FIM Writer Discussion: Dave Polsky

[Party Cannon 876]

First, who is David Polsky?

 

 

"WGA, screenwriter whose feature film credits include Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2. Mr. Polsky has also written for Singled Out, South Park, Cedric the Entertainer Presents and Frank TV as well as the animated shows The Class of 3000 and Disney’s The Buzz on Maggie, for which he served as creator and executive producer. He has also sold pilots to FOX, CBS, Castle Rock, and Nickelodeon."

 

Source: (http://writers.uclaextension.edu/instructors/david-polsky/)

 

 

So far Dave has 7 episodes of FIM that have aired with his writing credit.

 

They are:

 

Feeling Pinkie Keen

Over a Barrel

Too Many Pinkie Pies

Spike at Your Service

Keep Calm and Flutter On

Games Ponies Play

 

and most recently

 

Daring Don't.

 

When I was posting in the Daring Don't episode discussion, I said his writing was real hit or miss. However once I checked which episodes he wrote, I revise that statement. Personally (oh yes that magic word), I at least liked all of them except Spike at Your Service [that piece of junk ] , with his last two (Games Ponies Play and Daring Don't) being tied for my favorite of his. Though he has not written any of my top 10 favorites of the show I still find his writing to be funnier than others as well as being entertaining and watchable overall.

 

 

So, what are your thoughts of Dave as a writer? What do you think of his episodes? Do you think he has a particular signature or style? Has he written your favorite or one of your favorite episodes?

Edited December 10, 2013 by Party Cannon

[Moonlight 7,288]

So far, he has written two of my favorite episodes that land in the top 5 of MLP episodes, those are Daring Don't (Favorite episode of MLP to date), and Too Many Pinkie Pies. I personally think he's a very solid writer who knows how the characters act for the most part. However, he has also wrote some of my least favorite episodes such as Over A Barrel, Feeling Pinkie Keen, Spike At Your Service, and Games Ponies Play.

[duidamasterXD 9,627]

He's probably my least favorite writer that we've seen a decent amount of. He's written two episodes that I've really enjoyed, Too Many Pinkie Pies and Daring Don't, but overall his episodes do tend to be pretty hit and miss for me. I've noticed that a lot of them tend to have this weird, chaotic air to them. Like there's a lot going on, and the good bits tend to get overshadowed by everything just going nuts in the end. I'm not quite sure how else to describe it.

[ghostfacekiller39 23,860]

There's for sure others that I like more.

 

I mean, he KNOWS how the characters act, and he KNOWS the characters themselves.

 

But, he's FOR SURE a hit and miss with character portrayal.

 

FOR SURE.

 

He either nails it, or he misses the mark by a mile.

 

Going off of these episodes alone, he seems very mediocre and lacking in his portrayal of both Rarity and Rainbow Dash. For Rarity, those are probably the WORST 7 episodes when it comes to playing up her character arc as a fashioinista for laughs, and he always makes RD feel like she's just acting cool to me, and is secretly some giant-softy-care-bear-cuddle-wub.

 

Also, he seems to do an excellent job with Twilight. He can land her really well, and make Twilight totally adorkable, from my perspective.

 

The rest, it really depends on the episode. Fluttershy in Keep Calm and Flutter On was awesome, but he does over-do her sweet-heartedness, much like Rarity's vanity and RD's...whatever. Soft side? So it's really a hit or miss there. He can over-do Pinkie at times, too, and will either swing at a pitch in the dirt or knock a homer with her. And, he seems to be a bit of a culprit in making AJ's character bland.

 

All and all, least favorite that I've seen so far. He can knock 'em out of the park, but he strikes out far too often for me to feel comfortable with him as a writer.

 

*Typed all of this while chewing on a toothpick, feeling like a badass right now*

[Party Cannon 876]

He's probably my least favorite writer that we've seen a decent amount of. He's written two episodes that I've really enjoyed, Too Many Pinkie Pies and Daring Don't, but overall his episodes do tend to be pretty hit and miss for me. I've noticed that a lot of them tend to have this weird, chaotic air to them. Like there's a lot going on, and the good bits tend to get overshadowed by everything just going nuts in the end. I'm not quite sure how else to describe it.

