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   Sweet Deals April 5, 2025 at

   I typically don’t watch shows produced by Netflix. By reputation, they’re algorithmic slop. Take something that people already like a lot and have positive memories of to generate interest and trust, produce a mediocre knockoff or sequel that vaguely resembles it, and throw in some extra woke content for good measure when viewers aren’t expecting it. That’s what I usually expect from anything created specifically for streaming on Netflix.

   Remember how neat Night at the Museum was? It was one of the defining films of my childhood. Every kid knows museums are filled with fun things to explore that would inspire the imagination. And Indiana Jones is one of the coolest adventurers on film, so let’s create a knockoff of him as a seven-year-old girl with an Australian accent, complete with Indy’s props and moves. Pair the former setting with the latter character, give it a familiar Disney Junior animation aesthetic complete with perfunctory musical numbers in each episode, and you’ve got yourself a Ridley Jones.

   Ridley lives inside a children’s museum with her mother and grandmother, who are both curators. Ridley is an adventurer in training who is supposed to “protect” the museum exhibits and has a magical compass that brings the exhibits to life. (The idea that the museum would be less likely to get mixed up if the exhibits weren’t intentionally brought to life is ignored). The show is set in a natural history museum, but it really only pretends to be educational. Your child is not at risk of learning anything of historical or scientific value because the show does not go into any subject in depth, instead preferring basic child behavior
   lessons like “Ask for help when you need it because you won’t be able to do it alone”, or “don’t be anxious or doubt yourself because you’re already amazing”. Ridley’s mother says that “facts matter”, and that the accuracy and integrity of all the museum exhibits must be maintained to the best of known knowledge because the purpose of a museum is to show people how the world works. Normally I’d agree with her on that, but as we all know, facts can be bent when woke feelings take precedence.

   Right in the very first episode, Ridley meets a bison named Fred. Ridley asks if Fred is a boy or a girl. The response is that Fred is neither; “they’re just Fred”. It’s a very quick exchange, but if you were paying attention, that should alert you right away that something’s not quite right with this series. Fred is constantly posturing as a brave and tough animal, but regularly does things that could be viewed as effeminate such as being slightly too obsessed with hair and dancing, and resents being small and being called “cute”. The first episode of the second season, “The Bison Ball” has Egyptian queen Ismet forcing Fred to wear stylish dresses when what Fred really wants is to wear a blue boy’s suit. Perhaps Fred may be a museum bison who was created without any biologically correct sexual anatomy, but this needs to be said: no child is born “non-binary”. Small children are still forming their identities and are figuring out who they are. They might do things that might not conform rigidly to gender roles because
   they might not fully understand the “rules” yet. But it’s important for children and adults to understand that if you’re a terrestrial vertebrate such as a bison or a human, your biological sex is immutable. A boy who does a girly thing is still a boy, and a girl who does a boyish thing is still a girl. Establishing a “non-binary” gender identity to reconcile conflicting feelings might seem comforting, but it’s still a lie. People need to learn to accept themselves as they are rather than invent and accept falsehoods that will ultimately undermine a healthy sense of self. (“Be yourself as you feel” is a lesson Fred is made to learn more than once).

   Also, the mummy queen Ismet has two effeminate mummified dads, and the show goes out of its way to show that Ismet actually likes having a non-traditional family. Now, I’ve heard the story about how “His Majesty” Queen Hapshetsut wore a false beard in order to maintain control of the Egyptian throne after her husband Thutmose II died (because only males could legally be king at the time). I’ve also been told that Queen Cleopatra had married her brother before pairing off with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony (because incestuous marriages were common among Egyptian royals to maintain a pure royal bloodline). But a child mummy queen with homosexual parents who act as her loyal servants is a new one. I wonder why the Egyptologists never mentioned that before.

   The museum also features a female medieval knight named Ida. Not much is remarked about her sex. I did a cursory search on that; some women were introduced into various orders of chivalry across Europe. They were relatively rare, but they did exist (and were often referred to as “dame” or “lady”). I don’t think the creators of Ridley Jones researched that in depth. They just stuck a random woman in a man’s armor instead of describing an actual woman who defended her country such as Joan of Arc. Real-life history is not Ridley Jones’s strong suit.

   Skip this show. It may appear sweet on the surface, but the writing is mediocre and many of the episodes emphasize cutesy woke feelings over facts. I recommend that instead of watching this knock-off, dust off your ancient copies of Raiders of the Lost Ark or Night at the Museum and watch those instead. I also recommend that instead of watching TV, you could explore a real natural history or science museum if your town has one. I used to volunteer at my local science museum before the lockdown years, but I don’t think I’ll be coming back since the campus that hosts it have gone very woke since then. I sure hope the one in your town is a good one.

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