Tag Archives: genre shifts

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 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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Cookie Fonster Reviews Every MLP Episode Part 31: Flight to the Finish + Power Ponies

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Introduction

< Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 >

Season 4, Episodes 5-6

Season 4 Episode 5: Flight to the Finish

In five words: Bullying gets better of Scootaloo.

Premise: The Cutie Mark Crusaders prepare an opening routine for the Equestria Games, but when Diamond Tiara mocks Scootaloo for her inability to fly, they’re discouraged from going further.

Detailed run-through:

Been a while since we last were at the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ school.

To start this episode, Cheerilee brings two special guests to the class she teaches: Ms. Harshwhinny and Rainbow Dash. They announce that the kids may get to take a part in the Equestria Games, specifically through a competition where they each need to come up with a flag-carrying routine, and the winning team gets to perform it in the games. This is the point where I remember that the Equestria Games are the other overarching plot of season 4—the one that doesn’t involve finding the keys for the mysterious chest, that is. But those plots do intersect in Rainbow Falls, which is a few episodes from now.

Ms. Harshwhinny and Rainbow Dash play off each other in fun ways as they explain the rules of the opening routine. Ms. Harshwhinny insists on keeping a reserved, professional attitude, while Rainbow Dash can’t control her excitement and brags about the time she carried the flag as a filly, which Scootaloo of course swoons over. When Ms. Harshwhinny mentions that Rainbow Dash will accompany the winning team to the Crystal Empire, the Crusaders’ faces light up one by one. To them, this is their chance to see the place they got a taste of when Spike wrangled them up in babysitting antics! And opportunities to go such places don’t come easy for them, being fillies and all.

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