Paw Patrol - 2013

You know, I was really primed to hate this show. A hyperactive Nick Jr show about dog children, one of whom is a cop, sounds like the sort of thing I want to keep off the TV, but we were snagged by an errant hotel room cable session, and now Paramount+ is being used to binge TWO shows.

The more of it I catch, though, the more it grows on me. It reminds me a lot of Power Rangers, which I enjoyed vociferously as a 7-year-old until I flying sidekick’d my little brother into a pile of boxes and lost my viewing privileges. A group of youths is doing some fun thing until they are summoned to a command center, briefed on their mission, and transformed into cool heroes to save the day. Only with Power Rangers 100% of the problems to solve were “there’s a bunch of aliens we need you to go beat up.” Paw Patrol deal instead with real-world mishaps: missing animals, stranded vehicles, weather-related damage. There are no Bad Guys really; most of the crises are accidental in nature. There’s a humanistic message baked into the heart of the show: society exists so people can help each other. If this sounds like the sort of dangerous communist rhetoric that is antithetical to American values, you’d be right: Paw Patrol is Canadian.

And Chase is fine. He does not possess a service weapon and doesn’t perform arrests or prosecute crimes in any way. Mostly he puts down traffic cones and directs traffic and sometimes pulls a thing with a winch. Model policing. Also, the budget for his department (1 pup treat per job well done) is equal to that of fire, air, municipal construction, recycling, and water rescue. Correlation or Causality: Adventure Bay does not have any poverty or crime; the only mischief performed is by the mayor of a neighboring town. Clearly these dogs are doing something right.

I would be remiss if I did not ding it for the music. Shows like Bluey and Pete the Cat spring big on Spotifiable soundtracks, but Paw Patrol has 5 songs: the theme song, DDR background music “Pup Pup Boogie”, a beach song that is a reggae version of the theme song, and sped of versions of the first two. All of them feature “Paw Patrol” heavily in the lyrics, as if children will forget what show they’re watching. I’m begging you, give my poor ears some variety.