My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 618 - Buckball Season

Rating:

In yet another filler episode, Buckball Season details preparations for a meaningless game of some previously non-existing sport.  Unlike Dungeons & Discords though, new writer Jennifer Skelly finds a decent moral and point for her script.  Skelly’s characters demonstrate surprising awareness and an ability to solve problems before completely losing control (probably unique among “moral” episodes).  Unfortunately, other issues (besides the episode being completely unnecessary) contribute to another sub-par offering.  For instance, Twilight and Rarity are not only completely missing, but forgotten like they never existed.  Many earlier episodes cut one or more voice actors because of financial reasons, but this particular oversight looks extremely glaring when the plot involves finding a unicorn.  Rarity probably wouldn’t have joined the team, but nobody mentions her?  Twilight participated in that stupid leaf race during Fall Weather Friends and also needlessly teleports everywhere, so maybe she could handle holding a basket?  Instead, we’re supposed to believe that Snails is some sort of magic god and Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie are better at buckball (without practicing) than their two friends.  These may not be false though, since we’ve never seen Snails outside his idiot fest with Snips and Pinkie Pie is very evidently not bound by physical laws.  Fluttershy did have trouble flying during Hurricane Fluttershy, but she also caught Rainbow Dash (traveling at full speed) while pulling a hot air balloon full of ponies (The Return Of Harmony), and was once described as “the greatest flyer ever to come out of Cloudsdale” (The Cutie Mark Chronicles).  Clearly her true athletic talents are underrated and hampered by self-doubt.  Even so, believing these three could beat Ponyville and Appleloosa’s best players remains difficult.  That isn’t necessarily fatal, since it helps Skelly demonstrate how not everyone feasts on pressure-filled situations.  And unlike The Cart Before The Ponies, she paced her script well so time existed for the final game to finish.  Of course, this might only occur because her paper-thin plot barely has enough for 22 minutes.  While its omissions are curious, Buckball Season feels pleasant enough despite the low rating and how it seems to come from five years earlier.  The episode isn’t among season six’s worst, but still lacks enough substance to refrain from being notable as well.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 520 - Hearthbreakers

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Hearthbreakers should have been a great episode.  The Apples are inexplicably invited to spend Hearth’s Warming Eve with Pinkie Pie’s family (apparently because of the tenuous and likely nonexistent connection explored in Pinkie Apple Pie), and we finally meet her sisters and parents.  There are still many fine moments (which will be enough for most people), but the episode is so poorly written by Nick Confalone that I can’t justify any higher rating.  Between the Pie family’s questionable characterization, Pinkie and Applejack speaking extended sentences in unison (…twice), average at best dialogue (why do Pinkie and her sisters call each other by their full names?), and a very obvious second act conflict, Hearthbreakers was severely hindered by its writing.  Not helping matters is the show counting as a sequel to Hearth’s Warming Eve (by fellow terrible writer Merriwether Williams), and Confalone wastes time summarizing this earlier effort when it’s otherwise completely irrelevant.  Realizing that every family celebrates the holidays slightly differently almost counts as thoughtful, but all of these traditions were invented just for the episode and aren’t mentioned elsewhere.  Because of this, an artificial sense pervades Hearthbreakers, which feels contrived and constructed instead of organic.  We should enjoy spending time with the Pie family, but only get glimpses of how cool Maud is, the depths Pinkie’s twin(!) sister Marble hides, and Pinkie’s experience growing up among family members with completely different personalities.  Confalone apparently never comprehended these missed opportunities, which makes Hearthbreakers a tantalizing tease that still needs improvement.  Even with some enjoyable parts, it doesn’t come close to being satisfying.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 623 - Where The Apple Lies

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After two awful outings, Dave Rapp tried but failed at the trifecta, which turned out good for us.  Where The Apple Lies is surprisingly watchable and easily his best season six episode, although it’s also not without faults.  The improvement comes from Rapp watching previous episodes and applying that knowledge, but his origin story remains debatably believable.  It details when young Applejack told a lie which spiraled out of control, which we wouldn’t expect from Ms. Honesty.  While obviously troperific, the characters are young and lively enough to provide some entertainment.  Despite mostly taking place before Apple Bloom’s birth, Applejack’s parents still do not appear nor are they ever mentioned, so I guess one day the stork brought her.  We also learn Big Mac was previously quite loquacious, but piped down solely from this one event.  Probably not.  Such inconsistencies hurt Apple Lies’ enjoyment, as does its unoriginal plot and Rapp ignoring times when lies are necessary.  Considering his distinct lack of writing style cachet, those aforementioned problems, and still more filler, the episode can’t be rated any higher despite it representing an improvement on the previous two.  Rapp’s mildly competent work still isn’t great upon any reflection though, and season six needed a lot more than what he produced.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 621 - Every Little Thing She Does

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I must be feeling quite charitable not to give such a dumb, dull, and misplaced episode two stars or worse.  Michael Vogel had some relative success in season six (story credit for Viva Las Pegasus, Stranger Than Fan Fiction script doctored by Josh Haber), but every decision he made here was poor.  Starlight has been shirking her friendship lessons (guess that explains her relatively few appearances), so she decides to do them all at once.  “Surprisingly”, it doesn’t go well.  Given Every Little Thing’s somewhat introductory nature into Starlight’s mane six friendships, many bronies understandably wondered why the episode wasn’t aired earlier.  Like, say, in place of that Christmas episode which aired in May.  As also happened in The Fault In Our Cutie Marks, Vogel assumed Starlight had a more productive season than she did, including many new alicorn-strength spells with Harry Potter-styled names (accelero, fiducia compelus, cogeria, persuadere).  So instead of her lesson, Starlight hypnotizes everyone while Twilight is conveniently away and nearly destroys the castle, an event which includes her exclaiming “this can’t get any worse”.  At least Vogel tries touching on how difficult making friends can be for those who don’t have many, but this doesn’t compensate for the slapstick, dumb movie quotes, and overall general tedium of an episode that goes nowhere and has little to say.  Unfortunately, the animators also did him no favors, using more strangely ugly faces for angry ponies and putting footprints above a door which no animal could reach.

