Secrets of Sulphur Springs

 

Secrets of Sulphur Springs is a show that we watched as a family after dinner because my husband and I need a little down time at the end of the day, and we needed something that would be kid-friendly. Our after dinner shows are usually a little more grown up than what our kids choose to watch on their own, and their interest in these family shows vary. Secrets of Sulphur Springs is probably more for my husband and I than for our kids.

Secrets of Sulphur Springs is about a family that move back to the dad's childhood home, Sulphur Springs, in order to buy the abandoned hotel and fix it up. The reason the hotel was abandoned is a young girl named Savannah disappeared one summer at a camp run by the hotel. Rumors of her ghost haunting the establishment have proliferated in the town ever since. The oldest son, Griffin, soon discovers a bunker in the basement of the hotel with an odd device that turns out to be a kind of time machine. He of course messes with it and goes back in time to meet Savannah before she disappears, along with a much younger version of his dad.

It's been a while since I watched Season 1, and so many things happen in each season, but here's what I mostly remember. Griffin also meets a girl his age (in his time) named Harper, and Harper's mom does not like her going over to the hotel constantly. I don't remember if this is because she dislikes talk of ghosts, if she's afraid of the supposed curse of the hotel, or if there's something else, but over and over again she forbids Harper from going to the hotel. Griffin's mom, meanwhile, also feels that he shouldn't be hanging out with Harper, and I think it's because when the two of them are together they do things she doesn't like, such as going down to the basement, disappearing for long periods of time, and discussing ghosts, which scares the twins, Zoey and Wyatt, Griffin's younger siblings. Anyway, both moms mutually agree Griffin should stay away from Harper, the one friend he has made since moving to their new home. They are never able to enforce this rule.

Wyatt and Zoey are constantly ghost hunting in the show, and this bothers the adults so much they ban the word, "ghost," which is a problem when you have a literal ghost in your home.

Meanwhile, Griffin and Harper keep going through the bunker time portal to try to save Savannah by gathering clues about what is about to happen to her. Creepy stuff keeps happening in the hotel, making them believe Savannah is trying to speak to them from beyond the grave, but the creepy stuff is also ruining the repairs Griffin's parents are trying to make to the hotel so they can reopen the place. 

In later seasons, as the kids continually go back in time for other purposes, I often wanted to scream at the kids to just tell their parents about the time portal. Things would be so much easier if they just explained, "We disappear for hours because we go back in time in order to save Savannah. Would you like to come with us and help because we are obviously way out of our league here?" Seriously, their parents are freaking out at weird things happening in the house and then further freaking out because their kids keep disobeying and going into the forbidden basement. If they knew what was actually going on they might be a real asset instead of a hindrance.

The other major failing of this show is that all three seasons take place one right after another, but filming each season takes several months if not a year and these kids are growing fast. I think the twins are supposed to be ten or younger, but by the third season Wyatt is really hitting his stride and starting to look like a young man. In Stranger Things, where each season takes place several months or years apart, you can believe that the kids have grown a little and that's why they look so different. When a season picks up where the last one left off and suddenly Griffin is growing facial hair, it feels like you stepped through some kind of time portal yourself.

These pictures supposedly take place within a few months of each other. Puberty hits fast in Sulphur Springs

But for a kid's show, this one has some nice plotlines and twists and turns. I struggled a little to remember season 1 because seasons 2 and 3 introduce so many other secrets and revelations. I didn't want to spoil anything so I had to be a little more vague with this review, because there are a LOT of potential spoilers. As I said above, this was more for my husband and I than it was for our kid. In fact sometimes it got a little scary and we had to cuddle our kid to help them through. The ghost in the hotel isn't always friendly.

Ratings:

Kid entertainment: 2.5/5 stars

I'm not sure whether my kid actually enjoys this show. Most of the time they watch for a few minutes and then end up playing on the floor with their toys while my husband and I watch. But I seem to remember at least a few times my kid commented on things happening so I think they were at least sort of engaged? This might be better for older kids.

