ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Confused Coaches
January 02, 2021
Ah, Gordon and Spencer-even though you two are cousins who were built by the same designer, you two in actuality are bitter rivals to the core who love to try and outdo one another in terms of speed and strength...but will you two learn to put aside your differences for the sake of your passengers on the new year? Let's find out with 'Confused Coaches'!
When Gordon and Spencer's competitive behavior gets out of control on the last day of the year, it may end up causing more confusion and delay than ever. When this episode was announced, I was actually rather intrigued by the concept since it has been quite a while since Gordon and Spencer were given some major screen time together and it felt great to see them get it a bit of the action with the writing being as entertaining as it was. But was it entertaining enough? The answer is...yes, yes it was.
When it comes to the story, even though the main point of the episode doesn't kick in until halfway through and the comedy with Sir Topham Hatt is now starting to become repetitive, the holiday that ties this episode together is one that we haven't seen before. Whereas every holiday-themed episode in the series has always been either Christmas and maybe Halloween, and inevitably Valentine's Day, Helen Farrall actually decided to give us a New Year's Eve episode-that's an idea so obscure that only fans of the show would ever consider trying let alone the corporate company that runs the franchise, so to see a New Year's Eve episode finally make its way into the series was really nice to see especially with the moral of learning to put aside differences and starting fresh again especially when you think about how long of a rivalry Gordon and Spencer have had with each other.
As for the visuals, it's always great to see more of Jam Filled's continued work from Arc Productions with winter-themed episodes and they really got to show what they could do during the sequences of Gordon and Spencer racing each other as well as the editing of the shots when Spencer is scheming to get back at Gordon which reminded me a lot of the series '24' and let's not forget the beautifully animated fireworks at the end of the episode to celebrate the new year and close out the episode with a moment where I just wanted to reach out through the screen and hug Philip.
And when it comes to the two core characters of the episode, it's always fun to see the massive egos of Gordon and Spencer go head to head and I can tell that Kerry Shale was having a field day when voicing for Gordon during the climax. Some have said that Flying Scotsman should've appeared as well to be the voice of reason between the two engines and while I would've loved to see him again since that role would've been perfect for him, it would've been overkill considering that we would've already had an episode like that in this season with 'Emily In The Middle'.
Overall, even though there were some delays in the writing, 'Confused Coaches' goes full steam ahead for the new year and I give it a rating of a perfect 5 out of 5. And with that, I wish you all a happy new year! Let's just hope that 2021 is better than 2020!
Final Score: 5/5
About the Author: True Blue
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