My Little Repeats 180: "Non-Compete Clause"

An actual nice reference? In this episode? It's a miracle!

S8E09: "Non-Compete Clause"

12 May 2018

My original rating: ★★
IMDb score: 4.4

The one with er... bite-a-cudas?

Thoughts: In IMDb ratings, this is the lowest that Friendship is Magic ever got, the only episode of the entire series that scored below five. Look, you know it's bad. I know it's bad. Everyone knows it's bad. The students are the only real saving grace, and they stop this from breaking my run of never finding any episode of this series entirely without merit. It's nowhere near enough, though. Applejack and Rainbow are not just hit with the Idiot Ball but repeatedly shot at point-blank range with Idiot Blunderbusses. Even ignoring the absurd character regression, "Fall Weather Friends" did their rivalry far better in the middle of season one. They almost drown Yona and don't show much concern, which is just unbelievable. Their fighting also goes on and on and on. Otherwise? Um... the Fluttershy "Teacher of the Month" joke is amusing, Twilight isn't entirely useless, and... er... the episode looks quite nice. But AJ and RD still bickering at the end? Tedious, like the ep as a whole. I'm only glad for Kim Beyer-Johnson's sake that this wasn't her only FiM writing credit. Her others weren't terrible. "Non-Compete Clause" is, and hard as the students work to save it, they still can't. And now it's over and I never have to watch this episode again. Until I inevitably do. Again. And regret it. Again.

Choice quote: Gallus: "Yeah... it's been like this all day..."

New rating: ★

The only way is up, right? And indeed, the next episode is "The Break Up Breakdown", which I remember rather enjoying – and not only because it wasn't "Non-Compete Clause" any more...