My entertainment: 4/5 stars

The main reason we watched this was to have something family friendly we could watch and relax with while our kid was in the room, and in the end we accomplished our goal. Our kid may not care for it, but we certainly do. I mean, it's not on the same level as Brooklyn 99 or The Mandalorian, but we like it. Maybe I'm making it out to be better than it is because when it comes to finding a show we can watch with our kid that we actually enjoy, anything with a good plot is like rain in a drought. 

Content: 3/5 stars

I guess there's a little bit in there about friendship and helping others, and I suppose you could argue going back in time teaches a little about how things were in the past (there is some discussion about race when Harper, a black girl, goes back in time), but this show is primarily meant to entertain, not educate. And that's fine. There's nothing really bad, so I don't feel bad about my kid watching it. Although it can get a little scary with the ghost stuff, so I also wouldn't have her watch it alone... not that she would want to. 

SuperKitties

 

SuperKitties is actually the show that made me want to write a review blog, because I found myself comparing it to other kid shows and considering its value over others. It's about four kittens that are also superheroes, but only solve problems related to other animals. Sometimes their actions do impact the humans in the neighborhood, but only the animals know that the SuperKitties were the ones to fix the problem. And, honestly, I feel that is appropriate.

By day, I think the kittens live in some kind of cat play place where kids can come play with them. But none of the cats seem to be adoptable, they belong to the lady who owns the place. Now that I think about it, I have never seen a place like this. I've heard of cat cafe's where you can eat and have cats surround you, and I've heard of animal rescues where you can come play with the cats and then adopt one if you like, but I haven't heard of a cat play place that's just for little kids to play with a person's kittens. Is this a thing?

Anyway, like many modern kid shows, in the first episode we are thrown right into the action and there is very little exposition about how the Super Kitties got their powers (I am also still unsure if the kittens actually have powers or if their gadgets or outfits give them powers, because when they're not suited up they don't seem to be able to do many of their signature moves). Also, two of them are brothers, but the youngest kitten, Bitsy, seems like she has recently joined the Super Kitties, but we don't get any explanation about that other than an episode where an even smaller kitten wants to be a Super Kitty, and one of the older kittens says he reminds her of another kitten who wanted to join, and that kitten is Bitsy.

The Super Kitty Call!

So for whatever reason, Ginny, Sparks, Buddy, and Bitsy are superheroes and they get called on their Super Kitty Call (I think avoiding the name Cat Call is one reason the show continually refers to them as kitties) whenever animals in the city need help. There are actually little stations throughout the city where animals can push a button to connect to the kitties through a video call, which is a pretty good idea when you think about it. The Super Kitties often have to do a bit of sleuthing to figure out who is causing problems, which, as a member of the audience, always seems unnecessary because there are only four potential bad guys and the very nature of the crime usually matches one of them very clearly.

For example, one time the entire town is slowly turned to cheese, and somehow it takes more than .2 seconds for them to realize Lab Rat is behind it. Like, who else would want to turn everything to cheese?

Lab Rat, by the way, has a little octopus sidekick named Otto, who really doesn't seem to do a whole lot, but Lab Rat insists that Otto helped in every one of his/her schemes. I say he/her because I'm not entirely sure if Lab Rat is male or female. I keep thinking she's a girl because she has fabulous eyelashes, but so do Buddy and Sparks and they are boys. His/her voice also doesn't really tell me because it's one of these kind of high-pitched, slightly scratchy voices and ends up being fairly gender neutral (although the voice actress is a woman, men and women voice opposite gender characters all the time, so that doesn't necessarily nail things down).

Cat Burglar is another bad guy who's MO is also pretty obvious. If something gets stolen, it's probably Cat Burglar. I guess in the real world, if something was taken we couldn't immediately assume the perpetrator was the most famous (and only) thief in town, because it could have been anyone, but... honestly, he's the only thief in town. Why are the Super Kitties spending more than three seconds wondering who could have stolen said item? At least question him first.

