Where I Watch – My Little Pony – Episode 12 – Pinkie Pride

And now for something completely PONY! My boyfriend is a huge Weird Al fan, and expressed a desire to see this on his own volition.

Weird Al comes to town. That’s him, observing ponies and their bison friends at what can only be assumed to be Loll-Appe-loosa (the puns in this are very thickly layered).

Cheese Sandwich gave them a party. And he’s coming to Ponyville.

This is an interesting characterisation – Al is riffing on his

After the credits, Pinkie is planning a party, and singing a jaunty song straight off the bat. Pinkie is the party artisan, and has basically wowed Ponyville with her talents.

It’s Rainbow Dash’s birthday. And parties are no picnic. All that fun is SERIOUS BUSINESS, and she makes her a Pinkie Promise that she’ll get a great party. And who’s ready? (I personally get the impression that Pinkie plans their parties spontaneously without needing to be booked. She probably

Cheese Sandwich. The other party planner. The Pree-Mare party planner. (That was my pun :(. I think I need to keeping looking for the day job.)

And we get a free Weird Al Song, which is a little less harmonious than Pinkie’s song but a bit more fun. Far from being a mysterious stallion with no name, he’s actually the male Pinkie. I mean, Pinkie is a female Weird Al anyway, so this is extremely self-referential.

I can foresee either that they get on fabulously or – as has become evident by the end of the song – Pinks gets left out in the cold. I think this is very unfair, actually – with both Weird Al (sorry, Cheese Sandwich) and Pinkie on board the party could reach the dizzy heights of cheesedom. But I think this conflict is manufactured to give us a story. I’m thinking that, because of the ‘self-criticism’ storylines lately, Pinks is going to learn to share. She hasn’t had many lessons throughout the series, so this must be her turn. (Remember, folks, I don’t spoil things before I watch them, so I am experiencing this in real time.) In many other shows, the outsider will go away emptyhanded. In Ponyville, the learning process is reversed. I think learning to share your job is going to trump learning to remember your friends.

On with the show.

The ponies are besotted with Weird Al. RD’s birthday is also the anniversary of her coming to Ponyville, a little like Reddit’s cake days, so there’s a ‘birthaversary’.

Twilight comes to see Pinkie, who is feel left out but trying hard not to succumb to melancholy. If Weird Al is the best, then she’s nowhere.

Which seems like a decent moral to give to people. Just because someone else is good at something, doesn’t mean you have to be nowhere. People can share their talents, or do different things for different people. But Pinks goes into a sad mode – not really a sulk, but just a little deflated.

Pinkamena alert. It will be a bad episode if her alter-ego doesn’t make a

She sees her achievements on the wall in the form of pictures.

I think the song gets a little bit like the Baby Lickety-Split song in the old Movie at some points.

Pinkie decides to try and rival Cheese. Hmmmm. We fade to black on evil eyes. This is definitely a Pinkie-Learning Self-Criticism episode.

Uhoh. Pinkie challenges Cheese to a goof-off.

And he uses the ‘Cheese stands alone’ line. And Al falls for Pinkie’s bait.

The winner gets to headline the Birthaversary. The joke is she wants to do it at high noon, but it’s already 3 o’clock. So three-ten it is.

Goof-off. Twilight has a rulebook for everything.

Singing, dancing, playing, prancing…the funnier, sillier, wilder and …well, OK.

The only thing that matches Pinkie’s anger is Weird Al’s bloody-mindedness too.

This is a great episode. Fun, and it seems to be tending towards a reasonable moral that people should co-operate rather than being divas. The animation lapses into real stock footage of crocodiles

Fun. It’s difficult to recap the goof-off, but it’s Weird Al plus Pinkie Pie. What’s not to like?

But poor RD is a little flustered. Pinks realises RD isn’t enjoying herself, and she hasn’t named a winner. Pinkie forfeits once she realises she’s broken the Pinkie Party Promise that the person will enjoy her offering. Weird Al looks rather surprised too. And Pinkie packs up her troubles in her old party cannon and gets the heck out of Ponyville.

To totally predictable responses from her friends. Awwwwww. C’mon Pinkie. (Hey, I got it right.)

Or maybe not. They apologise for getting carried away by Cheese Sandwich. But then Pinkie says – in the best tradition of the self-criticism gulag – that she got carried away by her own pride, and Cheese will be a great party headliner.

