Just launched: free lifetime premium for the first 1,000 members to activate their account.

Log in Start free

Florence Newtingale

Insufficient

Recommended age Unlock

Stimulating

Exact score locked

Watch on

Prime Video

Save

Florence Newtingale

See the exact scores

The review is yours to read. Create a free account to reveal the exact SlowScreen score and every pillar score.

Create free account

This program is stimulating. It actively demands attention and can feel intense. For the recommended age, this may be on the more intense side. The pacing is fast. Images follow each other quickly, leaving little time to pause and take in what is happening. The sound is clearly present and regularly draws attention. The visuals are calm and well-organized.

One thread carries the whole episode: Fuse helps Newt, gets hurt, and is then nursed by her while he happily milks it. Events follow each other in a clear order, the phone call that opens the story pays off later, and a child can see how one moment leads to the next without needing words. The small caveat is that the gags stack up quickly inside each scene, so several new objects and mishaps arrive at once, and the slapstick logic (a mouthful of chilli, a full body wrap of bandages) stretches cause and effect further than everyday experience would.

Fuse takes advantage of Newt's kindness for most of the episode, ringing his bell for more food, more pillows and more attention while she grows visibly exhausted, and nobody names this as unfair or puts it right. Emotions swing hard and often: rage with bared teeth, screaming close-ups of a burning mouth, then instant glee the moment he is being waited on. Newt herself is warm and attentive throughout, which gives the episode its one steady emotional anchor. Tension usually dissolves into the next joke rather than into a real repair, and the ending has Fuse rolling off to find his next carer instead of thanking the one he had.

Problems are solved by accident or by force rather than by thinking. Fuse charges at the bug in the sink instead of trying an approach and adjusting it, and his big idea, staying wrapped in bandages so Newt keeps serving him, is a scheme rather than a piece of reasoning a child can follow and reuse. Both characters do act on their own initiative, Newt by calling for help and Fuse by deciding what he wants next, so nothing is handed to them by an adult. What is missing is the visible middle: naming the problem, trying something, seeing it fail, and trying again.

There is no spoken language in this episode. Characters communicate entirely through grunts, gasps, laughs and shouts, so a child hears expression but never a sentence, an explanation or a name for anything on screen. Nothing is confusing or above a child's head, and the physical storytelling is easy to read without words, but the episode offers no vocabulary, no sentence models and no words used consistently enough to learn from. Anything a child takes away here comes from watching, not from listening.

The world is a recognisable everyday one, with kitchens, sofas, phones, a television, a vacuum cleaner and a friend who brings soup to someone who is hurt, and the social situation of caring for a sick friend is one children know. The limitation is what the actions actually model: much of what happens is gag-driven rather than purposeful, and the central behaviour, pretending to still need care so someone else keeps doing everything for you, is not something you want copied at home. Some moments do transfer, such as bringing a drink, tucking in a blanket and helping a friend who is frightened. The physical comedy around the chilli jar, the punching bag and the exploding vacuum sits firmly in cartoon territory.

More information

The cast is made up of colourful creatures rather than people, so there are no visible signs of ethnicity, age, body type or family life anywhere in the episode. Everyone lives alone in their own house, and the story stays inside a small circle of friends with no parents, grandparents or other caregivers in sight. What variety exists is mostly in colour and personality: Fuse is quick to anger, Newt is fussy and doting. The caregiving in this episode falls to the pink, bow wearing character in a house full of hearts and flowers, while the red character is the loud, aggressive one, which follows a familiar pattern rather than breaking it.

The world here is a normal one: houses on a suburban street, a kitchen, a sofa in front of the television, a mobile phone, a scooter on the pavement. The characters are invented fuzzy creatures rather than people or animals, and the comedy runs on cartoon logic where a bump, a mouthful of chilli sauce or a fall down the stairs hurts loudly and is forgotten seconds later. There is no villain anywhere in this episode; the trouble comes entirely from Newt's enthusiastic nursing of Fuse, who ends up wrapped head to toe in bandages he never asked for. For a four to six year old the mix sits in familiar territory, with the caveat that injury and care are played purely for laughs and recovery is instant.

