Brief audio thoughts on S8A, with text transcript here

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I felt like making a short audio review of the first half of Season 8, so here it is. The whole thing is less than eight minutes long, so don't expect in-depth analysis. It's quite deliberately just a brief summary. For those who prefer to read reviews, a full transcript follows.

Hello everypony. Logan here and this is my brief look back at the first half of Season 8 of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. If you would prefer to read this, I'll be placing a transcript on my website – well, blog – which you can find at louderyay.blogspot.com.

On the whole, I think the show is doing all right as we enter the mid-season hiatus. The overall standard is probably a notch down from Season 7, but a notch up from Season 6. I feel reasonably happy with how things have gone, and I have a fair amount of optimism regarding when things pick up again in the late summer or early autumn.

The big innovation this year was the introduction of the School of Friendship, which brought with it six new featured characters. These are apparently known as the "Young Six" inside DHX, but the fandom generally refers to them as the "Student Six" – and as I also prefer that name, it's the one I shall use here.

I thought the School got off to a slightly shaky start, what with the season premiere having Celestia tell Twilight that even she couldn't go against EEA rules but then Twilight herself deciding that rules were for silly ponies and that she could do whatever the hay she wanted. Still, the Student Six have grown on me considerably, and I am now hoping that we'll see them in several more episodes before the end of the season.

The star of the show for me over this half-season has been Starlight Glimmer. Despite largely being confined to smallish supporting roles, almost everything she's said or done has been hugely watchable. She actually reminds me a bit of pre-ascension Twilight in her snarkiness and impulsiveness, and her dialogue has been excellent. Not to mention those facial expressions!

We've had three new writers join the team this year, and results have been mixed. Brian Hohlfeld struck gold with "Surf and/or Turf", Kaita Mpambara (which I've doubtless pronounced wrong, so my apologies to him) produced the very entertaining "Horse Play", but Kim Beyer-Johnson's "Non-Compete Clause" was disappointing.

On which note, it's now time for my favourite and least favourite episodes of the 12 so far – 12, because I count the two-part premiere as one. I'll start off with my least favourite eps, so that we can do the most fun bit last!

My third-least-favourite episode is "The Maud Couple". I found Mudbriar more irritating than amusing, Maud herself was less fun than sometimes, and the episode wasn't helped by there being a much better romance-themed episode in "The Break Up Breakdown" later in the season. Also, while it was nice to see Marble Pie again, some actual spoken dialogue, rather than just "Mm-hmms" would have been appreciated.

Second-last, I'm sorry to say, is "Fake It ‘Til You Make It". Fluttershy is my favourite pony, and I'd wanted more Fluttershy/Rarity friendshipping for ages, but I was disappointed with this one. ‘Shy and Rares spent little time on-screen bonding, Flutters' over-the-top personas went on for too long, and her threatening to throw out a family of raccoons just seemed mean-spirited for her.

Bottom of the pile, to no-one's surprise, is "Non-Compete Clause". This wasn't a total dead loss and it did have its moments, but virtually all of these involved the Student Six. Applejack and Rarity [sic – I know it should be Rainbow!] themselves just seemed to be re-running "Fall Weather Friends" – and that comparison was not flattering to the Season 8 episode. I'd re-watch "Fall Weather Friends" over this any day.

Briefly going through the middle-of-the-road episodes now: "The Parent Map" dragged a bit but had some nice dialogue. "Grannies Gone Wild" had a stupid premise but made me laugh. "School Daze" – well, I touched on that one earlier. "Marks for Effort" had lovely dialogue – once again – excellent Starlight and cute CMC moments, but a horribly out of character Twilight. "The Mean 6" subverted our expectations by not tying up all the loose ends; I found this more intriguing than annoying. And "The Break Up Breakdown", which only just missed out on the top three, demonstrated that romance can work in this show. (I still want it kept away from the Mane Six, though!)

So, on to the medallists. "Molt Down" takes the bronze with one of the best Spike episodes, perhaps rivalled only by "Gauntlet of Fire" from Season 6. In "Molt Down", we saw our favourite little dragon growing up, and except for an overused running gag about his voice it was done well. The roc made Everfree seem dangerous, something I always appreciate, and Zecora finally got a meaty role again. One small complaint: Twilight is the only other character to have sprouted wings in canon (no, Princess Big Mac doesn't count!) and so I'd have expected at least a tiny bit of shared-experience bonding – but we didn't get it.

Second spot goes to "Horse Play". Not everyone enjoyed this, partly because of the cringe-comedy aspects of Celestia's performance, but I appreciated it enormously. For a start, it was a true Celestia episode, not the Tia-and-Luna double act of last season's "A Royal Problem". "Horse Play" also included that beautifully designed and near-heartbreaking night flight scene after Twilight had offended her mentor, not to mention making chunks of The Journal of the Two Sisters canon.

Top of the pile – for now – is "Surf and/or Turf", partly because of its sensitive portrayal of what could be interpreted as a child of divorced parents. ("You're looking well" was a very well judged line: it's exactly the sort of thing someone might say to an ex they were still on decent terms with.) The episode also had the best song of Season 8 so far – though it's not as if there have been many to pick from – and a wonderful sequence, at once heart-melting and desperately sad, in which Scootaloo experiences seapony-style swimming and gets an all-too-brief insight into what flying must be like.

As I just mentioned, songs have been in short supply so far this season. I had been hoping that, with the movie being out of the way, the number would rise considerably again, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen. I think that's a shame, but at least all of the three we've seen so far are solid at worst. William Anderson's scores have again been very satisfying, too.

With the first half of Season 8 rising from an inconsistent start to a strong last few episodes, I'm really looking forward to what we get next. Thankfully, no more episodes seem to have been leaked, so we shouldn't be spoiled on more than just what's in the synopses and the official previews. We know Season 9 will happen, so this year at least we can just get on and enjoy the show.