kid_prufrock wrote: ‘The last two shows I've been watching are Breaking Bad and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I think I like both best when I watch an episode of the latter right after one of the former, as a chaser.’i now understand the deep wisdom of this approach.
[minor theme and premise spoilers follow]
think about it: Breaking Bad has an anti-episodic structure to the point where pretty much every episode ends with a cliffhangerish lack of closure, the driving force of the whole thing is Walter's various masculinity-associated complexes (especially his masculine provider complex), and nobody ever seems to learn their lesson.
now compare MLP:FisM: although there are some recurring themes and ongoing plots, almost every episode forms a satisfying and reasonably complete narrative (or, at most, is part of a two-parter), there is not much of a problem with gratuitous masculinity, and many (most?) episodes end with an explicit statement of what lesson was learned.
that is, a ~20-minute episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, is a concentrated dose of exactly the things one needs to balance out the effects of Breaking Bad consumption. i don't know that they could have done a better job if they'd designed the show from the ground up for this purpose.
two other thoughts:
- i am very, very happy to finally have the perfect post for this userpic.
- if it comes up, the Applejack is clearly the pony to cast in the Walter White role.