Watching along, you get a little more than you might expect. The nurse premise is a joke aimed squarely at anyone who has ever been fussed over by a well meaning helper, the story builds to a real punchline, and the craft is good: expressive animation and comic timing that land without a single line of dialogue. The catch is the noise. Near constant yelping, crashing and one deliberately deafening music gag, all over a candy pink palette that never lets your eyes rest, make this easier to enjoy for one sitting than on repeat.

Themes

Helping others

Newt phones Fuse in a panic and he comes straight over to deal with the bug in her kitchen sink.

Caregiving

Central

Newt bandages Fuse, brings him food, drinks and pillows, and stays at his side for most of the episode.

Being sick

Fuse spends most of the episode wrapped head to toe in bandages on Newt's sofa.

Slapstick

Central

Fuse crashes down the stairs, tumbles off the sofa and is blasted by an exploding vacuum cleaner bag.

Friendship

Fuse and Newt keep turning up at each other's front doors despite the trouble each visit causes.

Anger

Fuse's face fills the screen mid-roar after the chilli sauce burns his mouth.

Deception

Recurring

Fuse boxes a punching bag at full strength while still wearing the bandages Newt is caring for him in.

Everyday life

Recurring

The story plays out in ordinary rooms with a kitchen sink, a television, a sofa and a mobile phone.

Activities

Medical care

Newt bandages Fuse's leg and keeps a first aid kit on the coffee table beside him.

Cleaning

Newt pushes a vacuum cleaner around the living room to clear up after Fuse.

Eating

Fuse works through a bowl of food, a slice of pizza and a drink over the course of the episode.

Watching tv

Fuse sits in front of a large flat screen with a remote in the opening scene.

Phone call

A video call from Newt lights up Fuse's phone screen at the start.

Sports

Fuse works over a hanging punching bag with boxing gloves while still bandaged.

Riding

Newt scoots along the street on a kick scooter past the row of houses.

Emotions

Anger

Fuse's eyebrows knot and his teeth bare as he throws Newt's flowers back out of his door.

Joy

Fuse grins broadly from the sofa while Newt hands him a drink with a straw.

Frustration

Newt throws her arms up in the kitchen when the bug will not stay caught.

Tiredness

Newt's head sinks onto her kitchen table next to a mug near the end.

Fear

Newt backs away with wide eyes from the cockroach sitting in her sink.

Surprise

Fuse's eyes pop wide when the vacuum cleaner bursts in a cloud of dust.

Behaviour

Caregiving

Newt wraps Fuse's foot in a bandage and tucks him in on the sofa.

Deception

Fuse stays in his bandages long after he is clearly fit enough to punch a boxing bag.

Helping

Fuse crosses town to remove the cockroach Newt has found in her sink.

Asking for help

Newt's video call opens the episode with her waving frantically at the screen.

Eating

Fuse eats a bowl of food in front of his television and is later fed pizza and drinks on the sofa.

Tidying up

Newt vacuums the crumbs Fuse has scattered across the living room floor.

Shouting

Fuse roars in close-up with his mouth wide open after tasting the chilli sauce.

Comforting

Newt strokes and settles Fuse when he groans on the sofa.

Apologising

Newt turns up at Fuse's door holding a large bunch of flowers after the chilli incident.

Social lessons

Caring for others

Newt spends the bulk of the episode fetching, feeding and fussing over the bandaged Fuse.

Helping others

Fuse drops what he is doing to answer Newt's call for help with the bug.

Friendship

The two characters stay in each other's company through mishap after mishap.

Asking for help

Newt's opening video call is a direct request for Fuse to come over.

Conflict

Fuse slams his door on Newt and her flowers after the chilli sauce burns his mouth.

Kindness

Newt brings flowers to make up for what happened at her house.

Mild violence

Fuse tumbles down stairs, falls off furniture and is knocked over by a punching bag.

Minor injury

Fuse ends up wrapped head to toe in bandages after an accident at his front door.

Mild conflict

Fuse roars at Newt and shuts the door in her face when she arrives with flowers.