RD explains Cheese is a great guest party planner, but Pinkie is their resident planner. Cheese does the Self-Criticism Shuffle too, for added value to the episode. (I bet he has to do his own letter to Celestia too when he gets home.) He admits to being a shy nerd who left Manehattan for Ponyville and fell in love with the atmosphere there, wanting fame and fortune. And the party Pinkie Pie threw was how Cheese Sandwich got his start.

This is a real return to form. I think I’m going to give it 9 out of 10. Joining forces is the lesson, to give people double the fun from double the people. Pinks learns her lesson, and Al acknowledges his debt to her. And I love the disco beat of the latter song. (There is an album out of official pony songs, but I hope they release this on another one.)

RD is really happy. And Pinkie goes and writes her letter. Al gives Pinkie his rubber chicken Boneless – which is the sparkly artifact for this week. (I’m sorry, but I can’t call him Cheese Sandwich and keep a straight face.)

That was a really pleasing episode. It hit all the right notes in terms of message, and, despite what I’ve commented on above, didn’t have too much of the self-criticism gulag feel of the last few episodes. The writing has got back on form with this one and Weird Al is a great guest star. Al’s well that ends well, in fact.

Where I Watch – My Little Pony – Episode 10 – Rainbow Fall

The fat Pegasus from the pegasus episodes last season has a name: Bolt Biceps. (I guess he must be – gasp! – a horse.) And the ponies are now gearing up for the Equestrian Games in the Aerial Whatevers tryout (relay, as it turns out). RD is, as usual, full of self-aggrandising bluster casually concealed by that little cough-cough gesture whenever she falls into mentioning how much she…I mean Ponyville…wants them to make it to the games. With the Sochi Winter Olympics just around the corner, this episode couldn’t be better timed. (And I still haven’t got around to booking the archery lessons I wanted to take both after the 2008 and 2012 games.)

Fluttershy is in on the game. I can guess the ending already. ‘Hey, you didn’t qualify for the games until Celestia intervened! No problem!’

Pinkie is their cheerleader. I can see this being more irritating than inspiring.

And AJ has brought them apple Brown Betties, which BB, surprisingly un-aerodynamic, has started into.

Don’t forget to breathe. Yup, Celestia is going to have to give these guys a bye.

After the credits, Twilight (whose horn seems to have grown slightly since her apostheosis) gives them a few words of, erm, encouragement. The weak link seems to be BB, but of course AJ and Rarity have tagged along, AJ wanting people to ‘carbo-load’.

The other pegasi are discussing  the internal politics, with the Wonderbolts representing Cloudsdale and happy to have some competition…if you’re lucky. And RD wants more than luck. She needs…practice.

And decent cheerleaders.

RD starts off with the practice.

BB can’t stay afloat, Fluttershy needs to be introduced to the baton before she will take it, and Rarity wants to colour-coordinate the baton (in reality a horseshoe which is evidently magnetic for hooves). Not the best start. But this is going to be a success: otherwise we won’t get to see the actual Games themselves in the show, right? And, despite the tone of the series, you can’t really show an episode saying ‘Hard luck, but not everyone wins all the time! It’s the taking part that counts’, because the usual message is ‘It’s the taking part that counts, but actually, since the ponies are the heroines, we have to make them win.’ It’s slightly fairer this time, because these are tryouts and the first four teams win. So it’s not like there’s only one winner. All must have prizes.

Onwards.

Cloudsdale has the Wonderbolts. Sooo, maybe you can learn something. Please?

From Cloudsdale’s POV, Soarin’ can do better. He falls from the sky, and shakes his wing as if he’s hurt. It seems to have got sprained.

This is MLP all over. He praises RD for scooping

BB seems to be a dumb jock character.

Could RD fly with the Wonderbolts? She was brought up in Cloudsdale after all. In order to qualify for Ponyville, she has to be OK to qualify with them. The WBs hint that she was so good at the Academy last season (if you haven’t seen that episode, go and dig it up, because it’s how to do a military episode without actually involving Equestria in World War P) that she could do it.

However, for once, RD is actually being loyal to her team-mates when presented with something a bit better than her …mediocre team.

The WBs are, actually, a little sinister in this episode. Under normal circumstances, Spitfire, who calls her decision wise, should be a little bit more honourable than that, no?