 

Chaos is indeed a common element in his writing looking back in retrospect. Nice post. This style definitely can act as a covering dust cloud literally and figuratively when it comes to character development and focus.

[Declen 118]

That guy managed to write maybe the worst episode ever - "Spike at your service". That speaks for itself, doesn't it?

 

He haven't write any episode I consider perfect - and Charlotte Fullerton or Cindy Morrow have written two such episodes each in the first season alone!

Polsky's best episode is "Keep Calm and Flutter On" - but it should be longer. Discords reformation wasn't built up.

Besides that one, "Over a Barrel" is only decent episode written by Polsky.

 

And, considereing "Over a Barrel" and "too many Pinkie Pies" I tend to believe he has something personal against Pinkie Pie.

 

As for the latest episode:

 

[PoniesPlease 365]

I agree that he is Hit or Miss with his writing, but I thoroughly disagree that Spike at your Service was crap. I really enjoyed it.

 

He's not one of the better writers, but he certainly contributes good episodes to the show.

[SasQ 1,379]

How strange that I described him and my view on his writing style only three hours earlier here. Nice synchrony.
So let me just copy that part here:

I think that Dave Polsky may have a bad fame in the fandom not because he writes bad episodes (which isn't true at all), but because they are often misunderstood. Such was the case with "Feeling Pinkie Keen", which has been highly criticized by the fans for putting faith (and even religion -- I don't know where did they get this idea from) over science and reason and punishing Twilight for her trials to understand, which, again, wasn't true at all. I described my views on that matter here. Same was with the episode about reforming Discord. Dave Polsky seems to have a tendency to touch more deeper philosophical questions in his episodes, which sometimes are too deep for some fans to spot, but believe me, "there's more going on than meets the eye", quoting directly from his last episode  

 

I'd only add that three of his episodes are on my toplist from the whole series ("Feeling Pinkie Keen", "Keep Calm and Flutter On", and "Daring Don't"). And one was pretty close ("Too Many Pinkie Pies").

Edited December 10, 2013 by SasQ

[Nature's Spell 526]

@SasQ I appreciate the fact that you are trying to look at his writing objectively and perhaps his writing being different, more edgy, is a good thing, maybe. But that's a big maybe and when you are doing ensemble writing you can't have outliners, or allow one writer to have a vastly different style than the others. Different points of view are healthy, but they have to point in the same direction or else nothing connects. Now that's Meghan's job to do and maybe she has a problem controlling him or maybe Hasbro doesn't like him and end up editing his stories. He told Digi that in one episode that happened, but that could also be spin. My motto: like what you like but don't be surprised if people don't agree and counter your ideas.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Nature's Spell

[RWB 229]

My opinion on Polsky is that he's one of the best character writers(outside Rarity- his Rarity is almost a non-entity). Noone can write Pinkie as well as he can, and it's not even a close contest. He's in a class of his own there. 

 

He also has most of the best jokes and fantastic timing.

 

 

But I still consider him to be one of the weaker(but not the weakest) writers for the show. This is mostly because there are almost always some massive flaws in the plot itself or a STUPIDLY forgotten ability.

 

 

Feeling Pinkie Keen is hilarious, but both forgets Twilight can fly and falls apart in several other ways plotwise, and then hammers on a horrendous moral at the end. 

 

 

Over a Barrel is a fun romp, and in my opinion works pretty fine. It's not as offensive as some say, though I do see why people was annoyed.

 

Too Many Pinkie Pies is one of the best episodes of the show, and the only major flaw with the episode is Twilight being so trigger happy and looking so happy about zapping the Pinkies.

 

Spike at Your Service is by no means a great episode, but it's very underrated(some consider it to be the worst of the show together with MMDW- I myself don't even put it in the Bottom 10). However, we now know that Polsky had very little input on this- This was a Merriweather Episode.