Loud sounds

Full-screen shouting close-ups and a bursting vacuum cleaner bag punctuate the episode.

Deception

Fuse keeps his bandages on and keeps being waited on although he is well enough to box.

Selfish behavior

Fuse rings for more food and more pillows while Newt visibly wears herself out.

Misbehavior without correction

Nobody calls out Fuse for milking his injury, and he heads off to find his next carer at the end.

Screen use

Fuse watches television with a remote and takes video calls on his phone across several scenes.

Stereotypes

Feminine pink aesthetic

Newt's house is pink inside and out, with heart-patterned wallpaper, flower pictures and pastel furniture.

Traditional gender roles

Newt panics at the cockroach in her sink and calls Fuse over to deal with it for her.

Loud aggressive male

Fuse's temper drives the episode, with roaring close-ups and doors slammed in anger.

Newt calls Fuse over to her pink house to deal with a cockroach in her kitchen sink, and the visit ends with Fuse gulping chilli sauce and storming home. After Newt turns up with apology flowers, Fuse has an accident at his own door and she wraps him in bandages. She then nurses him around the clock, feeding him, plumping his pillows and vacuuming up after him, while he quietly enjoys every minute and never admits he has recovered. Newt finally drops asleep from exhaustion, and Fuse rolls off to be looked after somewhere else.

Season 1

21 episodes

Oddbods

Oddbods

It's My Party

recommended age

Jeff, the purple Oddbod, counts the days down to his party on a calendar hanging by the door. He prepares everything himself, a cupcake with one candle from the fridge, a tray of sandwiches cut into squares, a table laid with plates and cups, and he waits with a wrapped gift while his housemates throw a loud party of their own around him. Each time he tries to join in he is bumped aside, left out of a photo or simply not seen, and at one point he sits down to a tea party with a suit of armour and a doll for guests. The episode ends with the disco at full tilt and Jeff flattened on the floor, his own party never happening, followed by a short gag after the closing logo.

Oddbods

Oddbods

A Good Heart

recommended age

After finding Zee collapsed in the street from chasing an ice cream truck, Newt straps a heart monitor on his wrist and puts him through a home fitness routine of vegetable smoothies, a punching bag, dumbbells and an exercise bike. Zee resists, and one night he climbs out of his bedroom window to follow the ice cream truck down the road. Newt catches up and both end up racing after the vehicle, which hits a ramp and overturns. The episode closes with the two of them standing amid ice cream scattered across the road.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Marooned

recommended age

Pogo and Zee take a hot air balloon ride that goes wrong when the balloon is punctured over the sea, and they crash onto a small, empty tropical island. They spend what looks like a long stretch there, working out how to get coconuts down and open, building a bamboo shelter, fishing, and marking the passing days on a rock wall. A pufferfish they encounter puffs up large enough to lift their basket, and they finally float away from the island. From the air they spot the other Oddbods lounging on a nearby beach.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Parental Instinct

recommended age

Fuse is chopping firewood outside his cabin when he knocks a nest out of a tree and an egg drops to the ground. The chick that hatches decides Fuse is its parent and follows him everywhere, taking over his couch, his food and his bed. After a long stretch of feeding, cleaning and sleepless nights, Fuse rescues it from a larger bird and helps it learn to fly. The bird joins a flock on a wire, and in a closing gag Fuse's living room fills up with birds.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Sheriff of Oddsville

recommended age

Jeff finds a sheriff helmet and star badge and appoints himself the law of Oddsville. He patrols the town on a small scooter and plants prohibition signs on everything his neighbours enjoy: the ice cream van, Slick's boombox, Newt's painting, watering the garden and Zee's monster truck, until red circles line every street and a metal cage is towed in for offenders. After dark he sneaks into a shed and does all the banned things himself, blowing bubbles, wearing a sombrero, skateboarding and setting off fireworks. The others catch him in the act, and the episode ends with Jeff behind the bars of his own cage while the neighbourhood goes back to normal.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Alien Abduction

