The children’s show ‘Bluey’ is a balm for stressed, child-free adults

At the end of 2022, during a very stressful time in my life, I started getting an avalanche of videos from a wholesome children’s show on my TikTok For You Page. This is how I accidentally became a fan of “Bluey,” an Australian show about a family of dogs.

In my story, for the Washington Post, I explored this phenomenon, which sits in the liminal space between junk content and deep online meaning. Discovering a delicate story that teaches children about loss on TikTok feels strange. I wrote:

Spammy, anonymous TikTok pages grab clips of TV shows and post them in a split screen, where the bottom half of the vertical video shows gameplay from a random mobile game, a format that — inexplicably — generates a ton of views on the app as people keep watching them. Before “Bluey,” some of these accounts were posting clips of “Family Guy” or “Rick and Morty.” After the “Bluey” shine fades, they’ll move on to something else.

But things like “Bluey” also become popular because they are meaningful.

In one viral “Bluey” clip, the children are performing a play for their parents. It takes a sudden turn when a balloon pops, prompting a wordless exchange between Bandit and Chilli that hints at a possible miscarriage before Bluey was born. In another episode, Bluey has to process feelings of loss after a new friend, made during a camping trip, is unable to properly say goodbye before their family packs up and drives off.

Read more at the Washington Post