Title: LEGO FRIENDS: Episodes 3.1-3.3

LEGO FRIENDS is an animated series streaming on Netflix. The first three episodes of Season 3 follow the adventures of seven high school friends as they navigate what friendship, honesty, and responsibility mean. Characters’ consistent lack of reasoning and foresight regarding the logical consequences of their actions call into question the quality of writing for this new season.

However, the animation is smooth, the variety of sets and locations pleasant, and the voice acting sufficient for each character’s personality to come across. Lessons offer a moral worldview with elements of a pagan worldview where characters mimic pagan religious practices as part of a prank. Characters often lie and blackmail their friends. MOVIEGUIDE advises caution for younger children.

In episode 1, “Fake News Frenzy,” driven A-student Aliya puts unrealistic pressure on unserious skateboarder Liann to uphold Aliya’s stellar legacy as editor-in-chief of the school paper. Liann and her friend then broadcast blatant lies about the school administration to grow their audience.

In episode 2, “Rescue the Piano,” introverted Paisley inadvertently breaks the piano her students need for the recital and enlists her friends to help her search for a replacement. Her friends come together but not without ignoring some basic logic that could’ve helped them solve the problem far sooner.

In episode 3, “Friends Prank Wars,” Zac starts a prank war with an already anxious Leo, who’s prepping for his big soccer game. Leo channels his nervous energy in the prank war that escalates into involving most of their friends and even puts his anticipated soccer game score at risk.

Animation geeks will be pleased—the characters’ poses and expressions read well. Perhaps due to the limited facial features of the Lego characters, shorthand images appear above the characters’ heads to express intense emotions. Fireworks and confetti explode over one character’s head to express her joy, and lighting clouds express another’s rising anger. Fluttering bats appear when characters plan deceptive pranks.

This emotional shorthand may help the younger audience understand the emotion while acting as a hilarious reference to anime for any parent watching. Parents may also enjoy the pop-culture references, including a nod to an iconic line from THE LORD OF THE RINGS and LARPing characters in fantasy costumes. The voice acting isn’t stellar, but the personality of each character is conveyed in each performance. Overall, the variety of locations, smooth animation, and voice work are nice for younger viewers.

LEGO FRIENDS offers a biblical worldview where morality exists, characters don’t fully learn lessons, authority figures remain uninvolved, and logic seems to evade all characters. A character dives head-long into a piano with a wrench, believing she can fix it, but her invasion breaks the whole piano instead. Repeatedly, authority figures remain uninvolved even when characters cause a chemical explosion as a joke during a science lab right before a teacher.

Liann manipulates her pal Nova into helping her, or else she’ll reveal that Nova plays an embarrassing video game aimed at a younger audience. Liann and Nova then lie about the global superstar equivalent of Taylor Swift performing at the school only to plead, “Please don’t be mad,” to the gym of angry students and school administration when the hoax comes undone as if they didn’t expect the logical consequences of their actions. The principal discovers that all news reports, including the concert and contaminated cafeteria food were false in front of the whole school.

However, due to the nature of these reports, authority figures should have investigated the stories immediately. The lying students face no discipline, and the principal and authority figures remain uninvolved. Liann is sad when no one believes her when she shares an actual news report, but everyone thinks a truthful character shares the same news. Credits roll before she can reflect on the consequences of her actions, leaving the impression that her lying wasn’t a big deal. The repeated references to “fake news” beg whether the showrunners included this term as a jab at both political parties.

Shades of a pagan worldview enter when Leo decides to take the prank war to the next level and beat Zac and Aliya once and for all. Leo and Autumn pretend to “body swap” and enlist Liann to perform a pretend ritual. Liaan hums in Eastern mediation style while holding her hands out, then dances around them in a circle, throwing flour and singing a song about “soul swapping.”

Leo and Autumn then pretend to be each other. Leo attempts to ride a horse and loses control while pretending to be ace-rider Autumn, and Autumn even assumes Leo’s position on the soccer team until her losing score unravels their prank. Leo finally owns up to his blind ambitions and takes responsibility for his actions, apologizing to his friends and teammates. Though she was in on the prank, Liann seems genuinely surprised she “doesn’t have powers” when Leo and Autumn confess they were pretending.

Just as the theme song embraces individuality and differences while championing friendship, so do the characters. A main character born without a hand uses a prosthetic hand when rock climbing and another is a wheelchair user. All interactions with them are positive and respectful; friends don’t even notice their physical differences.

Notably, characters in Season 1 ask for forgiveness, listen to the advice of slightly wiser friends, and learn meaningful life lessons about being kind but still standing up for oneself in friendships. However, the same characters in season 3 don’t seem to learn as much or realize the depth of their mistakes and the consequences of their actions. Perhaps the shorter running time of season 3 impacted this change, but regardless, the lack of depth is disappointing.