ThomasNATION Classic Reviews - Toby and Bash
March 02, 2024
At first, the plot seems pretty straightforward. As his reward, Bash is to help Toby with his jobs (wait, how's that a reward?), but about a third of the way through, they actually drop that premise and it becomes about Toby helping Bash find a home on Sodor.
One thing that actually kinda works about the episode is that it has a surprising amount of heart. The whole gimmick of Toby finding a home for Bash ends with Bash confessing to him that he doesn’t want to be away from his friends, seeing as Misty Island is so calm and quiet…apparently. Not only is it a nice scene, but this is the only episode of the trilogy where one of the Logging Locos works as their own character. We actually see Bash fleshed out a little instead of just being a plot device.
But despite that, this episode still falls under the typical trappings of Season 15. It has that same terrible dialogue, it overuses the narration, the homes Toby finds for Bash are really dumb (like, did he really expect him to sleep on a bridge?), it has the three strikes formula, yada yada. But there’s one line that kinda irks me. When the two are rushing over to Misty Island, Bash calls out to Toby “you’re my new friend”. Not only does the line not make too much sense in context, but considering he was already acquainted with Toby through Merry Misty Island…was he not already?
But overall, Toby and Bash is…eh? I mean, it’s the best Logging Loco episode by a long shot, and Season 15’s second-best episode behind Surprise, Surprise! due to its decent heart, but at the same time, it’s just kinda nothing. Nothing came out of it that I'll remember, but I also didn't hate it, so I’m just gonna give this a 2.5/5. Watch it or don’t. I wanna go to bed.
Final Score: 2.5/5
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