Blog:Playing with Fire (seasons 4, 6-8) (Fake Cartoon)

Playing with Fire is an British adult animated show, created for Channel 4 in the UK by Markus Leemand. The show is about a bunch of firefighters in London, stopping fires, and having fun. While Seasons 1-3, 5, and 9-14 are praised, Seasons 4, 6, 7 And 8 are considered bad.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The main problem with these seasons (mostly with Seasons 6 and 7) is that it they try and add more adult humor in, to the point there are a bunch of shock humor jokes and unfunny filler.
 * 2) ** Because of that, some of the jokes, gags, and episodes often steal elements from Family Guy, South Park, or The Simpsons.
 * 3) Most of the main characters have now became even more flanderized, it's not as bad in seasons 4 and 8, but Seasons 6 and 7 is where they came to the point of now lacking any of the charm they had at all:
 * 4) * Thomas went from a mature and likable voice-of-reason fire chief to a self-absorbed show off, who thinks he is better than everyone else in Season 4, and then became more of a pretentious, smart ass, who his mostly, a complete idiot half the time in Seasons 6, 7, and 8.
 * 5) ** One episode even haves him fall in love with a fire engine, no joke!
 * 6) * Joe went from a simple-minded, silly doofus, who tried his best in the worst of times, such as when there is a fire, to a unfunny idiotic, monstrous, moron, who even gets people killed, just for stupid reasons.
 * 7) * Pauline has became a bigger punching bag than she was in previous seasons, mostly getting shafted in Season 6, and almost getting killed by Joe in Season 7, just because he wanted to play his brand new Nintendo DS, instead of saving her from the building that was on fire.
 * 8) ** She also became someone who always got stood up by guys in Season 4.
 * 9) * In general, the characters have had their personalities dumbed down, going from having multiple traits to just one.
 * 10) They killed Derek off in Season 7's “A Noble One Leaves”, who was one of the main characters from Seasons 1-6, and his replacement, Pat, is much worse, as Pat's only joke is that he is a drug addict.
 * 11) These seasons are nearly filled with bad episodes, such as:
 * 12) * “Game Boy” (S7) (the worst episode of the series)
 * 13) * “Tony Blair's Bad Budget Cuts” (S4) (an episode, which is mostly just filler)
 * 14) * “A Noble One Leaves” (S7) (which started Season 7 on a sour note)
 * 15) * “What the Hell is up with Thomas and his Fire Engine?” (S6)
 * 16) * “Under the Underground” (S8)
 * 17) * “The C-Word (Parts 1 & 2)” (S4) (depending on your view)
 * 18) * “Over the Hill” (S6)
 * 19) * “(Un)Happy New Year... (W*nkers)” (S7)
 * 20) * “Restraining Training” (S6)
 * 21) * “Marry Christmas” (S8)
 * 22) * “Strike!” (S6)
 * 23) * “Go Flood Yourself” (S8)
 * 24) * “Big Balls of Fire” (S7) (depending on your view)
 * 25) Most of the episodes contain more unnecessary disturbing, and/or violent scenes that where quite small in the previous seasons, with “Game Boy”, “Big Balls of Fire”, and “What the Hell is up with Thomas and his Fire Engine?” as the worst offenders.
 * 26) ** The humor, in general, is either disgusting, confusing, mean-spirited, or over-reliant on pop culture references (most of which are outdated).
 * 27) ** Some episodes are lazily written and feels like the writers didn’t bother trying to write the episode, with “The C-Word” being the worst offender as it suffers from dragging on one joke, for 2 parts, that being that the word "c*nt" is offensive in the UK, and that Joe should of not said that word on TV (even though the word is only said 4 times in as a whole with both parts).
 * 28) ** Almost all of the episodes that center around Pauline are just simply her getting tortured for little-to-no reasons, it was not that bad in Seasons 4 (where she tries to go one dates, but always gets stood up), but Seasons 6 and 7 take it to an extreme.
 * 29) Sometimes in these seasons, almost all characters aside from Marry, Janet, and Gary are often depicted as acting like idiots, or being unlikable than they were in the first 3 seasons.
 * 30) While the soundtrack is mostly decent, it can get rather bland and annoying as they use some pop tracks that are kind of outdated.
 * 31) The animation was more boring than in Seasons 1 and 2 (which where animated in Cels) and Season 3. While it doesn't look terrible, it has tons of problems that wasn’t present in Seasons 1-3, 5 and 9-14.
 * 32) * In Season 4, The color palette looks very dull, washed-out and unappealing (This can also be seen in the 3 holdovers in Season 5).
 * 33) * The characters movements can be very jerky and robotic in some episodes in Season 8 (due to them being animated in flash by Mercury Filmworks).
 * 34) Some of the episodes have a confusing or rushed ending like the ending to “Axed!”
 * 35) The voice acting, while just as great as in the previous seasons, can get more boring, in these seasons due to some of the voice actors often not caring about the majority of their lines. Rob Rackstraw (who plays Joe) and Colin Rote (who plays Thomas) don't try as much.
 * 36) These seasons inadvertently encourage bad things, such as:
 * 37) * Arson (Despite them being firefighters)
 * 38) * Lying
 * 39) *Stealing
 * 40) * Scamming
 * 41) * Victimizing yourself
 * 42) * Being irresponsible
 * 43) * Being immature
 * 44) * Being a jerk
 * 45) * Being an idiot
 * 46) * Being ignorant and oblivious to others
 * 47) * Taking advantage of others
 * 48) * Breaking rules
 * 49) * Kidnapping
 * 50) * Not learning from your mistakes
 * 51) * Not using common sense
 * 52) Out of these seasons, Seasons 6 and 7 are considered the worst out of the all of the show as they had the most use of unfunny shock humor, worst character derailment, and most infamous episodes.
 * 53) * “Game Boy” is considered the worst episode of the show, as the main plot is about Joe, being addicted to his new Nintendo DS, to the point he can't even do his job right, causes a bunch of deaths and even fires, almost gets Pauline killed, and he never gets punished or fired for anything at all, while the side plot is about Pat getting Thomas addicted to weed, and Marry & Gary have to help him, which is just there to waste time.

