You know, I came across a pretty big realization for myself a few days ago. I actually don't really like the show as much as I thought. I started wondering, how much of the show do I really like? I even went back and counted.
I liked 9 out of the 26 season 1 episodes.
10 of the 26 season 2 episodes.
9 of the 13 season 3 episodes.
11 of the 26 season 4 episodes.
And 18 of the 26 season 5 episodes. (I only tallied the ones I have on DVD. Also, coincidence that season 5 is my fave?)
The majority of MLP episodes are pretty "meh", to me, so I had to wonder why I liked watching it so much. And I guess it's because I didn't expect to enjoy it at all. I set the bar pretty low for it. I was just blown away when I started watching, probably because I only happened to watch a fairly good episode (Cutie Map. It's good, right? I thought it was). If I had started with the Hoofields and McColts episode, or Appleoosa's Most Wanted, I probably wouldn't be here.
I just got lucky. And now, I can't help but watch MLP with my nostalgia goggles on. I even still have moments where I'll watch a new episode and go, "Yeah, that was awesome!" And two days later I'll go, "Nah, it really wasn't."