Review: The Chicken Squad “Gone to the Dogs; Coop Dreams”

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

Captain Tully is suspected of a crime she didn’t commit; Coop takes a performance enhancing substance.

OUR TAKE

Well, we seem to be continuing with the series at what will be its normal pace of one episode per week. A bit of a disappointment to be quite frank, as I would have preferred that it all be over a lot sooner, but I guess we’ll see how this all shakes out as we look at the remaining half a year’s worth of episodes, assuming we get that far. Anyway, this week rounds out the cast specific episodes, with last week being about the team as a whole followed by an episode about Little Boo and Sweetie respectively, we now have an episode about Captain Tully and an episode about Coop, meaning everyone in the main cast has gotten an episode segment about them. Captain Tully’s episode actually isn’t even really about her exactly, but more putting focus on her as she is the suspect of a theft crime. So it actually turns out to be a mystery as the squad try to prove her innocence but know they must follow where the evidence takes them, even if it might implicate their mentor. Never thought I’d see a moral dilemma like that in a show like this, but naturally it’s handled pretty softly and the culprit is pretty easy to spot if you follow even the slightest hint of mystery misdirection tropes. And in the end it’s a good lesson about forgiveness.

The other episode that actually involves Coop is also a good, if tried and tested moral, that being that you should trust in your own abilities instead of relying on cheating or short cuts to help. It’s a lesson that is used in pretty much every series like this, even some sitcoms, but is used that much because it is an enduring and important lesson to teach. Obviously it doesn’t incorporate the nuances of these sorts of things, and neither does the previous segment, but then again it really doesn’t need to for this particular program. Oh, and we also get to meet some…evil versions of the squad? Except they’re not evil or even especially competitive, they just look like alternate designs for the main characters who seem to have slightly skewed versions of their personalities. But hey, as long as I have more things to talk about in these reviews, then I’m all for that, because I see myself really running dry on topics as we keep going.