Zsa Zsa is a cockatoo and her crimes are not nearly as clear cut. She's hogged blueberries for a facial scrub, contaminated the city's water supply to have a giant bubble bath, and destroyed the voices of some singing squirrels so she would be the best singer in town. In a word, Zsa Zsa is extra.

But I've saved the best villain for last.

This is Mr. Puppypaws, and whoever came up with him is a genius. He is this perfect blend of adorable and supervillain. He wears a little sweater and his owner pushes his around in a pet stroller, but he has this deep, dramatic voice and a rubber ducky minion called Quacksely (who isn't actually alive).  And Mr. Puppypaws can move around in the pet stroller using a video game controller in the same way a lot of villains in comics or spy movies get around in a motorized wheelchair. Every time I see this dog I laugh. Everything about him on the surface screams cute and cuddly, but many of those adorable things are also reminiscent of a bond villain. It's genius, I tell you!

After the Super Kitties stop the bad guys, they usually make them clean up the mess they made, but often the bad guys actually recognize the error of their ways, apologize, make things right, and then might even get to party with the Super Kitties. For example, Zsa Zsa feels so sad that by putting soap into the town's water supply she has prevented baby ducklings from learning to swim (yes, that was the biggest problem...), so she cleans up the water and then gives the ducklings a swimming lesson as the Super Kitties look on. I think this is nice, but I half wonder if the bad guys need to face some kind of greater justice for their actions. One time Cat Burglar feels terrible for stealing a statue, returns it, and then is invited to the art gallery to come see it. There is no jail time, no community service. The Super Kitties are satisfied that the lesson is learned. Maybe that's good? And the fact is, there's no pet prison where they can send these ne'er-do-wells, so I guess putting things back to normal is the best the Super Kitties can really do.

Guilt is the Super Kitties' greatest ally

Every episode wraps up with Bitsy making a video recording of herself laying out the moral of the story, which I think is helpful for little kids who often need a lesson repeated several times to stick. In fact, kids will learn the lesson three times every episode. I forgot to mention that near the beginning of every episode, the Super Kitties themselves learn the moral of the episode by making the same mistake as the villain. Of course, they right their wrong much quicker than the bad guy, and then get to have the moral high ground when they tell off the villain later on. So kids see the lesson acted out with the Super Kitties, then the bad guy, and then Bitsy summarizes everything just in case they missed it.

But who is Bitsy making this recording for? Is she the group historian? Is this another part of her backstory we will never know? She always says, "And I'm taking that... to heart," at the end, and then winks, like we should be in on this little pun, but the only heart I see is on the Super Kitties' collars/superhero emblems. What does it mean? What happened before all this? I need a prequel!

Ratings:

My kid's entertainment: 4.5/5 stars. This show isn't on constantly, but my kid does ask for it often, and will watch it for hours when it's on.

My entertainment: 3.5/5 stars. I like this show, but let's be honest, it's fairly generic. It's superheroes stopping bad guys. The music is good, the voice-over lady who announces the names of the villains often makes me laugh ("And Otto helped too!"), and Mr. Puppypaws' existence warms my cold heart, but it's still a kids' show with kid show entertainment value.

Content: 4/5 stars. If there was more educational content, like reading, math, or science, I would have given it 5 stars, but I do love the morals that it teaches. My kid in particular doesn't do well with subtle. They need the lesson spelled out for them, and as I said, this show lays out the moral of the story three times. I also like the Super Kitties' motto. "We're Brave." "We're Smart." "We're Strong." "We're Kind." The first time I heard it I laughed because Kind sounded almost silly after the others. I was reminded of The Civic-Minded Five from The Tick.

"Let's make a difference!"

But then I thought about it, and making kindness a super power, an attribute just as important as bravery, intelligence or strength is exactly what the rising generation needs. If there's one thing we could use more of in this world, it's kindness. For that reason, I highly recommend SuperKitties.