 

Keep Calm and Flutter On is in many ways the funniest episode of the show. Sadly, that's what good I can say about it. Other than that, you have Fluttershy being a false friend(The Mysterious Mr Enter explains this very well), and a way too quick turnaround from Discord.

 

Games Ponies Play has pretty solid writing and is pretty darn funny, but is a very old concept done just the same way as many earlier ones with little to no twists.

 

 

That being said, he's much better than Savino(who left after Season 1), Fullerton(the worst writer of the show that's been on since Season 1) and Merriweather(who is a very good writer, just not for this show ).

 

 

Quick run-through of Fullerton...

 

Look Before You Sleep: Passable humor, forced premise, all three main characters out of character.

 

Suited For Success: A pretty great episode.

A Bird in the Hoof: Okayish episode, though the gross-out humour doesn't work at all.

May the Best Pet Win!: Badly written episode, characters out of character, Rainbow Dash and the rest are just as big jerks here as in MMDW- which is a better episode than this.

Baby Cakes: Bad episode, but with some okay humour. 

Putting Your Hoof Down: Co-op with Merriweather. This episode does everything wrong except for it's humor.

[Declen 118]

 

 

but because they are often misunderstood.

From my perspective of an insensitive consumer I must say: if a writer's work gets misunderstood by the huge number of the audience, whos problem is that? Not of the audience. So, he should write clearer, if he wanterd to be understood. And I'm not even sure he did want to.

[Megas 27,786]

I feel like some many fans have been unfair with how they judge most of his episodes ever since Feeling Pinkie Keen(which is also a gets some unfair hate as well). Even his weakest episode "Spike At Your Service" (Granted, it's also written by Williams, who also gets some unfair hate) is still a lot better than people give it credit for 

[Declen 118]

Quick run-through of Fullerton...

I respectfully disagree.

"Look before you sleep": perfectly executed closed-box drama episode with good character developement. Especially of Twilight Sparkle.

"A Bird in the Hoof": remarkable episode - maybe only episode where Fluttershy works in her element; her relationship with Angel gets more spottlight; and not forget all the "Trollestia" thing actually started from this episode. As for loony-toonish humour - I don't feel it affects episode somhow badly.

"Putting you Hoof Down": I don't see what they could do better. The idea was great; the execution was convincing; all characters were in place. In my opinion it's a perfect episode.

I haven't rate all episodes of 2-nd season, so "Baby Cakes" may not be a great episode, but it isn't bed.

 

 

 

Noone can write Pinkie as well as he can,

Well, I'd say, noone can degrade Pinkie Pie more than her does. "Too many Pinkie Pie" has only one moment that saves it from being planely bed: when Pinkie doubts herself if she is the right one and not the clone. But even this was a miss in the perspective of the whole episode.

 

Games Ponies Play has pretty solid writing

It's solid like a railway: you stay at the departing station and already see where it goes - right up to the horizon.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Declen

[Radiance64 7,053]

I never know what to expect from this guy- he's written some amazing episodes like Feeling Pinkie Keen, Over a Barrel, and Keep Calm and Flutter On, but also some hit-or-miss stuff like Too Many Pinkie Pies, Spike at Your Service and the latest one Daring Don't. Overall though, I've either loved or just kind of liked the episodes he's written, pretty unpredictable I'd say when it comes to making episodes.

[Dark Qiviut 22,447]

As far as visual comedy is concerned, he knows how to write great humor. There are many scripted gags in his stories that blend in the canon and make me laugh out loud. Pinkie Pie's red line to jab the path on the map and G3!Pinkie are fantastic visual gags.

 

But when it comes to writing a coherent story, he falls flat most of the time:

1. Feeling Pinkie Keen: A very convoluted story with a very convoluted plot device (Pinkie Sense). While the pace was good, the constant usage of the Pinkie Sense made the storyline confusing and lost. To make it worse, Twilight's skepticism of the Pinkie Sense was valid the entire time, because she behaves in logical order and finds the Pinkie Sense to be too coincidental and illogical. Each time she ignored the Pinkie Sense, she got punished for it via extreme slapstick, and it was both unnecessary and out of character of the canon.
   
