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| A visually inventive episode in the way you can't take for granted by this point |
S9E08: "Frenemies"
18 May 2019My original rating: ★★★★★
IMDb score: 8.9
The one with straw dollsThoughts: IMDb ratings are even less use than usual by this point in Friendship is Magic, but there's no doubting that "Frenemies" was very well received in 2019. I was interested to see whether it held up now we know the truth about "Grogar". For the most part, I think it does, as the main storyline is about the Legion of Doom. They're all good, funny but with that edge of darkness, and they combined to provide a really great song in "Better Way to be Bad". The episode was well paced, too, with even the Rusty Bucket sections not really letting things flag. As I've noted before, in G1 it was North Star, not Gusty, who took the Bell, but that's minor here. You know what? I'm going to be generous and say this is a 4.5-star episode still. And as I don't give half stars? It's keeping that five. This may or may not be the last perfect rating I give for FiM, of course!
Choice quote: Tirek: "Welcome back, baby!"
New rating: ★★★★★
Next up will be "Sweet and Smoky", which is a Fluttershy-heavy episode and therefore extremely important. The two go together. But will it be extremely good? At some point, we shall find out!
I've always kind of felt like this was "the best for what it was", i.e. a still dirty gem in a pile of refuse <_< 3-star episode at best, just because I hate the song lol
ReplyDeleteAs a standalone, this would be fine, if not mediocre. But as a part of the main storyline? Knowing what would become of the terrible trio in the finale, it's completely pointless. Why even bother setting up a redemption arc if you're just going to keep them as villains, anyway? It almost feels as if there was no actual planning done, and it shows just how much of a terrible "writer" Michael Vogel is. Not that Dubuc and Haber were any better in this season... just wait till I get to those!
ReplyDeleteAlso, how does Rusty Bucket not know who Cozy Glow is? Even if he's lived in isolation for years, it's still a stretch knowing that he has a copy of the Journal of Friendship.
Going into this rewatch, like you, my main worry was that the knowledge about Grogar would be the main weakness. And… kind of,The concept of Grogar himself even apart from the later reveal remains a little weak in execution even here, what with keeping him away from the others and the Big Bad escalation severely de-fanging Tirek and Chrysalis (villains introduced by beating Discord and Celestia respectively). But besides the loose "this doesn't feel Discord whatsoever", it's eh. Unless one starts working backward from the finale to the plot hole of Discord sending the trio after an artefact that could potentially stop him, and not ever spying to check on them offscreen between then and the finale, despite that being a power he's shown in regular and Grogar form. But that's a drum we've all beat since 2019 for this whole arc.
ReplyDeleteIf looking at this episode specifically, rather than flaws to do with the whole storyline (which has a lot to answer for, from Cozy Glow's utter uselessness to how forced much of the plotting is and the neutered characterisation of Tirek/Chrysalis), much of it can feel a bit wandering and aimless. Had they done more villain-focused episodes this season, that would have been fine, but we only got this and the B-plot in one later episode. And while this material certainly isn't toothless by most MLP standards, Vogel runs out of ways to frame their barbs and motivations fast, so while a lot of this gets a acidic boost from them being, well, villains – one welcome in this sugar-positive show – the dialogue is circular and repetitive even by his standards, assuming a attention-stunned audience (deadly drinking game: a shot for every utterance of "Twilight Sparkle and her friends"). Also, much of the obstacle construction for how they get to the mountaintop, especially the barrier forcing Vogel to outright change Tirek's skillset, is contributed and kinda laughable, making you wonder how no one's ever gotten the Bell before now.
That said, the rewatch did confirm that Frenemies is an enjoyable episode, and the novelty of the villain team-up makes it easier to turn off one's brain to the structural and longer arc issues then others. Enjoyable episodes rarely get to that in this part of the show, even ones better than this. The Legion aren't idiots like their prior Season 8 episodes that destroyed their characters (lo and behold, there's actual character development here!). And on top of the semi-fun barbs, there's lots of fun little touches: Chrysalis' annoyance as Tirek casually stealing her magic early, Tirek being a bodybuilder and concluding to just wait, Chrysalis cocooning the snake-cow (and ironic fun, in showing how useless Cozy is with Rusty Bucket not listening to a word of her request). By this point in the show's fun, the Fun of classical cartooning was long since past us, as was sublime comic timing, so to an adult viewer, it's really the characters that have to carry it. But this episode got a bit towards fun touches that don't feel so emotionally safe like the days of old, if only for being focused on the villains.
At this point, I'm not sure if this will remain the best episode of the season. But crucially, it was the last time the show had a good surprise of an episode: who expected to finally get a villain-only episode at this point when watching it? Very few before it was revealed, I'll bet! That, plus the fun and enjoyment along the way, makes it a fun novelty, even if with better writing (and an overall arc that didn't deserve to be set on fire) it could have been one for the ages. But fun and enjoyable ain't nothing.
Also, for a song I've watched/listened to a lot in isolation, "Better Way to be Bad" is a lot less effective in context, having no real musical justification and feeling sillier in content.