recommended age

Oddbods

Oddbods

Slick Moves

recommended age

Slick spends his days dancing to a boombox in the neighbourhood, wearing headphones and sunglasses wherever he goes. His music keeps landing on top of whatever Jeff is trying to do, from reading in the library to raking the lawn, and the two end up chasing each other through the street. When Slick performs alone on a talent stage, the audience boos and throws fruit at him. Jeff steps on stage, the two dance as a pair, and the crowd cheers.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Perfect Night's Squeak

recommended age

Fuse, the red Oddbod, is kept awake in his own house by a mouse squeaking behind the skirting board. He tries a baited trap, chases it through the kitchen with a pot, swings a wrecking ball through his living room and builds a wheeled launcher, and every attempt fails while the damage grows. In a final attempt he wires explosive charges to the outside of his house and detonates them from the street, destroying the building while the mouse walks away unharmed. The episode ends at night with Fuse asleep in bed and the mouse curled up against him.

Oddbods

Oddbods

A Newt to Remember

recommended age

Fuse smartens up in his car and drives to collect Newt for an evening out, leaving Slick standing in the road with his keys. Slick chases them through the neighbourhood, to a drive-in cinema showing a black-and-white wolf film, and on to a roadside burger stand. Out in the forest under the full moon, Newt grows fangs, pointed ears and claws, and Slick, after fleeing and then photographing her, comes back and stays. The night ends with the characters heading home in the car, yawning.

Oddbods

Oddbods

One Two Many

recommended age

Bubbles builds a machine in her attic workshop that copies whatever it points at, testing it first on a green apple and then on a small figure. Pogo climbs in through her window to see what she is doing and ends up duplicated, and soon a crowd of identical Pogos spreads across the neighbourhood playing tricks on Fuse, Zee and Jeff. Bubbles and the original Pogo spend the night tracking the copies down and firing the machine in reverse to remove them. The episode ends back at the workshop window with the neighbourhood quiet again.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Pogo the Poltergeist

recommended age

Pogo sees an advert for a ghost gadget on television, orders it by phone and starts haunting the neighbourhood in disguise. Newt is his main target: her teddy bear and household objects move on their own until she flees her house. Bubbles builds goggles and a detector, and the two search the pink house together, wrecking the kitchen and leaving Newt needing a first aid kit. The episode ends at night with Newt and Pogo standing on the street as a real ghost floats up beside them.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Robobuddy

recommended age

Fuse is worn out from hauling his loaded trike around the neighbourhood, so when he sees a television advert for a Robobuddy he phones in an order. The robot arrives in a box, takes over his work, plays badminton with him and provides the music at a garden party, but its eyes keep flashing red and it starts wrecking gardens and turning on the other Oddbods. It ends up chasing everyone through a smoke-filled street, firing beams from its eyes. Fuse flies a kite in a thunderstorm so the lightning strikes the machine, Zee and Newt finish it off, and the group gathers around him afterwards.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Pain in the Arts

recommended age

In an art class, Jeff knocks over a pot of blue paint and the splattered canvas is hailed as a masterpiece, launching him into billboards, trophies and a television interview. Zee, watching from the sidelines, buys fresh paints and a beret and works late to produce a carefully painted apple, but at the outdoor exhibition nobody stops to look and Pogo eats it. Furious, Zee drives his car straight through the display, flattening every easel and canvas into a smoking heap. The crowd declares the wreckage brilliant, and the other Oddbods immediately grab blank canvases to copy the new style.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Zeellionär

recommended age

Zee is sitting in his junk filled yard when black oil suddenly bursts out of the ground and makes him instantly rich. He buys out a hot dog truck, a mansion, a sports car and a couch that flies, wears a crown and gold sunglasses, and throws a party while Pogo, Slick and the other Oddbods try to get close to the money. The oil well blows up in a huge black cloud and everything he bought is hauled away again. Zee ends up back on his old brown couch with a few loose banknotes around him and his friends gathered beside him.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Bad Medicine

