1-2. Princess Probz / 3-4. The Best of the Worst
Well, it's finally here. There are a lot of things to say about this. I'll start out by saying I thought it was pretty alright, and it grew on me with a second viewing. The first episode felt like the better of the two, but the second wasn't nearly as bad as I heard, and I've seen some people say they even prefer that.
It's weird that this isn't actually 10 minute episodes, but rather 5 minute episodes, each with its own title card, and two-part stories. About the title cards, I think it's neat that they exist. Each Equestria Girls short had its own title card, so I imagine that's what led to this.
They're really chugging down these potions in these episodes, huh? Really gives the impression that Pinkie is a dealer and they're all getting together for casual drug use. It's also odd because I expected the potions to be ways to start plots, but they're pretty incidental instead.
There's more continuity than I expected, with Pinkie participating in the Royal Jelly Juggernaut being brought up in the second story.
It's still too early to note consistent characterization changes, but it looks like Applejack has been recast as the fourth wall breaker. Pinkie doesn't do any of that, to my recollection, but AJ talks to the audience in both stories. Twilight has a bit more of a season one flavor, with her having a "I'm done with this shit" attitude regarding Pinkie in the first story. Rarity has great moments, particularly one I'll post below, but they used the gag of her freaking out and summoning a fainting couch in both episodes. We see very little of Celestia, but she comes off as more capricious than usually shown in FiM. Teen Titans Go made all the characters jerks, and I was concerned that would be the case here, but thankfully Pony Life has avoided that so far. Everyone's legitimately trying to help each other out, and Rainbow even comes off as far less of a jerk in the second story than in most of her FiM focus episodes.
About the writers, confirming what was revealed on Twitter back during the original announcement, they're both women who have worked mostly on Equestria Girls. Credits from
FiM Wiki.
First episode was by Katie Chilson, who in MLP worked entirely on shorts before.
FiM writing credits: Teacher of the Month.
EG writing credits: Game Stream, Best in Show: The Victory Lap, Five Stars, FOMO, Camping Must-Haves, Festival Filters, How to Backstage, Festival Looks, Five Lines You Need to Stand In, and Tip Toppings.
Second episode was by Whitney Ralls, who in MLP worked on shorts and one special.
EG writing credits: Best Trends Forever, Happily Ever After Party, The Salty Sails, Outtakes, Find the Magic, The Last Drop, and Sunset's Backstage Pass.
First episode was pretty alright, and had this fantastic moment.
I've seen people bring up the pacing being too fast, but really, FiM was always an oddly slow paced show for the 2010s. Even this is pretty slow paced compared to its contemporaries. Biggest problem with this episode was Fluttershy barely saying anything. There's also unexplained mentions of modern tech, but they haven't really come into play yet.
Second episode had a really really contrived premise, but Rainbow was surprisingly not a jerk in it. If any episode was going to have fart jokes and gross out moments, it was "The Best of the Worst", yet there were none. I suppose that means we won't get any in the rest of the series, so that's good. Also Fluttershy can change her size, unless that's just meant to be a visualization of her meekness vs. assertiveness. Or maybe she had a potion off screen. Dishwater Slog is an inspired name. I like that the ending was Rainbow realizing she doesn't have to play by his rules at all, though really, she shouldn't have in the first place.
Overall, not nearly as, say, fanfic inspiring as normal FiM quite yet, but not a bad series. I found the episodes better on a second viewing.