   As for the moral, it's not supposed to be a science/faith debate, but the friendship letter is written so clunkily, it appears that way. When you have someone from the team try to explain the story and friendship letter away from its source, then it proves how poorly written and confusing the moral and script were.
2. Over a Barrel: The plot is based on a historical feud between the Natives and white settlers. If you're going to parody a historical event and timeline that resulted in the settlers misplacing the Natives and committing genocide, at least do it tastefully. It's an episode I refuse to watch because the transcript, plot summary, and pictures tell me everything I need to know. I won't watch an episode with an offensive storyline.
3. Too Many Pinkie Pies: As far as Pinkie's concerned, Polsky's strongest episode. There are so many great gags that fit the canon and Pinkie's increased peril. The ending test where Pinkie and the clones watched thick oil paint dry was a great way to test her fortitude. However, some flaws occur:
   1. Spike located the Deus Ex Machina to find the book explaining the Mirror Pond.
   2. The Mirror Pond came out of nowhere. It'd be much better if Pinkie snuck into the Golden Oaks Library on screen to review it and then find it.
   3. Twilight had to unnecessarily go through very extreme measures to find the right Pinkie without reviewing other humane ways to pick through and not risk killing the real Pinkie Pie.
   4. The clones do have the ability to think and not act like a mindless bubble. The first clone was able to behave freely.
4. Keep Calm and Flutter On: This episode was layered with delicious foreshadowing from beginning to end. The fact that Fluttershy was written as if she had concrete development rather than an annoying doormat for so long is such a breath of fresh air. To make it better, both Discord and Fluttershy played off each other, and Discord played his game brilliantly, only for Fluttershy to turn the tables and beat Discord in his own game. Unfortunately, like so many other episodes, it was marred by a very cramped pace, injuring the logic and plausibility in Discord's redemption and turning it from a potentially great episode to an objectively average one.
5. Games Ponies Play: Everyone was so out of character, and the episode was a rushed, illogical mess. From the transcript and other research I gathered, it's a waste of time for me to go ahead and watch. Worst episode in season three (worse than Spike at Your Service because the overall characterization, plot, and concept were dead on arrival).
6. Daring Don't: Just for lazy sake, I'll link my review.

Do I like any of his episodes? Definitely. Daring Don't is currently my favorite (though that may drop upon further viewing because it's a convoluted, contrived mess with way too many plot holes and questions left vacant for DD't's own good), followed by Keep Calm and TMPP. Too Many Pinkie Pies is still Polsky's best episode, but it's still not exactly the cream of the crop as far as complete writing quality is concerned. At this point, despite his ability to write great visual comedy, he's one of FIM's weakest writers.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Dark Qiviut

[RWB 229]

I respectfully disagree.

"Look before you sleep": perfectly executed closed-box drama episode with good character developement. Especially of Twilight Sparkle.

 

Except where both Rarity and AJ are completely infantile, asocial Twilight supposedly always wanting a slumber party... The whole team is out of character, the scenario is contrived, and badly pulled off. Oh, and Twilight has no development at all in this episode, only AJ and Rarity does.

 

"A Bird in the Hoof": remarkable episode - maybe only episode where Fluttershy works in her element; her relationship with Angel gets more spottlight; and not forget all the "Trollestia" thing actually started from this episode. As for loony-toonish humour - I don't feel it affects episode somhow badly.

 

I'm willing to give you that this episode is actually pretty good(rewatched it tonight). It's not remarkable- partly due to some chunky humor and needlessly dumb moments(not even Twilight, who is a book nerd, knows Phoenixes rebirth? REAAAALLY?). The plot is contrived, but it works decently.

 

"Putting you Hoof Down": I don't see what they could do better. The idea was great; the execution was convincing; all characters were in place. In my opinion it's a perfect episode.

 

Putting your hoof down puts blame on the wrong character, turns all of Ponyville into a town of jerks just to force it's plot through, delivers a faulty moral. The only saving grace is humor. Oh, and Flutters is out of character.

