Monthly Archives: September 2022

My Thoughts on Regular Show, Season by Season (Part 4 of 4)

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

This is it, guys. The final installment of my ultra-ambitious and long-winded project analyzing Regular Show. With a whopping four blog posts written over the course of nearly two months, covering about a quarter of the show’s 200-odd episodes and nearly forgetting the movie, this is a project that I’ll look back on for years and say, “wow, this was pretty modest compared to my MLP episode reviews”. Speaking of that project, my next MLP post will probably come out a week from now; I skipped out on it this week in favor of finishing my Regular Show review.

I scrambled to write this entire post in the last three days of September 2022 because I wanted to stick to my promise, and I hope it was worth it! Now let’s begin with the movie.

The Movie: I Almost Didn’t Cover This One

This is for you, commenter on my last Regular Show post.

Regular Show: The Movie isn’t on Hulu as of this writing like the rest of the show, so instead of digging up legal ways to watch it, I settled upon one of those janky episode mirror websites with weird domain names, which is my reluctant fallback for watching episodes of TV shows. Taking place between seasons 6 and 7, the movie’s plot revolves around time travel and Mordecai and Rigby’s difficult friendship. It shows us an alternate future where they are no longer friends and expands on their past by showing us their high school lives. The villain throughout the movie is their science teacher Mr. Ross, who in typical Regular Show fashion wants vengeance for something extremely petty: Rigby ruining his volleyball match. Also in Regular Show fashion, Ross’s desire for vengeance burns so fiercely that he does something surreal, which is building a time machine so he can change the past and destroy the universe with a time-nado—one that was wrongly presumed to be his troublemaking students’ fault.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 54: Crusaders of the Lost Mark

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Introduction

< Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 >

Season 5, Episode 18

Season 5 Episode 18: Crusaders of the Lost Mark

This review contains spoilers for things that happen up to the season 8 finale, and for things that don’t happen for the entire rest of the show.

In five words: Cutie Mark Crusaders’ ultimate payoff.

Premise: In the show’s third musical episode, the Cutie Mark Crusaders discover a surprising secret about Diamond Tiara’s upbringing after they made her lose a school election. This is definitely the only notable thing that happens in this episode. Totally.

Detailed run-through:

Something unique about this pivotal episode is that it was scored entirely by Daniel Ingram, the usual composer of the musical numbers. I didn’t learn that until I wrote this post, and it explains why the background music transitions so seamlessly to and from the songs. Having the same person handle the background music and songs suits this musical number-heavy episode well, setting it apart from most of the show—not that I’d ever want to discredit William Anderson for his scoring work.

Similarly to Magical Mystery Cure, this episode starts off with a musical number—technically with a few lines from the Crusaders, but set to background music that clearly starts a song. The song is called “We’ll Make Our Mark (Prelude)”, and the Crusaders sing about how they aren’t going to give up on getting their cutie marks. Something I really admire about this episode, at least from what I’ve been told about it, is that the previews and trailers made absolutely no hint at the Crusaders earning their marks, and fans were caught completely by surprise when it happened. This is a MASSIVE contrast against Magical Mystery Cure, whose previews shoved alicorn Twilight Sparkle in fans’ faces.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 53: Brotherhooves Social

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Introduction

< Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 >

Season 5, Episode 17

Season 5 Episode 17: Brotherhooves Social

In five words: Big Mac’s day in spotlight.

Premise: Feeling down about how his youngest sister perceives him, Big Macintosh fills in for an unavailable Applejack at the Sisterhooves Social and pretends to be Apple Bloom’s cousin named “Orchard Blossom”.

Detailed run-through:

This episode starts with Big Macintosh going about his day, helping Granny Smith look through boxes in the attic for an item she misplaced. He looks down to see Applejack and Apple Bloom playing and laughing with each other. In any other context, this would be a happy scene, but for Big Macintosh it’s easy to tell that this stings hard. I really like that this episode starts with a mundane scene: it sets up how much Big Mac’s life contrasts against his siblings’ wild adventures.

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My Thoughts on Regular Show, Season by Season (Part 3 of 4)

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Sorry this post took so long! I wrote it at a leisurely pace and intermittently worked on MLP episode reviews too, plus real life stuff. The good thing is that my next Regular Show blog post will be my last one, whenever that comes out. It may take a little while though!

Season 6: Mordecai’s Love Life Falls Apart

It’s always thrown me off that Mordecai’s mother has the exact same voice as Leela from Futurama.

