ThomasNATION Reviews - Counting Cows

If you were to ask any longtime fan of Thomas the Tank Engine what they consider the worst episode of the original series, a majority of responses would point you towards the infamously hated Season 15 episode 'Wonky Whistle': from the complete lack of railway safety that could've gotten people injured or killed to Thomas acting extremely air-headed to the point where you even question what the moral was, it's honestly sad when the animation is the only good thing about this trainwreck and it's easy to see why it tops a lot of people's lists of the worst episodes from the original series.  Granted they did try to amend this disaster in the very next season with James in 'Muddy Matters' and while it was a slight improvement, the lack of railway safety really brought it down for many, but when they tried it again for a third time with Percy in Season 19's 'Very Important Sheep', I feel like this was the point where they were finally able to right the wrongs from the previous era of the series in what felt like an apology letter to the many longtime fans of the series to the point where it even became one of my favorite Percy episodes from the CG-animated seasons.  But as we jump from one chapter of Thomas The Tank Engine's history to another with going from the original series to the reboot and as we shift the focus of animal deliveries from sheep to cows, will it be a real moo-ver or will it just turn out to be ba-a-a-d luck? Let’s see!

Well, it seems like the only way of covering this 'Wonky Whistle' wannabe is by comparing it to the three different versions of the story from the original series since there are some notable similarities and differences between these four different stories with the obvious first one apart from the different animal deliveries being the choice of main characters with Thomas and Percy both sharing the spotlight for this episode as opposed to each of them having their own separate episode like in the original series while James takes a backseat to the action as a drive-by speaking cameo to set up the conflict.  But I think the biggest difference which can also count as a similarity is how the conflict is resolved between these four versions of the same story.

You see, unlike in 'Wonky Whistle' and 'Very Important Sheep' where Thomas and Percy didn't even notice their animal deliveries escape until they got to their destinations in order to make a plan to rescue them which they kinda also do here when it comes to their delivery in 'Counting Cows', at least James actually saw the sheep escape from his livestock van at the beginning of 'Muddy Matters' and he didn't wait until it was too late to rescue them but rather he actually tried to fix the problem once he noticed which is a huge step up compared to what Thomas and Percy accomplished...no wonder why the big engines always looked down on the tank engines in the original series, at least they know how to be really useful engines and get their deliveries done safely and on time!

While I still believe that Season 19's 'Very Important Sheep' is the best of the 'Wonky Whistle' rewrites and while anything is better than that atrocious Season 15 episode, I will say that 'Counting Cows' despite being similar in story to those three episodes of the original series and being one of those types of episodes that really caters to their preschool demographic by teaching them how to count to ten is actually a decent watch and I'd dare even say that this is right up there with 'Very Important Sheep' as one of the two better rewrites of the episode that we shall never speak of again thus I'm gonna give 'Counting Cows' a rating of a 3.5 out of 5.  If you are an animal lover particularly of farm life like cows, then you'll definitely enjoy coming home on the range here, but be warned, there is an udder-ly ridiculous amount of cow puns and singing 'Old McDonald Had a Farm' scattered thoughout this episode to the point where it could even be turned into its own drinking game by a majority of the fandom.  But hey, there's nothing like a little music while you work…right?

Final Rating: 3.5/5