Awesome. RD is not only able to keep up with the WBs, she’s become one of their team.

Twilight, still trying to figure out cheerleading in theory and practice, is a bit perplexed by RD’s desertion.

BB and Fluttershy  are struggling, carboloading, and basically goofing off. They don’t know she’s practising with the team.

I think I know where this is going. I’m not sure I like the contrivance involved in getting there (Ponyville must have more suitable athletes than Fluttershy and Bolt Biceps, even if they made sure everyone else was mysteriously doing other events), but so be it. It’s easier to tell a story, particularly for kids, if you demonstrate the extremes of the situation, rather than the middle range.

Twi tells her that one of the teams needs more help than the others. Ponyville can still qualify, because she can fly fast enough to make up the difference. Then there’s another proposal from the WBs – join our team properly.

The WBs are pointing out the obvious. Even with you on their team, they’re still a bit stymied by the poor potential in both FS and BB. Hmmmmm. These guys are already being made out to be trying lure her with promises of …well, not cake exactly, but the way they’re portrayed is interesting.

So RD’s ego has been stroked. But Twilight tries to guilt her into refusing. Now there is another moral involved: it’s OK to cut down a tall poppy through the 100m extreme guilt tripping sprint. Nice.

RD wants to be the best. The way the other episode with Rarity went, was that the guilt trip kinda worked, but the ponies acquiesced in her scheme despite wanting to do something else. They put Rarity’s success first, and helped her to achieve something, for which Rarity went through hell but won out and was generous in return.

And immediately, we see RD’s way out of the dilemma. She appears in a wheel chair dressed in bandages. (I do hope we’re not lapsing back into G3’s anthropomorphic ponies. G4 has been very good at keeping the characters’ action and worldbuilding consistent with equine anatomy.)

She tripped on a …foam hoof, and landed on a fhfhfhfhfhaasseeeer…

OOOOOOOOOOOH! RD’s illness is so fake.

Fluttershy offers to take care of her. Or somepony will. Or a medic. ERM!

They realise she’s faking it.

Shame, it would have been a pretty decent thing to do, actually. Particularly in response to a rather obnoxious guilt trip, which is meant to be sympathetic but comes out all wrong, as if my correct response, when offered a job, with a couple of unemployed friends, would be to turn it down because my other friends don’t have jobs.

They have a replacement. The Pony Who Shall Not Be Named. (Oh dear. I have avoided pony spoilers all week, not very difficult now I’ve taken a break from tumblr, but…this is going to cause a little bit of outrage, although to be fair, this is putting a bit of faith in The Pony Who Shall Not Be Named.)

Twilight is still on the obnoxious guilt trip. Give over, Twily. I think RD has done an honourable thing, particularly since the WBs invited her to train/fly with them, she qualified for their team and under normal circumstances in athletics Bolt Biceps would be in the weightlifting team. I think the episode is a bit contrived in favour of a ‘look after your friends at your expense’. Having friends is nice, but friends don’t often begrudge another friend their own success, particularly not when most other episodes featuring RD have been promoting her and pushing her to succeed on her own terms. Twilight may be in the right as concerns the show’s overall theme, but she’s being a jackass. When I got a temping job the other month people didn’t say I shouldn’t take it just because some of my friends don’t have jobs and I got one. They were, y’know, happy for me, because they knew being employed, even if only for a few days, was important for me.

Fluttershy tries to stem some of the frustration by promising RD the gold medal if they win it.

Soarin’ is upset his friends haven’t been to see him. It turns out the Spitfire and Fleetfoot believes that he’s not 100% and they were going with somepony else.

Oh, how convenient. So the WBs are also jackasses.

This is a frustrating episode. It seems to be forcing the story into ‘tall poppy BAD, ambition BAD’ syndrome. It’s not the sequence of events, it’s how the ‘sympathetic’ character is behaving, and how convenient for the story that the best flyers, who want to be 100%, are being accused of abandoning a friend who might not be 100%, so RD will go back to the Ponyville team.