Good Qualities

 * 1) There are still some good episodes like
 * 2) * “The Musical Number” (S8) (which ended season 8 on a high note)
 * 3) * “Protection Squad” (S4)
 * 4) * “A Fair Scare” (S6)
 * 5) * “Matchsticks” (S4)
 * 6) * “Flaming Hot” (S4)
 * 7) * “The 100th” (S6) (the first episode of season 6, and the 100th Episode of the Show)
 * 8) * “Emergency Services: A Look at the Firefighters” (S8) (an episode that parodies Real Rescues)
 * 9) * “Bus B*stards” (S7)
 * 10) * “London Bridges Burning... Again!” (S7)
 * 11) Marry, Janet, and Gary did not change at all during those seasons.
 * 12) Season 5 was much more better than 4 (Most likely as it only had 10 episodes (most of which where great) in it, as the show went on a hiatus after the 7/7 Bombings).
 * 13) The voice acting is still good when the cast are trying.
 * 14) The show would thankfully redeemed itself after season 8, and ended on high note.

Trivia

 * 1) Season 1 had 13 Episodes
 * 2) Season 2 was the longest, and had 30 Episodes
 * 3) Season 3 had 20 Episodes
 * 4) Season 4 had 26 Episodes
 * 5) Season 5 was the shortest, it had 10 Episodes, although it was to have more, but because of the 7/7 Bombings in London, it was cut down to 10
 * 6) Season 6 had 20 Episodes
 * 7) Season 7 had 25 Episodes
 * 8) Season 8 had 15 Episodes
 * 9) Season 9 had 15 Episodes
 * 10) Season 10 had 13 Episodes
 * 11) Season 11 had 13 Episodes
 * 12) Season 12 had 22 Episodes
 * 13) Season 13 had 11 Episodes
 * 14) Season 14 had 11 Episodes
 * 15) The show has some guest stars that included: Paul Merton (who played the role of PC Pete in multiple episodes), John Cleese, Harry Hill, Steve McFadden (playing a parody of his character from EastEnders, Phil Mitchel), Jim Broadbent & Mark Heap.
 * 16) Seasons 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 13, and 14 are rated 15 by the BBFC, while 4, 7, and 12 are rated 18 by the BBFC (although Season 4 is only rated 18 due to uses of the word "c*nt", and Seasons 7 & 12 for Breif Nudity, Strong Language and Sexual References).
 * 17) The show's recently been renewed for a 15th season