Due to CJ’s presence, Maxin’ and Relaxin’ (6.01) may seem like yet another season premiere focused on Mordecai’s love life, but I view it more as a classic tale of learning to respect your mildly embarrassing but deeply loving parents. I really like that the show takes some time to expand on both Mordecai and Rigby’s relationships with their parents and give depth to their childhoods. Their childhoods are explored further in the movie, which I originally wasn’t going to cover but then decided to review in the next post. Mordecai’s mother seems like an archetypical embarrassing mother, but this whole time CJ finds her perfectly cool and nice, reminding us there’s more to her than just that. Towards the end, the ghosts of Mordecai’s awkward childhood memories remind him of all the nice things his mother did for him after each memory, which leads him to shed his characteristic Mordecai awkwardness and apologize. Rigby’s relationship with his parents is much more difficult, as we’ll see in season 7.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 52: Made in Manehattan

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Introduction

< Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 >

Season 5, Episode 16

Season 5 Episode 16: Made in Manehattan

In five words: Coco Pommel revitalizes theater play.

Premise: The Cutie Map sends Rarity and Applejack to Manehattan, where they have to help our old friend Coco Pommel garner interest to host a stage play.

Detailed run-through:

Before we begin, I’d like to tell you that Manehattan is NOT spelled “Manehatten”. Maybe it’s because I’m American, but I don’t understand how so many people could possibly make such a simple spelling mistake. And if you think it doesn’t matter how you spell this fictional town name, then clearly you don’t know that every time someone spells Manehattan as Manehatten, Coco Pommel cries. You don’t want to make Coco Pommel cry, do you?

The placement of the ladder on the left makes no sense.
It starts a shelf above the top of the other ladder, so how is Spike supposed to get up there?

This episode starts with Twilight Sparkle being bored out of her mind, until Rarity and Applejack both arrive revealing that their cutie marks are flashing. Twilight is briefly excited to have something to do, then sighs when she realizes hers isn’t flashing. This is the third time an episode has started with Mane 6 members’ cutie marks flashing, and three is the minimum number of times needed to recognize a pattern. As such, it makes sense that this episode starts off in the castle once again, even if it means the only role Twilight serves is as the brunt of boredom.

Rarity is insanely excited to be sent to Manehattan, whereas Applejack is confused. Some people criticize this episode for not bringing up that in her childhood Applejack ran off to Manehattan before getting her cutie mark, but I don’t think a mention of that would have added much to the episode. Since being a filly, Applejack has worked her way up to knowing how to be true to herself. She knows what she likes and stands for, and a huge, bustling city simply isn’t her cup of tea.

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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 51: Rarity Investigates!

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Introduction

< Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 >

Season 5, Episode 15

Season 5 Episode 15: Rarity Investigates!

In five words: Mystery reveals celebrity’s nasty truth.

Premise: At a Wonderbolts event, Rainbow Dash is accused of tricking Spitfire into not attending so that she can fly in it instead. Putting on a charming film noir shtick, Rarity gets to the bottom of this mystery.

Detailed run-through:

In the last review, I forgot to mention Sassy Saddles’ fun little shtick of using two fashion terms at a time as interjections.

This episode begins at the same boutique Rarity had set up in the last episode, which is a bit unusual—perhaps a result of the broadcast order being different from production order?

Rarity: Oh, Sassy Saddles, don’t you just love my new Femme Mystique Chic line of gowns?
Sassy Saddles: (gasps) Sequins and sashes, Rarity, they’re exquisite. Where in Equestria did you find the inspiration?
Rarity: Oh, I modeled them after the adventures of Shadow Spade. Her stories are always full of mystery and suspense, and best of all… Fabulous costumes!

I find it admirable that Rarity owns up to what her real favorite thing about these mystery novels is. A lot of fans of this show struggle to admit what they like most about it and throw together complicated reasons to make themselves seem more cultured. While there are certainly tons of subtle things I like about this show, the main draw factors are the good sense of humor and the cute character designs. Simple as that.

Rarity makes a few adjustments to the dresses while talking about Shadow Spade’s attention to detail, then Rainbow Dash ruins the moment with a hasty entrance. While the Mane 6 are a tight-knit group of friends, not all two-way relationships between them are equal. Season 5 has quite a few episodes that pair up Mane 6 members who hadn’t shown up together much, and this scene establishes that we’re going to explore the dynamic between Rarity and Rainbow Dash. There are a total of fifteen pairings between Mane 6 members, which jumps to 21 if you add Spike, making for a succulent variety of untapped character relationships—untapped for now, at least.

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