 

It's kinda like Boast Busters, just not as bad.

 

 

 

Well, I'd say, noone can degrade Pinkie Pie more than her does. "Too many Pinkie Pie" has only one moment that saves it from being planely bed: when Pinkie doubts herself if she is the right one and not the clone. But even this was a miss in the perspective of the whole episode.

 

Pinkie Pie is perfectly in-character during the entire episode. The only character who isn't is Twilight. The episode is one of the most flawlessly executed of the series. Nothing in the episode degrades her at all. Don't mistake Pinkie's clones for her.

 

 

And no, that is not a miss, by the way.

 

 

It's solid like a railway: you stay at the departing station and already see where it goes - right up to the horizon.

 

Oh, and tell me how, please?

[Declen 118]

 

 

Except where both Rarity and AJ are completely infantile, asocial Twilight supposedly always wanting a slumber party... The whole team is out of character, the scenario is contrived, and badly pulled off. Oh, and Twilight has no development at all in this episode

1. Because they aren't very old. The aproximate mental age of Rarity is about 23, and she is the oldest one. Girls in their early twentees often behave "completely infantile", so, no problem here.

2. "Always" could mean "for the last two weeks, since I've found this book". Being asocial to the begining of the series, Twilight have soon found joy in social activities with her new friends.

3. I don't suppose, you can proof they are "out of character". For that, one has to find patterns of their behaviour established in previous episodes that are incompatible with that in "Look before you sleep". And there are not many patterns to find in general. That means, what we've seen in LBYS couldn't be mischaracterisations but new sides of their characters.

4. And yes, Twilight has developement in that episode. You just missed it. If you think of what actually was going on there, you will get it.

 

Putting your hoof down puts blame on the wrong character, turns all of Ponyville into a town of jerks just to force it's plot through, delivers a faulty moral. The only saving grace is humor. Oh, and Flutters is out of character.

1. You mean Iron Will? I don't see it like he was blamed. At least not alone.

2. That is of course a problem. But we haven't seen much interaction with common ponywillians before, so we can't say for sure they weren't that way before. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon (and the problem of bullying in general) didn't appear from thin air, after all.

3. "Beeng assertive doesn't meam beeng a jerk" - how this moral is faulty?

4. No. Fluttershy wasn't out of character here. We've seen such behaviour of her before. It's called "Flutterrage". Iron Will just tought her to self induce and control that stage of her psyche.

 

 

Nothing in the episode degrades her at all.

1. I don't mistake her for her clones - she acted like a mental patient right from the start. Polsky portrays her as so obscessed with having fun, that she - unable to decide what she should participate in - clones herself. If that's not a degradation in your eyes, than we talk about two different Pinkies. Pinkie I know - Pinkie from episodes "Swarm of the Century" and "It's about time" - is very capable of planning and making decisions. Also, she is rather into spreading fun than having it at all cost.

 

And no, that is not a miss, by the way.

Yes, it is. Because however great it could be as a philosophical problem in general (especially if you're familiar with Stanislav Lem's works), it has no place in this particular episode. That clones weren't full mental clones of Pinkie (like those in Battlestar Galactica), so there were visible differences between the original and copies. And the fact, that even closest friends couldn't easily distinguish her from them is another example of Pinkies degradation by Pilsky in this episode.

 

 

Oh, and tell me how, please?

What is there to tell? It was clear they met a wrong pony right in the moment they met her. Since then the story became completely predictable, ergo, completely boring.

[TailsIsNotAlone 3,695]

Well, let's take a look at his output.

 

  Feeling Pinkie Keen: The central idea of 'Pinkie sense' is funny and fits Pinkie's ambiguous, logic-defying nature. However, it could have been executed better for reasons we've gone over a hundred times before. I'd say it was average but nothing special.

 Over a Barrel: I actually don't agree with all the flak this episode gets. Yes, the pony settlers/buffalo idea is contrived and preachy. There were many problems with it. But there was also a fair amount of suspense here. It was unique in that the Mane 6 themselves were divided over the issue, and I thought the apple pie fight was funny. And of course we met Braeburn. That's another average one for me.

