Talk:Made in Manehattan/@comment-10390252-20150926161643

Okay, not a brilliant episode. I really think that they pushed Applejack's 'fish out of water' schtick too hard in a way that was frankly unfunny. That said, I can't honestly fault the characterisations in the episode. Rarity was her usual self, obsessed with perfect matches and Applejack was equally her sometimes self-doubting self.

If this episode had a fatal flaw, it was that they decided to set aside screen time for all the wrong things. For example, Coco's back-story to explain why this was so important to her. IMO, it wasn't strictly necessary to do so. Whilst the story of Charity was a nice one, it could have just as easily been explained using the 'play within the play' of the Method Mares' performance. More time was wasted on having the whole unnecessary B-plot of AJ and Rarity doubting themselves and not understanding what they needed to do. The clunky joke scenes with the hat salesman and crossing the street could also have been cut out without sacrificing anything.

That play was funny, though, with the exaggerated emoting and enunciations. Just the sort of thing a local Am-Dram group would put on! The moral was also spot-on but, once again, insufficient time was given to identify and address it because of the plot-irrelevant distractions allowed to dominate the first act.

Overall, this episode was always going to struggle to match the very strong The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone and generally failed to do so. It could have done with a few more runs through with the script editors to tighten up the flow.

Definitely one of the weaker episodes of the season so far, IMO.

BenRG's Rating: 6/10