...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
