Woman of the Month: Bluey and Bingo

Bluey and Bingo Heeler from Bluey

It’s been a while since I’ve had a duo in a Woman of the Month post (prior examples include Misty + Colleen, Joy + Sadness and Korra + Asami) and they usually come about due to a sheer inability to separate the pairing. For whatever reason, they exist as a double act. However, this post is a first in that I’ve never profiled any anthropomorphic female characters before.

Bluey and Bingo are children, sisters and dogs – in that order. Much ink has been spilt on what has made Bluey such a popular show, from the stealth parenting tips to the depiction of a happy childhood to the emotional maturity of the writing, though for my money it’s because our two main characters provide such vivid depictions of children.

It helps that real (uncredited) children voice the two characters, though the real miracle of the show is that it somehow manages to capture the ineffable magic of childhood and the way we all experienced it. That seems a lofty goal for animated seven-minute shorts, but then, how else am I supposed to describe Bingo's separation anxiety subliminally manifesting in her dream about basking in the warmth of the sun, only for the episode to reveal that her mother has curled up next to her in bed, all to the sound of Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter”? I mean, just calm down Bluey.

That Bluey and Bingo are also sisters is also noteworthy. On any other show, you’d expect them to be brothers, or a brother/sister pairing, just to attain that mainstream, widespread appeal. But the girls are sisters, navigating that time of constant companionship, in which you’re playmates, rivals, buddies, and partners in crime. As the eldest, Bluey is often more assertive and bossy, while Bingo is more sensitive and careful. Bluey will dive straight into the pool, Bingo dips her toes in first. Bluey is brimming with ideas and innovations, while Bingo is more than happy to just come along for the ride.

They capture (in broad strokes) the two sides of childhood; the extrovert and the introvert. But as it happens, it’s difficult to talk about characters that are children since... they’re children. There’s no real character to speak of; indeed, childhood is the time in which you gain your character. Yet that’s reflected in the show itself. Bluey and Bingo are a work-in progress, filled with curiosity and a zest for life. When you’re that young, everything is new, everything is an adventure. They’re still at the beginning of everything.

And of course, they’re dogs. They wag their tails when they’re happy and shake themselves when they’re wet. But as characters, they make for a more realistic depiction of children than many actual child characters. Their speech patterns, their thought-processes, their boundless creativity. Some episodes take place entirely within the imaginative landscape of their games, and watching them begin to fathom the world around them is as fascinating to us as it is to them. Long may their childhoods continue.