Sesame Street Season 42, Episode Recap: Week 1

 Sesame Street Season 42

Episode Recap: Week 1

Shane Keating – Well, another year has passed, which means it’s time for the latest season of Sesame Street! 42 seasons, geesh, what a long time! This season is focusing on the workshop's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) curriculum. Most of the shows this week follow this idea. So, without further ado, let’s get this season a-rollin’!

EPISODE 4257 – FAILURE TO LAUNCH

Hubert the Human Cannonball is planning to fire himself five feet from his cannon into a bucket of blue jello, but his cannon goes kaput! Elmo, Telly, Chris and Baby Bear help find alternate means of getting him in the air. Telly uses a large catapult, but he goes a mere two feet. Elmo gets the Big Bad Wolf to huff and puff him away, but he goes one foot further. Baby Bear finally engineers a large rubber band from some smaller ones and sends him successfully into the bucket.

This was an all right season opener. I'm not sure what it was about it, but I didn't really do anything for me.

New Segments and Other Highlights:

• James Marzden and Elmo show the word "engineer" by making a device that serves spaghetti, which lands on top of James. That's using your head!
• New Murray tune-ins debut. Instead of basically introducing everything, he and Ovejita visit the New York Hall of Science to learn what makes a rocket fly. Yeah, we're going to see this one repeated many times throughout the season, but it's certainly an improvement over the last ones.
• Film: Kids make an H from blocks, noting "H" is for helping.
• Abby's Flying Fairy School: The kids open Pandora's Lunchbox, unleashing her pesky food. Take note that their theme song has new music to it.
• Super Grover 2.0: A horse has a hard time getting his cart to move. Lots of great jokes in this one, especially when the chicken lays an egg.
• Elmo and a Justin Bieber-esque Muppet sing a song about measuring. I like it and I'm glad they went with a Muppet caricature like in the old days.

EPISODE 4258 – ROCCO'S BOAT

Baby David, Elmo's doll, is floating in his tub of water. Zoe comes by with Rocco, who wants to float too, but he sinks. At Leela's suggestion, Elmo swallows his pride and helps experiment and find something to get him to float.

The interaction between Elmo, Zoe, and Rocco was super funny in this one. Plus, "Rocco’s Boat" is a catchy song.

New Segments and Other Highlights:

• Craig Ferguson and Elmo conduct an experiment involving chickens. A great line comes from Craig when the giant chicken appears.
• Today, Murray and the kids experiment with cars. I kind of wish Ovejita was more involved in this though.
• Cartoon: A dancing robot shows some J words.
• Abby's Flying Fairy School: Abby makes her hero, Super Fairy, appear in the classroom. She constantly knocks down Blögg and Gonnigan's tower, trying to find out why they don't like her. A great pro-social message in this one.
• Cartoon: A song about counting 12 chicks. I'm surprised they made another segment about 12, since they had two new ones last year. Despite that, I enjoyed this one very much.
• "Heaviest Catch" parody of The Deadliest Catch. With Frank Oz performing the Captain, you can't go wrong!

EPISODE 4259 – THE BUBBLE FEST

Alan and Chris are hosting the first-ever Bubble Fest, a day of blowing bubbles. While Elmo and Abby partake in the various activities, Telly tries various ways to blow a bubble.

A little bland for a street story. And how many people where Chris and Alan expecting to attend? Only Abby, Elmo, Telly and three kids were there.

New Segments and Other Highlights:

• George Lopez, Abby and Elmo demonstrate what a liquid is.
• Today, Murray and friends experiment with bubbles.
• Abby's Flying Fairy School: Today is B day and Abby has let loose Little Bunny Foo-Foo, who jumps on their heads and they turn each other into goons. Several good jokes in this one; I myself liked the puns on "goon."
• Super Grover 2.0 aids a chicken get to the other side of the "Pretty Good Wall of China." It's not new, but it's my favorite one, so I'm glad to see it again.
• Jay Sean sings a song about Super Grover 2.0 and the idea of problem solving. To me, rap isn't the best method for teaching. I don't think the kids would be able to follow the lesson when it's being sung at such a fast pace.

EPISODES 4260 – OBSERVE, RECORD, ANNOY

Oscar is taking an online night course in Groucholohy. Professor Messla (played by Jason Jones) has him perform some Grouch experiments, all while annoying anyone nearby. During his study, Oscar is able to bother Alan, Gina, Leela, Maria and Luis, all in the name of Grouch science!

Definitely my favorite of the week. Oscar is my favorite character and I loved his antics. I also really enjoyed Jason Jones in this.


New Segments and Other Highlights:

• Jeffery O’Donahue observes a pie Murray has baked... with pepper instead of sugar.
• Murray learns how to make an umbrella using various materials. I like the fact that these tune-ins have a plot now, but I don't think they get any closure.
• The hilarious parody of Glee, G. Needless to say, it's pitch-perfect (a little music humor there!)
• Abby's Flying Fairy School: It's picture day and Gonnigan's hair is in no shape to be in a photo. Abby uses Rapunzel Hair Gel, which makes it grow out of control.
• Super Grover 2.0: A mouse waiter can't get his customer his cheese because the door shuts. It's sort-of like a Super Grover meets Waiter Grover sketch. I also like the fact that there was a set for this one, and only a partially CGI background.

EPISODE 4261 – THE SHAPE-O-BOTS

Elmo, Telly and Rosita are playing the Shape-O-Bots, robots who can actually transform into shapes when needed. Andy Samberg appears as three "different" people, each needing a shape for a ridiculous reason.

I like the Transformers parody they did here. I also liked Andy's dancing during the Shape-O-Bots theme and the (horrible) playing card puns when the King and Queen of Diamonds appear.

New Segments and Other Highlights:

• What does transform mean? Well, The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki and Abby try to show you using magic.
• Today's Murray experiment involves making bridges.
• Cartoon: A page announces the upcoming presence of Queen Quagmire, but is interrupted by a duck. From 2004, this is one of my favorite modern Sesame cartoons.
• Abby's Flying Fairy School: Blogg's favorite dirty sock gets into some magic mud, causing it come alive and wreak havoc and spread filth.
• Super Grover 2.0 helps a starfish find her missing engagement ring in the sand. I'm liking these new sketches, but I don't think it's wise that they're exhausting them at the start of the season, considering they made so few of them.
• The Two-Headed Monster learns what a rectangle is with the help of Chris. I'm so glad these guys have officially made a comeback. You may notice there's a new puppet of them, with some slightly shaggier hair.

So, that ends the first week. It's pretty good. So far, I'm only concerned with the lack of inserts in each show. Hopefully, we'll see some more in the coming weeks. Until next week!

The Muppet Mindset by Ryan Dosier, ryguy102390@gmail.com