There are other, nicer ways to push this message. I’m going to persevere, but the way this is written grates on me like Feeling Pinkie Keen did on atheists and sceptics (so I know how people feel about that episode now). Sports is about competition and being the best. They could put this message across a lot better by using a different milieu, and to push RD to be the best she can in Ponyville while now trying to rein her in because oops! she might abandon her friends! is a little unfair. I get that RD might have had to have this episode, and they had to have a story about a tryout before we got to the EGs, but this is ‘settle for mediocrity in personal achievement because FRIENDSHIP!’ – I don’t like it at all. Twilight could become a princess without incident. Why can’t RD be a Wonderbolt?

It’s worse than ‘Celestia will make it so you can win’.

Oh and now we get RD realising she’s missing her friends.

And the huge guilt trip begins, and the self-criticism session begins.

Fluttershy steps forward.

Really?

And Spitfire accepts RD’s capitulation (after having a moustache-twirling moment which seems VERY out-of-character) and invites Soarin’ to rejoin them. It’s not a bad resolution – Spitfire reacts with pretty damn decent magnanimity – but this just feels like a contrived story to teach a specific ‘tall poppies get hurt’ message rather than anything particularly in character.

And they qualify.

I’ll give this 5/10. It’s a nicely put together episode, and quite exciting and with a bit more action than the last one, which was as dull as ditchwater and shied away from any particular argument. The message and contrivance leaves a bad taste in my mouth. ‘As much as I love winning…’ – why couldn’t she both win and have friends? Like, for example, Rarity, who won off the back of a pony sweatshop and her friends magnanimously sacrificed their own personal entertainment for her victory? Or Twilight herself? ‘Don’t want to do well for myself because friends.’ ‘My friends will savagely guilt trip me because I dare to want to be good at something?’

Why not ‘Want to do well for myself because friends?’ ‘My friends will help me do well for myself and I’ll help them do well for themselves too?’

The way it’s put together is shoddy for the message, shoddy for RD’s self-image, and that’s the second time we’ve seen a peer-pressure self-criticism session rather than a Today I Learned.

I’m not down on the show; it’s just this one episode that feels wrong in the way they plotted the story to deliberately drag someone who was getting too ‘above herself’ down. There’s obviously nothing wrong with sticking to your roots or having friends, but the previous WBs episode, where RD was genuinely dealing with an obnoxious bully was much better from a point of view of an inspiring message. In an age where we want little girls to aspire to better things, to tell them that they can go all the way to the top, a ‘I won’t win at any cost, I’ll stay with my friends and not want to do better’ episode is really out of place. As I’ve said, Twilight got her wings; of all the people who have aimed high and achieved what they got through their own hard work and being the protégé of a demigod, she should be the last person to succumb to ‘cut down the tall poppy’ syndrome, and should see clearly that aiming high doesn’t mean having to abandon your mates. But the way the story is set up, there’s no other option for RD but for her to be sent to the Friendship Gulag.

Maybe it’s time to let Rainbow Dash have her wings properly and not always have her have to learn a lesson about humility.

Not keen at all; not as a lesson for little girls who need to know that aspiration shouldn’t have to mean leaving your friends or your roots behind, and that your friends can be happy if you have something they don’t. Must try harder.

Where I Watch – My Little Pony – Episode 9 – Pinkie Apple Pie

THIS…IS…PONY! Season 5 has just been announced, according to people on tumblr and dA.

We open on a stranger to the new season, relatively speaking: Twilight Sparkle doing some genealogical research, only be to disturbed by Pinkie Pie. Who finds a very interesting relationship. The MOST AMAZING THING EVER.

She’s related to Applejack. Who doesn’t appear entirely happy at the news.

Roll credits – and something has happened to improve AJ’s impression of PP being a cousin, because she’s happier, as is Applebloom. Big Mac and Granny Smith look a little bemused. AJ does, however, caution PP against spreading such an ‘awesome’ rumour. No doubt the ‘awesomeness’ has begun to cloud over even since the end of the credits.

We get a glimpse of the family’s talents, and GS’ cool rocking chair.

Pinkie Pie goes on a few zany antics including the crash of a dustbin lid. AJ consults the documentation and doesn’t see anything about the relationship, stemming from a certain Applesauce. But the key words are smudged, and so AJ tries to squelch the other ponies’ enthusiasm for PP by insisting on better proof. Contacting Goldie Delicious might be a good idea.

FAMILY ROAD TRIP.