 Too Many Pinkie Pies: Above average. Polsky is good at writing Pinkie and this is undoubtedly one of his best outings. Still, like all his episodes so far, there was controversy over fairly obvious questions that he never addressed--were the other Pinkies real, was Twilight in a sense committing murder when she zapped them back to the Mirror Pool. (But I would say no on both counts.)

:okiedokielokie: Spike at Your Service: Not that good. The 'Dragon Code' belongs in the hall of shame of nonsensical, overly convenient plot devices, the ending was ridiculous, and Polsky stood out as one of several writers who didn't really know what to do with Spike.

 Keep Calm and Flutter On: Rushed, but good. Personally it's my favorite episode of his and a standout of Season 3. I never saw Discord as a terribly threatening villain to begin with, and here he learned a lesson without his character being fundamentally compromised. In the end, I think he'll be even more fondly remembered as a reluctant ally of the Mane 6 than an antagonist.

 Games Ponies Play: Similar to 'Over a Barrel' in that I understand the problems people had with it but I still got some enjoyment out of the affair. You knew from a mile away that Chickadee (or whatever her canon name is) wasn't the inspector, but the gag worked, especially the funny scene with Shining Armor.

 Daring Don't: My feelings on this are well documented in the episode thread and 'Daring Do is Real'. Entertaining and exciting, but we have another idea that's not well thought out or explained and seems destined to stick in our minds for that reason.

 

 

At this point, despite his ability to write great visual comedy, he's one of FIM's weakest writers.

A fine summary as usual, DQ, and I agree with the crux of it. None of his episodes are favorites of mine, and he gets by on humor and unusual ideas without seeming to understand the fundamental nature of the show in the way Lauren Faust, Larson, McCarthy and other originals do. He's a standard cartoon writer whose style is not entirely suited to a show with a thinking fan base. If I have any specific problem with him, that's it.

Edited December 10, 2013 by TailsIsNotAlone

[Jammo 986]

Too many Pinkie Pies is my favorite Season 3 episode so... I like him.

He can be rather hit or miss. Usually his weaker episode has some things to like. Usually when MLP is a it's worst it's still entertaining. I never get bored by his episodes. He has yet to commit that sin. It's more things like narrative, pacing and characterization he has issues with. But again this is an adult analyzing a show for little girls.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Jammo

[~Silver Essence~ 2,625]

I like this guy, I knew him before he started working on MLP, which surprised me big when I realized he was working with them.

 

Anyways, while some tend to label his episodes hit or miss, for the most part, they never "miss" for me, sure spike at your service and over a barrel were average, but I enjoy all of his episodes.

 

And the excellency of daring don't shows that he is a well contender for season 4's head writers.

[hawkflame 3,310]

Eh, he's sort of hit and miss for me.  He made two I really enjoyed, two I didn't, and two that were just sort of okay. 

 

Too Many Pinkie Pies and Games Ponies Play- hands down two of the funniest episodes of the season.  *So* many gret moments from both of these.

 

Spike at your Service- I don't like incompetent characters messing things up, and I don't like characters written, well, out of character.  Spike is both in this episode. 

 

Keep Calm and Flutter On- my problems with the very *idea* of this episode are well documented here on the forums, but even beyond that it had pacing issues.

 

Feeling Pinkie Keen and Over a Barrel- both had inherently problematic messages (I see where the religion vs science issue is coming up, and the issue of native americans vs settlers  is way too simplified and probably shouldn't be the subject of a kids show) but story-wise there aren't any problems with the execution.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Like all writers, they have to at least have a hit and miss with the episodes that they write. He is good at writing humor but, the out of character, moral issues, and pacing are some key problems. Dave Polsky isn't my favorite writer, I think when he wrote Too Many Pinkie Pies and Games Ponies Play those are the only two episodes I like from him besides Daring Don't.

