I just started watching the TV show. It's awesome. I don't get why people crap all over it, though.
Well, it's natural for people to extract the seemingly relevant factors and use their past experience to try to predict whether they'll like something. MLP:FiM screams "girly cartoon", and given the history that cartoons are aimed at kids and so have little to no adult appeal, and given the history that
girly cartoons are crap on crap-wheat toast, it's understandable that there might be some hesitation about whether there may be some appeal.
Also, a large percentage of men seem to have this problem where they live their lives as though they're seeking the approval of some imaginary father figure. If they don't understand where the appeal for MLP:FiM would come from at first glance, their imaginary father figure wouldn't either, so if they did watch it and like it they're terrified that they'd have to confront their daddy and explain themselves. This places a large hurdle which many probably are just not manly enough to overcome.
Also, the internet has introduced us to fetishes and transitory one-dimensional fads. This gives an additional rationale for dismissing anything that seems out-of-the-ordinary. Furries can be validly dismissed as a small subculture with no mass appeal. Nyan cat can be validly dismissed as being no great loss if you do skip it. If ponies were in one of those two categories, it would be valid to just push it aside.
But it ain't, is it!
Gotta love when something is just pure awesome!
me too.