AJ takes the opportunity of PP going home to pack for the trip of asking them to show PP the ‘best version’ of the Apple Family. This is…interesting. The Apple Family are probably a couple of the most down-to-earth characters in the show. So if the writers are handing them the idiot ball, this is going to be an odd episode. Big Mac is strong enough to haul everything, including four other equines, as well as dance to the bouncy tune of Apples to the Core.

This song is a return to the better songwriting from earlier in the series, except for Granny Smith’s verse, which is probably intentionally off-key.

And at the end of the song, the wagon collapses.

AJ is trying to impress Pinkie that the Apples don’t blame each other, but she lays into BM anyway. They now want to go on a river trip, but they don’t have a raft. So, naturally, the ‘jalopy’ will serve as a raft. Only pack the necessities. (Pinkie has already started a scrapbook.)

This is a cute episode. It’s slice-of-life, but on the strength of a few of the previous episodes, it’s going to have some relevance to the arc. A map falls in the water, leaving them at the mercy of GS’ faulty memory, as she steers them through ‘the scariest cave in Equestria’.

Ooooh. Ponies go in, but they never come out. This is getting more interesting than the first half. GS takes them into the cave.

Which lasts about twenty seconds, leaving Pinkie immune to fear (I’ve got it! Pinks is part kender!) and the Apples terrified. But they’ve come out. Missed opportunity for peril, but I get the impression this is about friendship rather than danger. There’s a short argument about the incompetencies on the journey, leading Applejack to launch a coup, declare herself in charge and break the steering wheel off the boat in the ensuing fight.

Then Pinkie hits them with the line ‘I can’t wait to make a page in the scrapbook about the amazing waterfall we all went down!’ (Well, it was inevitable.)

AAAAAAARGH.

EEEEEEEEEEEEE

Pinks is totally flustered. Forget kender in her background, she is one. The raft has been held together just long enough for GS to say ‘I know it would hold together’.

They end up at a cottage, presumably belonging to Goldir Delicious, who has gone ‘out’ to ‘run some errands’ leaving a suspiciously derelict house behind her. Pinkie bounces off to get more scrapbook paper, and AJ is disappointed that the family fell apart in the time it took them to get to GD’s house. (Maybe if AJ hadn’t been so…assertive? Maybe if she’d believed Pinkie in the first place? However, I think she’s being set up for the lesson once again here, having learned one only two weeks ago. It’s a good job we have 26 episodes this season, since we’ve now done AJ twice in three shows.)

The ponies each submit to self-criticism in the best Soviet communist party meeting, and decide to admit their failings to Chairman Pinks so she can send them to the Friendship Gulag.

Or something like that.

Pinks disagrees, because she points out that everyone is owning up to what went wrong. You aren’t just family – you’re best friends. And I want to be one too.

Goldie Delicious returns from her long errand and AJ asks her for help. She’s a crazy cat pony. And a hoarder.

Pinkie returns from vandalising a mirror and GD finds her book of family tree has been smudged. So Pinkie doesn’t get to find out. But AJ knows for sure that Pinkie has put up with them, and has proved herself an Apple to the Core, which suggests a reprise of the song.

So Pinkie doesn’t need to learn the lesson, and the Apples, provided with another cart, and another verse of Apples to the Core.

This is a 5/10 episode. It’s a cute show, but it’s Pony by Numbers. Being a good family isn’t about being perfect but being forgiving and acknowledging close friends can become family even if they aren’t directly related. And they continue to demonstrate that point.

There’s no particular flash on an item, unless I missed it, which suggests this is filler rather than arc. I do enjoy watching pony, but this is one for the kids. Well, sometimes they have to be. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the other episodes which have been better, rather than this one that has been bad.

Where I Watch – My Little Pony – Episode 3 – Castle Mania

NB – spoilers! and I watched this and wrote this at the same time. So double spoilers for both the show and my ultimate reaction.

We open with Twilight developing the theme of the locked box, which I totally overlooked last week and has been playing out on Tumblr and other places for a whole week now.

There seems to be a story arc developing here with the next destination on a mega-quest . And Twily and I have something in common (well, we have a lot in common, such that her story could be mine if you squint hard and turn the picture through 90 degrees). We. Love. Books. THIS PLACE IS PERFECT!

We open with another pony image, resembling The Wicker Man. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are competing in the Most Daring Pony contest by surrounding themselves with bees. The beekeeper pony (could this perhaps be the Transformer Pony Bumblebee?) is wanting his bees back. The contest ends in a tie, and Pinkie Pie bounces off to her next engagement, leaving the two feisty fillies to dare themselves into oblivion.

