Friday 16 August 2019

Text Review Roundup: "2, 4, 6, Greaaat"

You know, for a dead fandom this one seems to be keeping me very busy. Getting ready for UK PonyCon in October (tickets running short already – buy yours now!), working on this blog, reading fanfic, writing fanfic, helping arrange meetups, playing Pocket Ponies, watching Tales from late G1... yeah, I don't think I'm going to be stuck for things to do when the S9 finale has come and gone!

That's still a little way off, though, so let's see what the text-based reviewers made of "2, 4, 6, Greaaat". And... yeah. No reviewer liked it, not a single one. MLEEP is usually among the most positive and so it was again – but this time, even that only meant a "mixed". That was as good as it got. Rainbow Dash's portrayal was the most unpopular since "Non-Compete Clause", with which this ep was frequently compared.

Talking of which: SuperPinkBrony12, new this time, called this "a poor man's version of Non-Compete Clause". Ouch.

Cuddlepug – very negative (graded D-; "an utterly skippable episode, and one I would encourage people to avoid, lest they wish to raise an eyebrow over why Rainbow Dash would act like such an immature jerk this late in the game.")

Dark Qiviut – very negative ("Smolder had one of her best outings of the season [and a few other little pluses, but t]he rest of this episode was just a colossal train wreck [... and there's one of Twilight's] most out-of-character moments of the whole series."

DrakeyC – largely negative ("I like [that] the students hold Rainbow accountable [but] it is very condescending of the episode to portray Rainbow as so totally in the wrong and everyone else in the right. [...] A frustratingly annoying episode.")

Dramamaster829 negative ("It's like watching 1/2 of an Adam Sandler movie where he spends the whole time acting like a selfish-jerk with no reason to sympathize with his character")
Note: no blog at time of writing, so this is from a comment Dramamaster829 left on my review.

JDPrime22 – negative (rated 6/10; "Not only is Rainbow a huge ASS throughout the entire episode, all the growth she's displayed as a character (you know, being LOYAL and all) is completely thrown out the window, and for what?")

Louder Yay – largely negative (rated 2/5; "if it hadn't picked up markedly in the last third, it might even have skirted close to a one-star rating [...] a terrible disappointment.")

Mike Cartoon Pony – largely negative ("[Much of] the episode until the last six minutes is a painful exercise in watching Rainbow not even attempt to disguise her disinterest in her assigned task and put no effort into it [...] neat stuff at the margins [but] an anaemic, frustrating episode")

MLEEP Reviews – mixed (rated 6.5/10; "while having great side characters and humor [the episode] pretty much went exactly the way that I envisioned with how far back of a regression they could take with Rainbow Dash's character")

Present Perfect – very negative ("for all that the message here is great, the actual execution of it was abysmal [...] I really hated this one; it is, at best, horribly misaimed.")

SuperPinkBrony12 – negative ("a poor man's version of "Non-Compete Clause [...] Never once does [Dash] try to care, and yet she also doesn't try to talk to Twilight about how she's feeling. And why did Twilight feel the need to put Rainbow into this kind of lesson? [...] Smolder shouldn't be the only sane creature in the room.")

The Railfan Brony – very negative (rated Terrible; "There's nothing "great" about this episode, especially as it's another episode with Rainbow Dash acting like an idiot.")

TheDragonWarlock – extremely negative (rated 1.5/10; "Everything about this episode is poorly thought out and poorly executed. The concept is not only a bad idea, but the results are even worse. The writing is dreadful; especially for Rainbow. [...] easily the worst episode for Rainbow I've ever had the misfortune of watching.")

14 comments:

  1. Yikes...

    I haven't seen this season yet besides the premiere. This feels like one that I'm going to have to buckle down to watch when I finally get around to it.

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    1. It's this season's "Non-Compete Clause", I'm afraid. I'm moderately pleased with the season as a whole so far, although it's a little bit lacking in classics. (One, maybe two.) But yeah, this one did not go down well at all.

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  2. I'm really sorry you felt you had to use one of my comments as opposed to my usual blogs. I meant to have one up this week, but it's been severely delayed. Then again, even if I 'do' get my review up this week or even the next... It 'still' would've been a pretty 'bad' review for an equally 'bad' episode. But yeah, while I've been fair to the final season and there have been some good episodes, even the 'just okay' episodes that get a bit of a free pass, this one... No, it was 'doomed' to be awful. I can write a better script for this episode in my 'sleep'... No joke.

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    1. Don't worry, it's not a problem. I had the choice of using that comment or not having your opinion at all (since I don't want to delay one TRR beyond the next episode's release), so using the comment seemed the better option.

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  3. That comment from Dramamaster is absolutely worth enshrining here, because it's fantastic. :D

    Man, this is really gratifying. I don't think I've seen this slate of reviewers so thoroughly united before. And yeah, I wish that union were on the positive side of things, but hey, at least I'm not alone for once. I take back that hedge about it being 'misaimed', too; the time I spent digging for something positive to say was obviously misspent!

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    1. Well nothing wrong with trying to find something good even in a cesspool of an episode like this, my friend. And yes, there is some satisfaction in seeing a larger group of people united in sharing displeasure in something.

      I myself was wondering a bit about what the takes would be this time, as there were enough (thinly-veiled) defences of this episode floating around (the king that reek of those writing said defences trying to fool themselves more then us). Neat to see unanimous agreement amongst a group that comes at the show from different angles and not necessarily for the same things.

      Also, you say "not alone for once" but you've actually never been the lone negative voice throughout season 9 in Logan's TRR's, thus far.
      Yes, I checked.
      No, there's nothing wrong with me.

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    2. Neat to see unanimous agreement amongst a group that comes at the show from different angles and not necessarily for the same things.

      In its way, yes. I just wish it had been because we all agreed on an episode being good! In case you're curious, the last time that happened was "What Lies Beneath". The nearest since has been "Frenemies", which had only one dissenter.

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    3. Throughout season 9, perhaps, but Logan didn't post my reviews before then... :B

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    4. Yeah, I had this odd idea that Fimfiction-based reviews (whcih yours were at the time) didn't count. Man, I was weird.

      ...Was? Oh well.

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    5. That's fine, honestly, because picking them up now just gives me hope that my little review blog is more legitimate. :)

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    6. These days, I'd have included you on the roster even if you'd still been on Fimfiction. Mind you, I must admit, I know I'm happier doing this here than I would be doing it on Fimfic. It feels more spacious, it's a little bit away from the mainstream and there are little things like being able to link directly to M-rated stories. (Not that I read many of those, but you get the idea.)

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  4. Cripes.

    For the first time in maybe two and a half seasons, I haven't been able to watch the new episode yet for a variety of reasons. Reading these comments, I'm, uh, markedly less enthusiastic about the prospect than I was this morning...

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    1. It has its moments -- many of them involving Smolder. That's the best I can say about it.

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    2. Hoo, boy. I can't pretend that I wasn't warned, but even so... that was *dismal*.

      The Element of Loyalty, there, fillies and gentlecolts!

      The only saving grace, for me, is that it's virtually certain we've just seen the worst episode of the final season, and so the rest must surely be an improvement. Well, not "surely", but... for sure I'm having trouble imagining any of the remaining few being quite so terrible!

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