Fiery Flynn (Thomas & Friends)

"Fiery Flynn" is the twentieth and final episode of the fifteenth season of Thomas & Friends.

Plot
There's a blue engine on fire, but Flynn the Fire Engine races to the rescue before Rocky can tell him which blue engine it is.

Why Its Firebox Was On Fire

 * 1) The main criticism with this episode is that this episode completely insults the intelligence of firefighters in the most distasteful way possible. See Reason #2 if you are curious.
 * 2) *It should be noted that the way this episode writes firefighters as incompetent, useless idiots through one character is not funny. In fact, it is insultingly and despicably unfunny. Worst of all, the episode itself never takes itself seriously, and we all thought CGI Fireman Sam was bad?
 * 3) In this episode, Flynn is just as, if not even more idiotic than Thomas in the episode "Wonky Whistle" and his pure idiocy makes Patrick Star look and act like Albert Einstein in comparison, as he cannot tell if an engine is on fire or not. Not only that, but given by the fact this episode writes him as stupid and incompetent, and how his portrayal paints firefighters in a terrible light, he should not have joined the rescue team if you see how disgraceful this portrayal is to firefighters alike.
 * 4) *In fact, both times he says: "You're not on fire?" makes you want to do a facepalm or laugh at how bad this episode is.
 * 5) Throughout the episode, there are some grammatical errors in this episode as well, such as: "All the engines like to be really helpful, as well as really useful" (Helpful and useful are the exact same thing) and "But I'm wet through!"
 * 6) Abysmal writing throughout.
 * 7) Edward and Gordon did not serve any purpose to the story at all. They were just there because this episode wanted to use these two engines as talking test subjects in order for the three strikes formula to progress.
 * 8) *Speaking of the three strikes, this episode doesn't try to be funny with Flynn acting stupid. Flynn acting stupid is rather played for unfunny attempts at humor and that is all.
 * 9) There's an animation error in the scene where Flynn sprays water to Edward, the water isn't actually hitting Edward in said scene.
 * 10) There are a chunk of really nonsensical plot holes present during the episode.
 * 11) *How does Rocky know that Thomas is on fire if the alarm just rang? We don't see anybody tell Rocky the emergency. The same thing happens when one of Mavis' trucks catches fire.
 * 12) *While Thomas is burning, Flynn tells the diesels to use buckets of water to turn off the fire, why didn't the drivers do that in the first place?
 * 13) *How did Thomas' firebox explode in the first place?
 * 14) *On the same scene, the diesels get the credit while it was the drivers who turned off Thomas' fire.
 * 15) *What was even the point of Thomas and Flynn thanking the diesels and not the diesel's drivers? The drivers did all the work, not the diesels!
 * 16) The episode tries too hard to antagonize the diesels and make us side with Flynn. Instead, Flynn comes off as a brainless, inexperienced moron who screws everything up and can't take his job seriously like a dimwit, even though he is a fire engine.
 * 17) *Ironically, he is shown to have experience with fires in "Day of the Diesels", but because of the inconsistent continuity in Seasons 12-16, here in this episode, Flynn acts as if he has no experience with putting out a fire or doing anything he does to take his job as a fire engine seriously.
 * 18) The infamous scene where the narrator says: "His firebox was on FIRE !" For one thing, fireboxes ARE supposed to be on fire, hence the name. If a firebox is not on fire, then how is a steam engine going to work then? It would have made a lot more sense if the narrator just said "His firebox was overheating!" or "His firebox exploded!" since Thomas' firebox exploded.
 * 19) Flynn doesn't even seem to take his job seriously, because while Thomas is on fire, he talks and does not shut up. A real firefighter would instantly spray water and not talk before doing so. And even when he realizes that the other blue engines are not on fire, he should instantly go with Thomas because again in short way, THOMAS IS THE ONE WHO WAS ON FIRE!
 * 20) This episode ended Season 15, an already awful season on a lousy and unfunny note. In fact, this episode is an unfunny version of the 1956 Looney Tunes short, "Stupor Duck", which is a cartoon short that follows the idea of a rescuer being portrayed as incompetent. But unlike "Fiery Flynn", which is an episode that has no funny mistakes or funny bits of humor, the humor in that Looney Tunes short is funny because Daffy Duck was the right character to play as a more incompetent version of Superman. This episode (again) writes firefighters as incompetent idiots and it writes itself in such a horrible manner to the point that you can't find anything about this episode funny whatsoever.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The CGI animation by Nitrogen Studios is nice.
 * 2) Good narration by both Michael Brandon and Michael Angelis, as usual.
 * 3) There are two funny lines to come from this episode:
 * 4) *"Fiery Flynn fudges it!", as said by Den.
 * 5) *"You're not Fiery Flynn, you're Fumbling Flynn. Ha ha ha ha ha!", as said by Dart, which is that one very speaking line since we can all agree with how poorly Flynn was written and portrayed in this episode.
 * 6) Flynn redeems himself at the end of the episode by telling the diesels' drivers to pour water on Thomas and by saving Mavis. Even though he did, it's not saving the fact this does not excuse this episode.

Reception

 * It holds a low rating of 2.2/10 on IMDB. On top of that, The Sif Blogspot has a review of this episode which you can click to read.