[Pixel Stick 927]

(Feeling Pinkie Keen) As for the moral, it's not supposed to be a science/faith debate, but the friendship letter is written so clunkily, it appears that way. When you have someone from the team try to explain the story and friendship letter away from its source, then it proves how poorly written and confusing the moral and script were.

 

I actually think the most "preachy" part of that episode is when Twilight and Pinkie are resolving the "doozy" toward the end:

 

Pinkie: (shaking) "You mean you believe?"

Twilight: "Yeah, I guess I do."

 

To me, that was bordering too heavily on the spiritual, especially since the execution in that episode pits science-minded, skeptical Twilight against whimsical and apparently-ESP-capable Pinkie in a manner similar to how Evolutionists and Creationists are always at odds with one another.  The argument is too heavy-handed in saying "You can't explain how it happens, it just happens, and you just have to believe in it", IMO.

 

Regarding Daring Don't: I agree with at least the first 12 posts in this thread that Daring Don't wasn't Polsky's worst episode by far - Pinkie Keen and Spike At Your Service hold that spot for me, personally.  But I really didn't think it was one of the show's better episodes.  It felt corny, rushed and predictable all at the same time, and I felt the entire cast was remarkably out-of-character.  It didn't even feel like an editing error or omission was responsible for that - the episode really looked and felt like it had been written to make the Mane 6 be as apathetic and disabled as they could possibly be, given the circumstances.  And we've seen that happen before with Polsky's episodes.

 

EDIT> Also, yes, I get that it was a reprise of Daring Do.  But did it also have to be a reprise of Ahuizoto and his feline posse as well?  Especially presented with the same tropes as in Read It And Weep?  It felt like this episode really only wanted to copy the previous one while at the same time one-upping it, rather than giving us something new, and that really took away from the enjoyment for me.

Edited December 11, 2013 by Pixel Stick

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

I do find him to be kind of a hit or miss writer. Even so some of his weaker episodes at least have something I like about them. he seems to be really great in humor department but not so much in the story department. I've noticed he seems to like to write for Pinkie. He's written two pinkie episodes and pinkie seems to stand out in the other ones. I actually can enjoy his episodes when I don't analyze them. When I do, there are some logic problems in there.

[FlutterDash4072 189]

He's had a couple of hits, but he's mostly a miss with me.

 

Feeling Pinkie Keen

This was a funny episode that provoked a lot of unnecessary drama. I'm not much of a Pinkie fan (she's pretty much tied with Applejack at the bottom), but she was written in a way that made me laugh instead of cringe. I'll admit the friendship letter wasn't written very well, but the fandom's reaction to it was over the top.

 

Over a Barrel

The better of his two season 1 episodes IMO. It was a very fun wild west themed episode, and I love the western theme (if they brought some of this into Applejack's character instead of just focusing on apples, then I might actually like her.  ) The controversy surrounding this one was white people being offended for minorities. They brought in a few Native Americans while they were working on it just to make sure it wasn't offensive.

 

Too Many Pinkie Pies

Like I said earlier, I'm not much of a fan of Pinkie Pie, but I do admit she's good in small doses. As the title clearly states, this was not a small dose of Pinkie Pie. And the fake Pinkies were even more annoying than the real Pinkie.

 

Spike at Your Service

This episode isn't as bad as people make it out to be, but it's still not a very good one. I don't like it when characters are turned into idiots for the sake of the plot.

 

Keep Calm and Flutter On

My favorite Polsky episode. So far everything Discord's been in has been golden for me. However, it was a little rushed, and Discord's reformation was too sudden.

 

Games Ponies Play

My most hated Polsky episode. Instead of lowering the IQ of one character, he went ahead and inflicted brain damage on every one of them. Pinkie was beyond obnoxious, the twist was too obvious for even the target audience, and even after everything that happened to Mrs. Harshwhinny, she still decided to let the Crystal Empire host the games. Most cartoons try to give a good reason for such a change of heart, but we're supposed to believe hearing about Peachbottom's experiences trumped everything the other cities did for her? Really?

 

Daring Don't

This one was just kind of meh. It had some good moments, but it didn't really have enough adventure for an adventure episode.