My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - 2x08 - The Mysterious Mare Do Well

    Rainbow Dash starts getting overly prideful in her heroics, but is eventually challenged as the most popular heroine when a masked, silent heroine arrives and outshines Rainbow's efforts.
    I always feel a bit conflicted about Rainbow Dash.  I've never cared for her too much, since she's just too cocky.  While this episode addresses that, I don't feel like she changed that much.  I think the episode that best developed her character was Read It and Weep, which gave her a little more of a personal weakness.
    So an entire episode built around Rainbow being overly self-centered isn't terribly exciting.  Luckily, the heroics of the story help make everything fun.  The music is completely different than the show usually uses, and adopting the cliches of superhero movies (and TV shows) made everything much more fun.  The biggest problem of the episode is just that there isn't enough going on with the other characters to give them many moments.

    Also, the ending is very predictable.  The first time I saw it, I saw the ending coming very early on, even before they started hinting toward it.

The Simpsons - 17x10 - Homer's Paternity Coot

    Homer finds out that Abe Simpson may not be his biological father.  His mother was having an affair with a lifeguard.  Homer tracks down this man and learns about him.
    I don't have too much to say about this episode.  It's good.  I like the opening stuff about Marge trying to avoid paying the toll.  There are a few good one-liners, like Ralph saying "I'm C3-D2!"  There are also some weak ones, like Moe trying to play outside.
    Homer does some good delivery in this episode, especially in his dig at M. Night Shyamalan.

The Simpsons - 21x15 - Stealing First Base

    Bart meets a girl from the other section of his 4th grade class, and they develop a relationship.  Bart likes her, and kisses her, creating a no-touch policy at Springfield Elementary.
    I like this episode a lot, partly because of how nicely they handled the emotional aspects of Bart.  It doesn't hurt that the secondary stories are good as well.  Lisa deals with her rise in popularity as a result of doing badly on a test, and the corresponding drop when she turns out to be as smart as ever.  Nelson takes a blind student under his wing.
    The satire is a little weaker than usual, but broad bans on student touching are a little difficult to be too harsh with.
    There's an appearance by Michelle Obama (although her voice is don't by Angela Bassett) which plays well.  It's short, and it doesn't wear thin, or seem mean-spirited, like their handling of Bill Clinton (which they recognize in the commentaries.  They felt like it was easy to make fun of Clinton, but when they tried to do it with Bush, it just felt bad, since it just reminded them of how bad things were.)
    The conflict within Bart is what sells the episode though.  His girl is absurdly unpredictable, and he recognizes that.  But, having kissed her, he can't get over her that easily.
    There's also a montage, set to the theme from Cinema Paradiso, which is just beautiful.  I think that music would make me tear up regardless of what is set against it though.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - 4x15 - First Contact

    The Enterprise negotiates an awkward first contact with a new civilization, which is about to reach warp capabilities.  Riker is undercover, and trapped in a hospital.
    This is a good episode, but it has some really big weaknesses.  The writing is much more campy than usual.  It's unusual, in that it almost seems to treat the story as happening from a completely neutral point of view.  We don't view the Federation as being clearly right, but just as a party to the events.
    The real highlight - Riker getting the moves put on him by a lady who has always wanted to have sex with an alien.  That lady is played by Bebe Neuwirth!
    This episode is important though.  It spells out the procedures that the Federation uses for introductions to new civilizations.

Bob's Burgers - 1x05 - Hamburger Dinner Theater

    Bob's wife is enamored with dinner theater, and she persuades Bob to let her put on some a murder mystery in the restaurant.  The kids get involved, and a robbery happens at the end of the show.
    I don't feel as compelled to keep watching this show, but I enjoy it.  I just don't feel like I should keep watching episodes all the time.  But the description of this episode was so much fun that it seemed to be worth it.
    It's a good one.  I don't care for Bob's wife, Linda.  Her nasally voice would be grating, but hearing her try to sing everything was very likable.  I've also started to notice that most of the female characters have very strange designs.  The look like giant worms, almost like Richard Scarry.

Bob's Burgers - 1x03 - Sacred Cow

    As Bob is approaching his 100,000th burger made, a documentary filmmaker tries to make an example out of Bob by having a live cow live outside the restaurant.  Bob comes to really like the cow, and helps rescue it when it gets stolen.
    Like most of these early episodes, it's a lot of fun, but the show hasn't hit the stride it needs to.  Tina is still very likable, but Louise is still too much of a terror to make the team entirely likable.  This episode is a little more plot-heavy, and that works well.  There were a lot of gags that I really liked, and I especially liked the really surreal dream sequence at the end.  I was amazed that the show was able to get away with showing a person kissing a cow.

Futurama - 7x13 - Naturama

    The characters of Futurama are portrayed in the context of a nature documentary, first in a sequence about salmon, then about tortoises, then seals.
    I had some mixed feelings about this one.  For a three-part episode, it's a surprisingly novel approach.  The first segment plays fairly well, and it moves quickly.  It focuses heavily on Fry and Leela, and has plenty of nice, quick gags.  The second focuses on the Professor and Mom.  Then the third focuses on Kif and Amy.  And that's where it goes wrong.  The last segment isn't right.  The first has the legitimate romantic angle.  The second is a funny romance, one that we aren't terribly invested in, but it has comedic value.  This third one is not a relationship that I feel invested in.  Kif is a good guy, but Amy doesn't have much character to feel strongly about.
    The character designs are great.  The first act has the cute designs, but I was especially happy about the Professor as a tortoise.  And I liked seeing Leela as a bird.  Something about a cyclops bird seemed very…right.
    I'm glad that Futurama is trying more things, but the show feels like it lost direction once Fry and Leela got together.  I suppose I should get used to "more wacky, less egghead."

    (A note - I forgot to write anything about 31st Century Fox, the second-to-last episode of this season.  I did watch it, but it was weeks ago.)