S8 E3 The Maud Couple Review · 4:16pm Mar 31st, 2018
Maud only two episodes in? Thank you!
So, this episode fell kinda flat. I didn't hate it, it was just meh. The reason is that the episode is entirely hinged on how you react to Mud Briar. And how I reacted is that he's annoying. Obviously the joke is that he's a male version of Maud. Except, he isn't. Virtually every line of dialogue he has is to correct someone else's speech because it "technically" was not correct. It makes him come off as smug, nitpicky, and superior. A lot of the people in the chat of the stream I watched compared him to Sheldon Cooper, and it's not an inapt comparison.
See, Maud is sullen, direct, literal minded, and quiet. But she has shown in her own ways that she is caring and kind and loves her sister. We've seen that in many episodes with her and Pinkie. Her humor comes from how unfunny she is, in how she takes things literally and speaks bluntly. On the other hand, Mud Briar is just asocial. The humor from him comes from how he's always correcting the speech of others. He at no point makes any effort to be anything but this. When Pinkie repeatedly tries to be friendly with him he just keeps correcting her and ignores her. Contrast Maud's introductory episode where she partook in activities with each of the Mane Six and went along with them while being her usual self.
So, simply put, Mud Briar did not work for me. I found him annoying and smug and he had a one-note personality that all of his humor hinged on. He's like an OC written by someone who doesn't understand Maud's schtick and why she works. Also, again, the entire joke is that he's supposed to be a male version of Maud. And if he was actually a male version of Maud, that would have been funny, seeing Pinkie weirded out by the same behavior she laughs at with Maud. But he wasn't. I'm with Pinkie, what did Maud see in him? We've seen Maud form friendships with multiple ponies by this point, but what makes Mud Briar her boyfriend?
Mud Briar aside, though, the episode falls into the predictable plot of Pinkie accepting him and tolerating him even if she can't stand him because he makes Maud happy. Mud Briar makes no effort or attempt to be friendly to Pinkie or make amends with her, it's all on Pinkie to apologize and tolerate him and swallow her frustrations. There's a scene that's supposed to be their "bonding" moment, where Pinkie offers a literal olive branch and he corrects her on the type of stick it is, but he likes it anyway. But it didn't work for me. And the episode's climax is Pinkie throwing a surprise party for a cardboard cutout of Maud while the three of them have a quiet picnic together watching. So, again, it's all about Pinkie compromising.
The one thing I took note of with Mud Briar was when he said "see you later" as Pinkie ran off, because after his earlier explanation of deciding how to say goodbye to someone, I know this wasn't an arbitrary line. I was hoping this would lead into something like him saying he knew she'd come back because Maud has told him about Pinkie and he knows she won't leave. Or perhaps he did want to see Pinkie again because he actually liked her in spite of her hating him. But no, it doesn't lead into anything. There's no real bonding moment, no real connection, no real understanding. This friendship is entirely one-sided on Pinkie's part and Mud Briar is still correcting her even as she tries to wrap the episode up nicely.
Beyond Mud Briar the episode is fine. Maud is good here, the writers again remember she DOES emote and she gets more vocal and facial variance than normal as she's torn between her sister and her boyfriend. The return of the rock farm and Limestone and Marble was unexpected but cool, and I liked Limestone giving the aesop to Pinkie. Starlight is here and she makes sense to include since she's also Maud's friend, though I'm sure haters will hate.
So, overall, a meh episode. It all hinged on Mud Briar and he was a disappointing, annoying mess of a good idea.
PS - going in I had a theory Maud's boyfriend would be Cheese Sandwich, and he and Pinkie would rub each other the wrong way since they're now seeing new sides of each other that don't gel. Ah, what an episode that could have been...
PPS - "So you're saying I should crack Mud Briar open like a rock!" That also would have made this a better episode
I agree wholeheartedly. This episode just felt flat. I mean the guy's special talent is being a stick in the mud which he excelled at. And then there’s the whole scene in the party cave. I’m pretty sure Pinkie knows her sister better than the guy who she’s only been with a short while.
Meh I thought it was fine, plenty of people didn't like Maud at first either so I say give it time.
ya know maud was kind of out of character with her breaking promises to pinkie pie
This episode was a chance for Pinkie to acknowledge that her sister is weird and hard to understand, and that other ponies are not in the wrong when she rubs them the wrong way, but that never happened. :B At least my waifu showed up again.
4829358
That too could have worked. But no...
I've come to the conclusion that, although Maud is great (she's one of my favorite characters), we've seen too much of her and this episode is evidence of fatigue. Watching Limestone and Marble again makes me wish to see more character development for them, but knowing that the show will last for only one more season, I won't have expectations soon.
P.S.: Didn't Confalone said that he would leave the show after season 7? What is he still here?
Once we got into the review of who Mud Briar was, I knew this would not be the episode for me. If there's anything I hate the most about romance episodes, it's either rivalries, or what this episode does, in which this character comes out of nowhere and knows much more about Maud than Pinkie ever does, despite knowing each other for years!
I'm on the same boat as you where I think Mud Briar is a complete jerk. If it wasn't for the fact that I haven't really had that much interest in Maud in the first place, I would've probably hated this episode so much more. And this episode probably shows a prime reason why I hope none of the Mane Six don't get an episode involving a fixed romance.
The biggest high point I had with this episode though was that Rock Farm scene with Limestone and Marble Pie. I really thought that was nice.