How the hell did a bear get up there?  Typically for season six, Every Little Thing was another sloppy and uninteresting effort from the B-team who clearly weren’t capable of better work.  Maybe it doesn’t reach the pain levels of inferior episodes, but that might only be because you’re too bored to notice.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Season 6 Bottom 5

I will come right to the point.  Season six is the worst one yet aired by My Little Pony.  It unnecessarily answers the question of what season two would have been like minus M. A. Larson.  With him, Amy Keating Rogers, and Meghan McCarthy (thankfully) moving on, and Dave Polsky penning only one underwhelming episode, a noticeable dearth of writing talent existed which the other staff members could not overcome.  In every sense a “B-squad” season, newly anointed story editor Josh Haber dealt with some scripts apparently 5-6 years old, other hateful ones like those found in season two, and his own problematic season bookending two-parters which didn’t match McCarthy’s better efforts.  On top of that, he was tasked with integrating Starlight Glimmer into the main cast, but this also failed.  Early episodes and the season finale focused on her while excluding the mane six, but the in-between efforts found her mysteriously absent.  Some of Starlight’s “appearances” had zero lines, even when her voice actress was used elsewhere in that same episode, so these cameos didn’t really count either.  Haber and the other writers couldn’t justify Starlight’s inclusion on the show, but this was only one of many other notable disappointments.

My choice for the top spot and the lone episode to earn four stars (out of 24 possibilities) was Stranger Than Fan Fiction, which featured comedian Patton Oswalt as a know-it-all critical pony who Rainbow Dash meets and eventually befriends at a Daring Do fan convention.  This outing was not universally well-received, and didn’t pertain to the season’s main themes at all.  Other stronger efforts included the Parks & Recreation tribute The Saddle Row Review (detailing Rarity’s troubled grand opening of her boutique in Canterlot), and surprisingly the final two map episodes (Viva Las Pegasus and Top Bolt), which both featured atypically strong characterization.  Outside of the season-capping two-parters, that was it, as most of season six hovered around 2-3 stars.

Overall, season six was both unsure and unable to accomplish what it desired.  Many new characters were introduced on top of Starlight’s integration, although not all of them were effective or worthy of returning.  But even with several strong animation efforts and the voice cast’s usual solid work, season six was not close to the quality of previous years.  No other season failed to have at least three episodes earn four stars or higher from me (and that was the shortened season three), but season six only produced one such (admittedly debatable) effort.  As such, I am dispensing the top portion of this list since there were not enough qualifying good episodes.  That leaves only the bottom, and while there were not as many awful efforts as season two, an astounding 14 of the 24 reviews earned two-and-a-half stars or less.  This kind of quality is unacceptable, and it practically forces me to suspend my series reviews indefinitely.  Despite so many poor outings, only five stood out as the worst, and they are quite dreadful.

My Little Pony - Friendship Is Magic: Episode 614 - The Cart Before The Ponies

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Did I use “oh god” already?  Apparently My Little Pony’s creators pulled an old Ed Valentine script out of the trash (his previous episode aired over 2½ years earlier), but its moral is so obvious and heavy-handed that The Cart Before The Ponies feels like it was written before season one.  Cheerilee announces her class will be participating in the Pinewood Applewood Derby so they can learn about physics.  Nobody does unsurprisingly, as Valentine starts feverishly retconning from there.  Now three awards exist instead of one, the mane six totally did this event when they were young, and everyone dies in a horrific car accident at the end oh never mind, they’re fine.  Valentine’s premise concerns parents who live out failed dreams through their children, but should an episode dealing with this common problem really feel so painful?  Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash ignore their sisters’ (confusing) desires over which prize they want and just build and race the cars themselves.  With no rule stating otherwise, the Crusaders could have just switched partners and been fine, except they never thought about doing so.  Instead, we get the pictured disaster which everyone somehow walks away from unscathed, and a “do-over” that now doesn’t have time to finish.  Every event only occurs in service to Valentine’s moral, since he obviously doesn’t care about anything making sense.  The previously competitive Applejack (Fall Weather Friends, Sisterhooves Social) happily finishes dead last in a rickety buggy?  Sweetie Belle is fine being seen in one too?  Scootaloo has no competitive desire either, and thinks putting a chicken head on her car equals creativity?  And are we really supposed to believe Derpy beat Rarity for “most creative” all those years ago?  Valentine’s script is poorly paced and almost feels written for a completely different series.  None of his choices worked, and the episode rates among My Little Pony’s most difficult to watch.  Even with an important moral, The Cart Before The Ponies cannot be recommended.