PAW Patrol has been on Nickelodeon for a very long time—so long that the original kids who watched it are probably in high school by now. But my son recently started really liking the show, so we won’t be getting rid of Paramount+ in our house anytime soon.

The plot of PAW Patrol is pretty silly, whether you read about it on paper or watch it unfold on screen. Technically, the main character is a kid named Ryder, who must be some kind of weird millionaire with nothing better to do. He’s kind of like Batman, but instead of Alfred and the Justice League, he has a team of puppies.

I have to admit, they did a good job designing and developing most of the dogs. My son’s current favorite is Chase, which isn’t surprising—he loves police cars. My stepdaughter, Lily, on the other hand, has always preferred Skye, probably because she’s one of the few female pups on the PAW Patrol.

I will say that the animation in the first few seasons reminds me of those bad 3D cartoons from the ‘90s, when studios were still figuring out how to make Pixar-style television shows.

But the later episodes and specials look much better. My son absolutely fell in love with the Dino Rescue six-episode special—he watched it for days in a row without getting tired of it.

He also really likes the special with the dragon. It’s basically his go-to favorite after he got bored of the dinosaur one.

Some of the villains in PAW Patrol are hilariously bad. One of them is a mayor who’s just stereotypically evil, which, to be fair, is pretty realistic. (Never trust your elected officials, kids!) But the cringiest of them all, in my opinion, is the Duke of Flappington, who’s always trying to overthrow the Princess of Barkingburg and make himself king. Historically, royal treason usually led to a very grim fate—but in PAW Patrol, he just gets sentenced to cleaning the castle. LOL.

PAW Patrol isn’t exactly educational, but my son absolutely loves it, and that’s good enough for me. He gets so excited when he watches it, and he even pretends to be the characters when he plays outside. In fact, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen him do that!