But it reveals the awkwardness of the marriage between politics and content, which has been playing out in the media in various ways-uninvolved and uninformed people yelling at each other about Dr. That’s not a real problem, for the show or in real life. It’s a political image, designed to be as inoffensive as possible-so on camera in a puppet wonderland, it comes off a little lifeless, a persona without any hooks to grab you. (Guests Rashida Jones and Zach Galifianakis are rather more comfortable with that territory.) Funnily, the show has positioned Obama as both educator and boss to Waffles and Mochi-meaning that she’s still kind of a First Lady in this context, serenely no-nonsense in the midst of puppet-induced chaos. She’s a slightly stiff host! She shines when she’s onscreen with kids, but working with puppets requires some goofiness that is not endemic to dignified Michelle. It is a quirk of this bizarre media landscape that one of the most polarizing families in American politics is now in the business of creating content-which makes everything you might say about this series oddly charged. That being said, I may not have even noticed this subtle elite signaling had Obama’s presence not made me look for it. Waffles + Mochi is a lot more nuanced and understanding about food than Obama’s anti-obesity campaign as First Lady, “Let’s Move!” But its glossy kitchen interiors and grocery store with abundant fresh food still point to a specific kind of life, one that makes nutrition about “choice” when so often it is about forces outside one’s control. Even if it doesn’t convince your kids to eat gazpacho, Waffles + Mochi is a show that feels wholesomely entertaining. It’s all injected with a zaniness that sends Mochi, a small rice paste ball filled with ice cream, on a journey to Japan to discover his (its? their? her?) “ancestors,” the rice plant, and shows us a potato receiving a style makeover with spud-sized clothing from Queer Eye stylist Tan France. There are travelogues that document the anthropological history behind certain crops or methods, sequences that emphasizes the foods’ tantalizing colors and textures, and personalities that offer up not just a recipe, but a face and a story to go with it. I love that this show highlights the grocery store as a site for wonder we live in a flawed world, but the sheer spectacle of the American grocery store is a sight to behold and cherish.įood television has come up with all sorts of ways to immerse the viewer in food without making them taste it, and it feels as if Waffles + Mochi has a little of each method mixed into the batch. Then again, it is a show with puppets made for children that wants to excite them about the foods that weird them out. I suppose I could nickel-and-dime the creators for some of their choices, or to be exact, for perhaps not making enough choices the show bristles with gimmicks and gags and surreal overlaps between puppet world and real world. I can’t be certain that Waffles + Mochi will convince picky children to try new foods, but count me among its converts: I’m finicky about raw tomatoes, but the first episode, featuring cheery appearances from Samin Nosrat and José Andrés as tomato educators, has me jonesing for gazpacho. They’ve got an origin story and everything (and some wacky visuals: Waffles has frozen waffles for ears!), but trying to translate the imaginative, savory landscape of this children’s show from creators Erika Thormahlen and Jeremy Konner into black-and-white prose makes it sound like weird nonsense. The new season features familiar faces like Mrs.Waffles and Mochi are two puppets from the land of frozen food who spend 10 episodes of Waffles + Mochi discovering the wild world of food that lives in the rest of the grocery store: rice, pickles, salt, and the mysterious produce section. As chefs, the two traveling taste-buddies serve up sweet, salty and spicy dishes inspired by the ingredients from their incr-edible explorations. (from Netflix's press release, September 2022) Get bready for Waffles and Mochi to blast off on their tastiest adventure yet as they open their very own restaurant. Other highlights include the launch of "Spirit Rangers" (October 10) and "Waffles + Mochi's Restaurant" (October 17). "Teletubbies" and "Princess Power" Join the Growing Netflix Preschool Slate View all related dvds | view all related news | view all related listings
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