with Bruno learning that he didn't need his map of the routes on Sodor in order to be really useful while out with Thomas making their delivery of bricks, but that sadly wasn't the case here especially with how it constantly hammers in its moral of "friends being more important than schedules/being on time" to the point where they even have a whole song to make sure it sticks in your brain thus making it feel like Mattel thinks the kids watching All Engines Go are too stupid to know what the moral of the episode is and have to constantly hammer it in instead of letting the audience think for themselves. Kids are smarter than you think. So while overall a better experience than what we saw last time from Thomas and Bruno, the biggest mishap that "Bruno's Map Mishap" made was not living up to the potential that it could've brought forward. 

But like I said before, it's not a bad watch for what we were given especially for those who are on the spectrum or are fans of Bruno already and that is why I'm gonna be nice and give "Bruno's Map Mishap" a 3.5/5 rating.

Final Rating: 3.5/5

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Lots of the engines on the Island of Sodor are steam engines, they run on coal and water. They collect their coal from the coal hopper and they get water from the water tower. But steam engines aren't the only types of engines that ride the rails of Sodor, since diesel engines get their power to make them go from running on diesel fuel and are driven by turning a lever in the cab. But there's also another type of power that engines can use since there are also modern electric trains who get their power from special cables high up above the tracks from a big arm on the roof of the engine called a pantograph that slides along the cable and collects the electricity. Trains like these are very long and very fast, they can carry a lot of passengers over very long distances. Three different trains and three different types of power to make them go. But no matter which type of engine that you prefer rather if it's steam or diesel or even electric, and even if the engines of the Sodor aren't always able to get along due to their differences in power, each of them have one goal in common: to be really useful for the North Western Railway. But whenever there's a power shortage, it's always good to know that the engines have each other's backs and are willing to help out however they can.  But in today's episode, we're thankfully not dealing with any more power outages but instead dealing with something much more serious when it's a race against time to deliver parts in order to repair broken water lines all over Sodor.  Will the engines save the day or have their chances all dried up?  Let's take a look.

Remember how we got a first for the Thomas & Friends franchise a few episodes ago in the form of a Cranky and Bulstrode spotlight episode with "A Cranky Goodbye"...which I may or may not be reviewing next month?  Well, if you were to remove the engines from the plot of this episode completely, then this episode gives us another first for the franchise by having Skiff and Terence share the spotlight together which is something that they never did throughout the entirety of the original series.  So okay, this episode sounds like it could be really promising especially with this brand new character pairing?  What could possibly go wrong?  Well, while the stakes for this episode are higher than they were with episodes like Season 1's "No Power, No Problem" and Season 2's "Blackout" and maybe it's just me, but there’s only one problem with the movie and sadly it’s kind of a big one: the story. It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just something that we've seen before and thus feels predictable. 

While I can appreciate the things that this episode teaches like when Kana tells Skiff that water and electricity do not mix and while the stakes are high for this episode like I said before, the combined plot elements from "No Power, No Problem" and "Blackout" along with the overused steamies versus diesels conflict and message of "just be yourself" with the characters of Terence and Skiff almost make this episode feel like a snore fest since you can easily see a lot of plot points coming before they happen and you're just sitting there waiting for the episode to end which is not something that any fan of Thomas, whether longtime veteran or aspiring newcomer, wants to do.  

So in reality between the unique character pairing of Terence and Skiff being treated more like a novelty than anything else on top of overused plots and morals, not even a callback to Season 19's "Wild Water Rescue" with Diesel can save "All Wheels on Track" from feeling like a bore and that is sadly why it gets a 2.5/5.

Final Rating: 2.5/5

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...alright, fine. I know I've been ripping this season to shreds a lot this year, but there is just so much to rip to shreds. The writing's atrocious, the dialogue's horrendous, almost none of the stories work and it's undoubtedly Thomas' worst season. I understand there may have been some behind the scenes things that could've caused it, but no matter the reason, it's still horrible. But there is one episode that's really fascinating: Happy Hiro. Why? Well, let's begin.

Hiro is feeling homesick, so in an effort to cheer him up, Thomas takes him to Misty Island, but his ideas on what he thinks will make Hiro happy clash with what actually makes him happy.

You may be wondering something unusual with that story...it's actually a good idea. Thomas and Hiro have a natural bond that was set up really well in Hero of the Rails, and it's nice to see it expanded on. Hell, it actually has a somewhat decent moral about listening to your friends. There's even a moment that builds on a throwaway line about Japan having Jobi logs. They didn't need to include that, but I'm glad they did.

Now, you may be wondering, where does it fall apart? The episode all comes crashing down with, you guessed it, the writing. Not only does it follow the same three-strikes formula, and not only is the constant rhyming annoying, and not only is Thomas an inconsiderate numbskull in this, but this episode surprisingly has a lot of filler. It takes a while for Thomas and Hiro to actually get to Misty Island, because before all that, we need to have a scene where Charlie tells a joke. There's even a moment where Percy shows up, he says hi to Thomas, and then just dips. He doesn't appear for the rest of the episode. Why was he there? 

This episode is super frustrating because the nugget of an idea is there. If it were handled by the right team, this could've been something pretty good. But alas, the terrible writing had to bog it down. Is it the worst of Season 15? No. Dare I say, it's up there with the season's best...or, I guess, least bad episodes. But there's no reason to check it out, because...funny enough, everything that was done here was done better in Toby and Bash. That episode had a similar story, but the conflict was a lot tighter and more emotional. This one has its moments, but I can't bring myself to rate it any higher than a 2/5. Also, did you know that on the Thomas wiki, the quote used to sum the episode up is "Please, Thomas! I would like this to stop!"? Couldn't have said it better myself.

Final Rating: 2/5

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