Things have been happening in the UK, as you may have noticed. I'm not especially keen to drag politics into this blog, but those who've paid attention over the years will have a good idea how I feel right now. You can always read and comment on my Dreamwidth blog if you're interested in my thoughts on that and other political matters. But here, I intend to keep things Pony for the most part. So off we go to the magical world of Equestria!
Rewatching Season 1 was generally a very enjoyable experience. I must say, it was probably a bit more so than I'd expected: several episodes surprised me on the upside, and really only one ("A Dog and Pony Show") on the downside. I'll give a summary of each episode's star rating beyond the cut – but my mean star rating across the 26 eps was 3.38. That seems like a pretty solid average, and I wonder how many (if any) of the later seasons will be able to match it.
More waffling past the cut!
Next, let's take a look at the ratings breakdown:
★★★★★
Green Isn't Your Color
The Cutie Mark Chronicles
The Best Night Ever
★★★★
Friendship is Magic, part 1
Friendship is Magic, part 2
Dragonshy
Winter Wrap Up
Fall Weather Friends
Suited for Success
Sonic Rainboom
A Bird in the Hoof
Party of One
★★★
Applebuck Season
Griffon the Brush Off
Look Before You Sleep
Bridle Gossip
Swarm of the Century
Call of the Cutie
Feeling Pinkie Keen
Stare Master
The Show Stoppers
★★
The Ticket Master
Boast Busters
A Dog and Pony Show
Over a Barrel
Owl's Well That Ends Well
★
none
It's interesting, if probably not especially significant, that there wasn't a single three-star episode after "The Show Stoppers". The eight eps beyond that point all scored two, four or five. Also notable, and slightly against my expectations going in, is that there are actually more low-scoring episodes in the second half of the season than the first – although all the three which made top marks are in the last third of the season.
I was expecting perhaps three controversies, and I got two of them. "Bridle Gossip" came and went without much fuss, but "Feeling Pinkie Keen" and "Over a Barrel" were another matter. The dislike for "FPK" was broader (but not deeper) than for "OaB", which I suppose isn't surprising. After all, the "science v faith" question, if you see "FPK" in those terms, is fairly universal. The real-world resonances of "OaB" are difficult, perhaps impossible, for many of us to grasp.
I will be completely honest and say that I did not enjoy those controversies. Being the escapist brony I am, it's tough going sometimes when the real world intrudes on the nice cosy land of Equestria. However, I want to stress that I will not ask commenters to avoid negative opinions. Nobody in those comments made me consider deleting them. If anyone feels that strongly about a future ep in this series, you're of course welcome to say so. Mind you, most controversies from here on in are about in-universe matters.
On to other things now. How did the writers do? Here's a league table of their average star ratings. I don't intend to do this for every season, especially those later on where multiple credits and one-off writers start to enter the picture, but it's no great hardship to do it for this first season:
4.00: M. A. Larson
4.00: Meghan McCarthy
3.67: Charlotte Fullerton
3.67: Lauren Faust
3.17: Amy Keating Rogers
3.00: Cindy Morrow
2.50: Chris Savino
2.50: Dave Polsky
I'm not sure that really tells us that much, given the small sample sizes. I certainly don't think AKR's placing is representative of her ability over the five seasons she was on the show, for example. But very broadly it's not that dissimilar to what I might have expected. And hay, it might be mildly interesting to some, I suppose. I'd like to say I'd revisit this idea at the end of S9... but I'm not sure I can face that level of work!
As many others have remarked, one of the most noticeable things about S1 is the horseyness. Rarity's ponnequins wear tack as well as dresses, doors open half-and-half in the stable fashion, ponies push things with their snouts and heads, there's a good deal of rearing and pawing at the ground, much food is definitely not human-edible, and so on. The other is how domestic it all is: other than one visit to Manehattan, and that in flashback, we're in rural or small-town Equestria right up until the finale.
I'm not going to get into previewing Season 2 just yet – I'll save that for another post in the near future. For now, thank you to everyone who's read or commented on My Little Reviews, and I hope you've enjoyed at least some of it. I also hope that you'll enjoy S2's MLR posts when they appear!
Thankfully, I feel like a lot of the later episodes that really get me fired up tend not to fall in terms of "they screwed up this issue" but more "I just really hated this". So hopefully I can save you from some vitriol down the road. :)
ReplyDeleteThey never again did something like "Over a Barrel" -- which is probably for the best. I know I have Derpygate to cover in S2, but that's about it really for outside-the-fandom drama. By the time "Fame and Misfortune" rolled around, MLP was barely registering with non-fans.
DeleteWell, I suppose that rural/small-town Equestria qualifier depends on how one qualifies Cloudsdale. It's no Canterlot or Manehattan (which looked far less visually grand here then in its S4-onwards appearances, almost like a different place altogether, though I won't hold that against the writers), but as a place where a fair share of pegasus take up residence, and mobile at that, I think it t's bigger then "rural or small-town" Equestria. But, I'm being pedantic here.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to officially tote up my scores (and I feel a few need readjusting to make the S1 scores sit better with the scores for forthcoming S2 episodes) but after going through this season I remain fairly confident in declaring S1 the series' third-best or second-best season of the show, depending on how S4 holds up. It's simpler then some of the ambition in a few later seasons, certainly, but I find the episodes here tend to have largely excellent execution all around, which after all is one of FiM's shining strengths: taking typical kid's show ideas and subverting them or executing them with such aplomb, filmmaking skill and personality that they stick in memory much longer then they should by any means. Cartooning is magic sometimes, you know.
Obviously it's not as visually ambitious as the show had gotten by S4 (again with the sprawling landscape shots of Manehattan!) but even here it's very ambitious and far-reaching for a Flash show, above and beyond DHX's previous work (remember al the comments from early production about them doing things supposed to be impossible in Flash? Yeah, that.) Much like the writing, there's a bit of figuring out the style and some tweening that's more obvious then later seasons, but even to someone like myself who notices a lot of technical stuff about animation little of it is actively bothering as long as one is already on board with the show's general art style.
I suspect my writer score ranking would look quite similar, though again I'd have to crunch the numbers. Other then Amy Keating Rogers probably being at a level that reflects her average standard, for I enjoyed "Bridle Gossip" fine and still really dug "A Dog and Pony Show". Otherwise, Lauren Faust herself is probably lower down on my list and Cindy Morrow & Dave Polsky higher too.
Oh, and yes it is a bit surprising that there's more low-scoring episodes in your second half of the season, though I suspect some episodes like "A Dog and Pony Show" and "Over a Barrel" contributed to that quite notably.
Looking well forward to your takes on some Season 2 episodes; you started reviewing midway through Season 3 way back when so doing S2 will mean you'll have reviewed on this blog almost every episode, and every episode once you're a bit into Season 3.
Fair point about Cloudsdale, especially since on the rare occasions I've written it in ponyfic (eg the early part of Where They Understand You) I've thought of it as a rather gritty, industrial city behind the fluffy exterior. But in "Sonic Rainboom" and "The Cutie Mark Chronicles" it seems less classically big-cityish than that, I think.
Delete