Fluttershy and Rarity, meanwhile, are going for a walk in the forest. Towards the Castle of the Two Sisters, which has a reputation for its tapestries as well as its ancient magic and Rarity wants inspiration. Retro-ancient-classical inspiration.

This is a little …broken up. It seems a little bit like the comics – a bit too focused on set-pieces as yet. It’s good to see, however, that the ponies haven’t lost their well-written characters. So three ponies are at the castle, and three others…are not.

Except they are, because they came to the castle too, for reasons of finding dark magic originally belonging to Nightmare Moon – The Pony of Shadows.

I think they’re trying a little too hard. In trying to get a tapestry down, Fluttershy is catapulted through a secret door and swings round again, hurting her wing. This is My Little Scooby-Doo at its finest. Rarity is more concerned about tapestries than secret doors.

AJ and RD dare each other to stay in the castle the longest and therefore prove themselves the Most Daring Pony. So we now have all the makings of an interesting climax for about three different episodes, except the writers have seen fit to condense it into one. There better be something to make this come together; we’re already half-way through.

Rarishy find themselves in a secret tunnel looking for Angel the bunny. In a case of mistaken identity, they hook up with RD and AJ but as they are feeling each others’ hooves through a hole in the wall, they don’t realise it.

Twilight’s research has found out that many of these interesting elements are ways in which Celestia and Luna pranked each other. The other ponies are getting freaked out. (Pinkie Pie is absent, by the way. I think she would probably add a little too much levity to the episode.) Rarity and ‘Shy stumble on the throne room with its magnificent tapestries.

‘It’s not like it’s going to come to life or anything,’ says AJ of an old suit of armour – and, to be honest, of this episode. It’s trying very hard to be scary, and I guess it might be for little girls who have never seen Scooby-Doo, but actually, having grown up, it’s not exactly thrilling material. You get the impression that a lot of this stuff is trying too hard to work up a scary atmosphere over some mundane aspects. Three-quarters of the way in now and still no obvious antagonism apart from the furniture. AJ is lost, Rarity is spat out of a chute and left to rage at the ‘ungrateful’ castle, and Fluts is still looking for Angel.

RD is speaking for me when she says: ‘C’mon castle is that all you got?’ Followed by a major scream. The castle is falling apart. Spike is still in the doghouse for holding the chump ball from last episode, so of course Twilight thinks he’s being sarcastic. The rest of the ponies are losing their collective minds over a few collapsing beams. Twilight raises the obvious issue and asks what they’re doing.

The only unexplained event is the creepy organ music. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention it. Perhaps it’s the PONY OF SHADOWS?

Three guesses and the first two don’t count. Based on the rest of the episode it’s probably a mundane thing.

Well, OK, it’s Pinkie Pie. Duh!

And she would have got away with it but for those meddling kids.

I think this is a severe waste of a location. I suppose we’ve been spoilt by the previous few episodes continuing the broader series arc, such that a more mundane episode with the moral ‘Don’t let your imagination run away with you!’ and ‘Such and such is helping me cope with being a superprincessgoddesspony!’ has been something we’ve not seen for almost a whole year now.

So the shadowpony is just a myth, like many things.

I’ll give this a 7/10. The moral was fine as a story in its own right, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with reassuring kids that the spider is more afraid of them than they are of it. But after a whizz-bang start to the series, and as an adult fan of fantasy literature where most stories are myth arcs rather than needing to puncture the serious-business aspect for much of a series, it was a bit of a climb-down from recent form. Having said that, sometimes we all need reminded not to let our imaginations run away with us. When there’s big stuff brewing, don’t neglect the little stuff. In that regard, I need to give it a reasonable mark, because I let myself get caught up in the need for action adventure every week while forgetting the reason My Little Pony exists in the first place – to scare the bejeezus out of little kids and then reassure them that everything’s OK; sometimes the shadow on the wall is just a shadow. The suspense lacking for me as an adult would be more intense for the show’s target demographic. In a way, we adult fans sometimes make the show become something it’s not.

It’s not the show’s fault; it’s mine. I think next week I’ll be back to approaching and appreciating the show as a kid’s cartoon rather than something that has recently taken on the import of Lord of the Rings.