recommended age

Zee sees Newt cooking and fakes a collapse in the road outside her house so she will take him in and look after him. Newt carries him to her bed and waits on him with soup, sweets and cake, but Zee keeps ringing for more, orders pizza and turns her bedroom into a party. Newt works out what he is up to and sets up a mock examination room with a spotlight, an X-ray and a tray of instruments. Zee panics, bolts out into the night and runs home, and a closing gag leaves him bandaged after another accident.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Fuse Ruse

recommended age

Fuse notices his friends slipping away without him and sets out to find out why. He trails them through an art gallery, a field, an outdoor cinema and a diner, at one point putting on glasses and a moustache so they will not recognise him, growing angrier each time they give him the slip. His search leads him to a house at night, where the group is revealed to have been preparing a party for him all along. He is handed a framed photograph of everyone together and the episode ends with the whole group celebrating.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Narco Klepto

recommended age

Belongings start vanishing from homes across the Oddbods neighbourhood, and Bubbles decides to find out who is responsible. She installs cameras, studies the recordings, pins up photographs of every neighbour and crosses them off one by one until only Zee is left. Following him at night, she discovers he is taking everything while fast asleep, and she trails him into a large building to get proof. The security system catches Bubbles instead, and the episode closes on Zee dozing on his sofa with the missing remote in his hand.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Bubble Trouble

recommended age

Pogo sneaks into Bubbles' attic laboratory and starts fiddling with her age-changing machine, and a stray beam turns Bubbles into a baby. She crawls off, gets behind the wheel of a buggy and tears through the neighbourhood while Pogo chases her, eventually catching her and keeping her in a pet carrier with a lollipop. Pogo then rewinds the lab footage and works through the machine's manual until he can reverse the setting and restore her. Once Bubbles is back to normal, she turns the same ray on Pogo, leaving him first old and then a baby.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Double Date Trouble

recommended age

Fuse invites both Newt and Bubbles to dinner on the same evening and seats them at separate tables in the same restaurant. He spends the night sprinting between the two, hiding behind doors and improvising distractions, while an escaped lobster adds chaos in the kitchen. The two eventually find each other and corner him outside. The episode closes on Fuse screaming as they advance on him, with no apology or resolution shown.

Oddbods

Oddbods

My Hero

recommended age

Slick wants Newt to see him as her hero, so he quietly creates the emergencies he then solves: he lets her pet mouse out of its dome, unscrews a wheel from her scooter and carries her cat up a tree. Each time he appears at the right moment and is thanked for saving the day. A photograph that would reveal what he has been doing turns up, and he tears it into pieces before Newt can look at it properly. The episode ends with the two of them standing outside her house together, followed by a daydream in which a caped Slick flies to her rescue.

Oddbods

Oddbods

Florence Newtingale

recommended age

Newt calls Fuse over to her pink house to deal with a cockroach in her kitchen sink, and the visit ends with Fuse gulping chilli sauce and storming home. After Newt turns up with apology flowers, Fuse has an accident at his own door and she wraps him in bandages. She then nurses him around the clock, feeding him, plumping his pillows and vacuuming up after him, while he quietly enjoys every minute and never admits he has recovered. Newt finally drops asleep from exhaustion, and Fuse rolls off to be looked after somewhere else.

Related media

Other series that fit this age group

Bluey

Bluey

recommended age co-watching from 2

Bluey follows two heeler sisters and their playful parents through everyday life and made-up games at home, in the park and at daycare. The tone is warm and imaginative, aimed at preschoolers, with social and emotional learning woven through.

The Berenstain Bears

The Berenstain Bears

recommended age co-watching from 2

The Berenstain Bears follows a bear family through everyday adventures at home, school and their small town. Warm and reassuring in tone, it suits preschoolers, offering a gentle life lesson in each story.

Jessica's Big Little World

Jessica's Big Little World

recommended age co-watching from 2

Jessica's Big Little World follows a young girl eager to do things herself, with her family and toys at home and around town. Warm and playful for preschoolers, with gentle lessons in independence and perseverance.

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

Kiya & the Kimoja Heroes

recommended age co-watching from 5

Explore more

From this series Oddbods

By age 4 years

Just launched: free lifetime premium for the first 1,000 members to activate their account.

Create your account

We use functional cookies and Google Analytics to improve our site. Learn more