Gotta Be Done - A Bluey Podcast

Smoochy Kiss (aka Maybe That’s the Fairytale and This Is the Reality)

So Gotta Be Done isn't here to call out annoying habits - but if Smoochy Kiss goes there, do Mary and Kate maybe kind of have to?!

From what (on earth) Bandit's doing in his first scene, to best kitchen weaponry that's not too weapony (and how saucepan lids pre-date shields, actually?!), crimes against laundry sinks, boxes big enough for grown-ups, inversion and flipping the chase (music), and whether it's toughening up or softening up that makes a relationship work. 

In short, it's just another day in the Heeler household/ Blueyverse/ Gotta Be Done... works for us! 

Oh, and courtesy of the Bluey magazine... what's the stinkiest planet?? Jokes aside, it takes some serious analysis!

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Dirt (aka Need a Redemption Arc in Our Lives)

Gotta Be Done is back after a break, and redeeming oneself is the theme of this recap - in all the ways. Morning, Wendy!

Memories of mud piles and doubts about overly-clean modern life (is Insta to blame??), and is that dirt under fingernails, or potential neural connections? 

Oh, and what IS a chow chow? Well if a dog and a lion had a very adorable baby... that's Wendy and Judo!  

Also, parents modelling to children is a big theme of Dirt - but hang on, has Bluey been modelling to everyone all along?!

Du-du-du-dirt! 

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

VINTAGE GOTTA BE DONE: The Show (aka Advice for the Ages)

CONTENT WARNING: In this episode, Mary and Kate talk pregnancy loss, infertility, and grief... and life in lockdown, because this is a 2020 throwback. It can get heavy.   

Bluey is known for tackling big issues - and in 2023 we know there's definitely a miscarriage storyline in The Show. (Back then and now, there's still plenty of hope, hilarity and happiness to take from this gorgeous episode too.)

And in these overwhelming times (i.e, all times!), who doesn't need a helpful checklist on hand?  

While this trip down memory lane takes Gotta Be Done deep into July 2020 feelings, it gets happy again, via Aussie power pop memory lane, as we compare episode notes with Lenka's The Show! Also, exactly when are jacarandas meant to be blooming?!

(Thanks for sticking with a weightier episode of Gotta Be Done. It was a tough one to record - but as usual and of course, the show must go on.) 

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Onesies (aka Getting People Up to Speed on Kid Chaos)

Content warning: This episode of Gotta Be Done covers topics around fertility, pregnancy loss and grief. 

Onesies broke hearts and healed them again, and Mary and Kate wade into "the messy middle" to work out how. 

In summary: Families are hard, children who have complaints about the presents they receive are annoying but predictable, incredible Australian actor Rose Byrne (who plays Brandy!) is lovely (even if she's not who we think she is!)

And, two years on, the moving miscarriage storyline in Bluey episode The Show is finally confirmed, thanks to the beautiful book Hard to Bear by Isabelle Odeberg. 

Yep, we're all crying, but are we okay? We will be. 

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Granny Mobile (aka Muffin’s Shiny New Career as a Hostage Negotiator)

Gotta Be Done loves doing the slow crawl past a garage sale, and Granny Mobile brings more Bluey delights than a giant bargain table! 

Mary and Kate talk the endless possibilities for types of grannies (nobody puts granny in a corner!), the Muffin redemption arc (can toddlers really grow out of their tantrums?!), and weapon-of-mass-destruction qualities of a Glomesh handbag. 

Plus the historical details/ The Crown facts captured by royal wedding plates (spoiler alert, they hated each other), why Bizet is perfect Muffin mood (Joff Bush says: "deliciously grouchy!"), and more of the glorious garage sale treasures. 

Also, MY HIPS HURT! 

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Exercise (aka Personal Fulfilment at Work, Not Just a Unit of Production)

It's the episode that launched a thousand hot takes, and Gotta Be Done is finally here with a slightly reheated one!

Kate and Mary recorded their Exercise recap before ABC and Ludo re-released an updated episode, then recorded more again after the fact - so get ready for many, many thoughts about the challenges of exercising, the niceness (or otherwise) of bosses, and the fact that kids really do copy everything we do.  

So, let's play more lawn table tennis! Nice shot! 

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Turtle Boy (aka Kids TV Dichotomy of Preachy or Mindless Violence)

Gotta Be Done has confessions to go with Turtle Boy - Mary and Kate have both let their kids take lost toys home. Can this episode undo the damage? Lucky the childhood magic of a park never changes (captured by Rafferty Amor)! 

Also, are all kids shows either preachy or mindless violence? (No, some have songs about physics and structural engineering!)

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

BONUS EP (Rich J Labels on Everything!)

He's the all-knowing and all-seeing Series Director of Bluey, and Richard Jeffery has all the panicked 4am wake-ups to prove it!

Rich/ Rich J from the Fairytale 80s montage/ Mackenzie's Dad/ RichWOW jumps in the Gotta Be Done wagon to share his Bluey origin story, what director life actually involves, and the true state of Aussie-Kiwi relations behind the scenes at Ludo Studio ("we don't jump on sheep Mackenzie!") 

Plus favourite scenes, favourite character, favourite episode - and just how long it took to make Sleepytime as magical as it is, plus all the series secrets Rich was desperate to include in Behind Bluey.

Thanks so much Rich and keep up the amazing work! 

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

BONUS EP (Jazz and Joff in Dance Mode!)

"Finally I've got an outlet for what I'm really good at, that is: singing like a cat."

There's no shortage of surprises on the new Bluey album Dance Mode out worldwide TODAY - and Joff Bush's feline finesse is high on the list! 

Bluey music legends Joff (famously the voice of Cat Squad) and Jazz D'Arcy (famously the singer/songwriter behind Rain/Boldly in the Pretend) jump in the Gotta Be Done wagon to talk through their new album highlights, reveal Bluey secrets (OMG the voice of Chattermax!) and get Kate and Mary even more euphoric about this glorious album!

Plus the battle for an extra beat, the almost-impossible task of narrowing down tracks, hints about new projects, and just the musical mayhem that is Jazz and Joff - make sure you're following them for more! (And they've promised us a Bluey album 3!) Thanks Joff and Jazz!  

Plus (geddit?!) thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!  

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.

Puppets (aka Do We Know the Meaning of Life Yet?)

How's it goin', salad dodgers?! Whether you've been dodging salad or not, you might want to know why that's a shout-out to the original Bluey pilot (now leaked!) - and Gotta Be Done wouldn't mind advice on ending the salad dodging by obstinate kiddos, also?

Puppets has bigger issues than salad to dodge though - and of course Mary and Kate dive straight in! From voicing your children's toys to who's pulling whose strings, and what makes life a lie (or otherwise, hopefully?!), Unicorse is triggering all the big questions. (And just triggering full stop! Aaaaaand why should I care?!)

Big thanks to episode sponsors mathsonline.com.au in Australia, and mathonline.com in the US!

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Gotta Be Done is ex-journos and Adelaide/ Melbourne mums Kate McMahon and Mary Bolling, as we deep-dive every Bluey episode, with plenty of detours into mama life, childhood memories, and everything else we're bingeing, too!

Follow us on Insta at @blueypod @marytbolling @katejmcmahon or on Twitter at @blueypodcast - and use #blueypod to join in.