ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Diesel Glows Away
October 07, 2023
Hey all, JF here, and today, we got kind of a weird topic.
Diesel Glows Away is a BWBA episode that I hardly see anyone talking about. While everyone remembers the specials, or the international ones, or even the movie, Diesel Glows Away just kinda blends into the background. But does that make it a hidden gem or is it actually a good thing no one remembers it? Let's begin.
Diesel gets annoyed when everyone starts getting fed up with his tricks, so he decides to play an especially weird prank: using bioluminescent paint to sneak up on Paxton and Nia and pretend he's a ghost.
Yeah, I won't lie, the plot of this one is just kinda weird. What could've been an It's a Wonderful Life-esque story that shows Diesel's purpose on Sodor is instead dedicated to a pretty generic "Diesel plays a trick" story. It doesn't help either that it follows the exact same formula as a typical episode with that formula: Diesel gets annoyed, plays a prank, the other engines prank him back, etc. It is, however, a little refreshing how the engines don't fall for Diesel's prank at all, which is a little creative. Plus, while I'll admit, the solution to how they find Diesel is a little clever, one thing about it makes it entirely fall apart.
This is Diesel's hiding spot. A narrow-gauge tunnel. Not even that, but it's the same tunnel that Luke hid in in Blue Mountain Mystery. Consistent world-building? What's that?
But even that's not the reason why the story doesn't work. The main reason why it doesn't work is that it's been done before. Remember Henry in the Dark? That already used the bioluminescent paint concept, but it had enough unique plot beats to make it stand out, making it a pretty underrated episode. This episode just reuses the same plot beats as a thousand other episodes like it, ultimately making it just another generic Diesel story.
And yeah, that's the best way to describe Diesel Glows Away. It's generic. It doesn't do anything to do anything to stand out from any other Diesel stories in the series since pretty much every idea this episode uses either has been done to death before or makes no sense. It's not the worst of these, but there are still far better Diesel stories out there, which is why this gets a 2.5/5.
Final Score: 2.5/5
About the Author: JF the LOLZOR
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