Emily's Adventure (Thomas & Friends)

"Emily's Adventure" is the twentieth episode of the 8th season of Thomas & Friends. It aired on November 13th 2004 in the US.

Plot
Emily has to make her way past the storm damage obstacles to deliver wood for Farmer McColl. Crossly, she bosses her friends about to speed things up, which does not work.

Why This "Adventure" Sucks

 * 1) While "Thomas, Emily and the Snowplough" started Emily's flanderization, this was the episode that solidified it as she is again a 'big bossy boiler'.
 * 2) *In this episode, Emily acts like a complete jerk towards Trevor over a tree he was trying to clear out of the line, some workmen that were just doing their job, and Elizabeth because she was trying to remove a fallen tower in this episode.
 * 3) Like with most episodes in the HIT era, the episode uses the three strikes formula, but not in a good way. In fact this episode is an early sign of the show's first decline in quality as the following seasons would rely on this formula.
 * 4) Emily’s infamous “Hurry up! You must work harder!” line. Would you think this is the way Emily is to you?
 * 5) Plot holes:
 * 6) Why is Elizabeth chosen to help move the water tower anyway? Couldn't Terence push or pull it off the line?
 * 7) What makes the episode think rebuilding Farmer McColl's barn take a whole night to repair the damages made to Farmer McColl's shed roof?
 * 8) You may think Emily seemed to have learned her lesson about being impatient in the end, but in "Edward Strikes Out", she says "I don't like being patient" which shows that she didn't learn her lesson in this episode. How can they make her forget that so easily?
 * 9) Misleading title: Emily doesn’t go on any adventures in this episode at all, she was only delivering timber to Farmer McColl's barn so that the roof on his barn can be fixed. This episode should have been titled "Emily Learns a Lesson" instead. Of course it would sound like a generic title and it won't make the episode any better still, but it would be a passable title over a title that has nothing to do with an adventure.
 * 10) *If you look at "Ranger of the Rails" and this episode back to back, you can see that Emily does go on an adventure because you can tell she wanted one and got the chance when she had to take some Sodor Rangers out for camping despite derailing. Here with the episode, "Emily's Adventure" itself, all she did was do some work and boss others around.
 * 11) *This episode (along with "Thomas, Emily and the Snowplough" and "As Good as Gordon") really shows how poorly Emily was portrayed in Season 8.
 * 12) Farmer McColl's voice in the US dub is excruciating to listen to.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) The live-action scenery is gorgeous, especially at the beginning of the episode.
 * 2) Thomas’ line: “That’s because you’re a big bossy boiler!” line. That line right there is so funny, it's proof this is Season 8 making fun of itself and making fun of HiT Entertainment's management with the series.
 * 3) Good ending: Emily learns her lesson about saying please and thank you and gets the planks of wood delivered to Farmer McColl's barn on time.

Reception
"Emily's Adventure" received mostly negative feedback from fans despite the episode sending in a good message. As of August 2021, it has a 4.5 rating on IMDb.