Fireman Sam

I remember this show from my countless hours of viewing in the early 90's (probably aged no more than 4 at the time). I saw it again recently and it brought back such memories...this show is an absolute classic. The theme song alone is great.If you liked postman pat or something like that then you'll love this.

Fireman Sam is a two-sided affair. On the one hand, because the first 4 seasons are a long way from the later ones, but above all because the switch from stop-motion to CGI animations has given the series an extreme kink. In addition, the stories are designed to be more superficial and less value-oriented. So you can rate the first seasons with a very good 9 stars, the later with a lucky 3 stars, so that in the end (unfortunately) an overall rating of 6 points comes out; and that's still benevolent, because the CGI era is much more extensive than that of classic stop motion.

This programme has a lot of nice elements. The dreamy village setting is nice, the messages of guidance are clear and the story lines easy to follow. Our young children like it a lot. Which means I end up watching it a lot, too :-) If I could, I'd change a few things. The utter hero-worship of Sam, modest though he is, is too much; the kids always end up wanting to be him. Also, he's a rescue service of every kind, if a fuse went in the telly they'd "ring Fireman Sam". But toughest is Norman's harshly horrible voice which is the most unpleasant kid's voice you've ever know mixed with the most OTT caricature of Welsh.

None of these things are crimes and the good of the show very much outweighs the bad. It's just when you've watched twenty or thirty of them in a summer, they start to grate just a tiny bit...!

This is a fun little show we discovered on our Comcast "On Demand" feature. It concerns the adventures of a team of firefighters in a small town in Wales. Fireman Sam is the main character, with several other folks in town contributing. One thing we appreciate about it is that it is not "diluted" for US audiences - the dialog contains several UK/Welsh specific phrases and terms, which my 6 year old son has had fun hearing, while learning how another culture expresses itself. The characterizations are standard but well-drawn; the firefighters are not superheroes, just brave and steady. There is the naughty boy who gets in scrapes and the average town folk who sometimes require the fire service. A good show for youngsters to view with characters they can understand, and very family-friendly without being sappy.

This show, at least the modern CG seasons are pure garbage. Fires randomly start that wouldn't. People do the dumbest things. The voice acting is... not even acting; it's grown men trying to be kids-any other show would use boys or women. The scripts are terrible, the "animation" is atrocious. The plots are thin. It's annoying to watch for anyone with half a brain. Yes, it's a kid's show, but parents often end up watching the same thing as their (young) kids.

If I had a choice, I'd remove this from Netflix. But I can't and my 2yo loves fire trucks... I can only hope the poor quality is temporary.