Review of Applejack's Day Off

So this episode was..... decent. I enjoyed the moral and the way in was integrated in the story, but outside of that this episode didn't do that much. It wasn't bad by any means, but it did feel kind of dull, especially compared to last week's hilarious episode and compared to the last episode written by Micheal P. Fox & Will Fox, The Gift of Maud Pie. (I'm assuming these writers are related, so in the rest of the review I'll refer to them as the Fox brothers).

Both this episode and The Gift of Maud Pie show off a strength of the Fox brothers' writing, and that's the way the morals are organically integrated into the narrative. I really like how Applejack solves the problem at the sauna, and then, when feeding the chickens, sees the parallel with how she's over-complicating the farm-work. It shows how far the show has come; we don't need Twilight to send a friendship letter to explain the moral; the story proceeds in such a way where the character's naturally learn the lesson. The Fox brothers do that incredibly well, even better then some of the veteran writers this season in a few cases. For example, in On Your Marks (written by Dave Polsky and Josh Haber) the Crusaders talking towards the end of the episode about the way they helped the tap-dancing foal feels less like natural dialogue and more like characters recapping what just happened because it's a kid's show and you need that exposition.

But unlike The Gift of Maud Pie, this episode doesn't have tons of charming character moments or jokes. In fact, outside of the silly way Applejack fed the chickens, Rarity's wrinkly face, and Rainbow being embarrassed at the spa, this episode doesn't really have jokes. And an episode doesn't have to focus on comedy. But it has to have something, like an interesting story or good character moments, to keep your attention and I felt this episode was lacking in that. I felt that Rarity spent too much time in this episode complaining. I mean, I get why Rarity is annoyed, but in the second act, practically all of her dialogue is her complaining about how she can't spend time with Applejack and it gets repetitive.

This whole episode feels like it's padded out slightly. It feels that way especially with Applejack investigating the pipes at the spa and slowly realizing the problem. I feel like you could've cut that down by a minute or two and still be fine. I've seen episodes this season that I thought could've been better if you added an extra ten minutes (On Your Marks, Gauntlet of Fire, A Hearth's Warming Tail) but this episode could've been better if they cut it down to an eleven minute episode. The plot is so basic that it doens't really feel like a twenty-minute episode plot.

There were a few small things I liked. I liked the Roots Rock/Country music that played during the montages. I liked the various uses of background ponies and minor characters, especially the Cakes getting massages and a cameo from Spoiled Rich. I also like the focus on the spa ponies, including a few new designs. Overall, while this episode didn't do a lot bad things, it didn't do a lot of great things, outside of the great moral and how it was integrated. I give it 7/10.