Friday, 4 October 2019

Text Review Roundup: "Growing Up is Hard to Do"

TRR time again. This is the last week I'm certain to be able to get one done for a while. I'll try to get next week's up on Thursday, but if I don't manage that then it may have to wait owing to UK PonyCon. As for the episode, the text-based reviewers gave it a mixed reception, although nobody thought it was utterly worthless and, conversely, nobody proclaimed it an all-time classic. I was maybe very slightly kinder than the average towards this one.

Cuddlepug – mixed (graded C; "an entertaining enough episode of Friendship is Magic, but it can't help but come across as something of a missed opportunity [...] it's an episode that doesn't really feature any form of growing up")

Dark Qiviut – no review this week

DrakeyC – largely negative ("The highlight of this episode is the adult CMC. [...] A pity that such great adult designs are being utilized for such a bad episode. I was bored out of my skull [...] The entire second and third acts of this episode felt like padding")

Dramamaster829 – mildly positive ("While it's not the most complex CMC episode in the entire series, for all it's simplicity I actually did enjoy the story [...] a relatable topic")

JDPrime22 – very positive (rated 9/10; "surprising way to see these characters off [...] Honestly, this was the most relatable lesson. I really enjoyed this one.)

Louder Yay – mildly positive (rated 3/5; "wasn't exactly the most complex of eps [...] but it didn't really do anything that felt egregiously out of place [...] I confess that I didn't really warm to [Spur and Biscuit]: they were rather bland and forgettable [...] superior filler [...] Although it did share one of S9's repeating weaknesses – character regression to fit a particular story – in this case the CMC's lack of maturity didn't seem as out of place as, say, Rainbow's in "2, 4, 6, Greaaat"")

Mike Cartoon Pony – mixed ("It’s just there, not lingering in the mind and only sticking out due to being a poor showing for [the CMC's] last outing. [...] There are plenty of nice touches along the way [and] the song is a catchy, fun one [but] the story after the transformation feels tacked on to the concept of the CMC ageing for the episode, like they didn’t know what to do with that setup. [...] Just a pity Ed Valentine returned for an episode as ultimately flavourless as this.")

MLEEP Reviews – positive (rated 8.5/10; "while having a concept that other shows in kids' entertainment have done before [this episode] still managed to be a pretty great experience which is sure to generate a wave of new creativity among the fandom")

Present Perfect – broadly positive ("The new [CMC] designs were fantastic, and the VA work was awesome. [...] entertaining background gags [...] The only notable downside I can find is that they were really heavy-handed with the whole grownup thing [...] The song wasn't bad, either!")

SuperPinkBrony12 – rather negative ("it's just really predictable and suffers from a lot of continuity errors and character regression. This kind of plot is something I would've expected out of the CMC back in Season 1 or Season 2, not Season 9 [...] All of this could've been fixed if Ed Valentine had anyone tell him what was going on, but for some reason no one did. [At least] it doesn't do anything offensively or majorily bad")

The Railfan Brony – mildly positive (rated Good; "It was... adequate, to say the least. [...] At this point, [the CMC] should be teenagers during their final years of grade school, and yet they're talked down to like it's season one or two. [but they] were enjoyable throughout [...] It's tolerable, that's good enough for me.")

TheDragonWarlock – mixed (rated 6.5/10; "a rather odd episode to have so late into the series, especially the final few episodes of FiM [... This] isn't necessarily a bad episode, but compared to most CMC episode the past few seasons, it feels like a drop off; especially after The Last Crusade. [...] some enjoyable bits such as the song being decent and it has some cute visual gags [but the ep] could've been so much more.")

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