Spice Up Your Life S6E12 Recap · 4:04pm Jun 11th, 2016
Pony is at its best when it does new and creative things. And its often as its worst when it falls onto predictable stock plots.
How meta this episode is.
I find it interesting that the map was apparently de-powered following Starlight's time travel shennanigans. Even if nothing further comes of it that was a nice bit of continuity, and it's cool to see them studying how the map actually works.
The Indian/Gypsy ponies had unique designs, and the song number was fantastic and unique. The problem is that I slapped my forehead here at Rarity. Hasn't she had several episodes already teaching her not to conform to the expectations of high-class society? So seeing her here strip all the individuality and style from the restaurant to conform to the tastes of a food critic is absurd and backwards for her character. Of course it flops, and then they put things back, draw a crowd in anyway, and it's a hit and inspired all the other chefs in Canterlot to make new dishes.
The issue here is that the focus of the episode was a bit uneven. Are we focusing on the father and daughter, or the food critic? Because the second half of the episode concerned the reveal that the food critic had all the restaurants in Canterlot making the same food to appease her and get a good rating. I question how this even happened, how did this food critic get such a reputation that ponies will only go to restaurants she recommends that any restaurant not rated by her is ignored? Especially since it seems the chefs hate the food they cook and so do the patrons. Also, said food critic is a snooty bitch who gets put in her place in the last 30 seconds of the episode but has clearly not learned anything or changed her mind about anything.
The ending was a bit rushed, I wouldn't have minded a few minutes trimmed from earlier in the episode to give a better epilogue where we see Canterlot undergo a culinary revolution as the chefs do their own thing again. As-is, it was okay. But the plot holes and defied character development keep me from enjoying it all that much.
Sadly, missed this episode as I was sleeping in for today like I always seem to be doing lately.
I just don't see why we have to have anti-critic potrayals in our shows today. Not every critic is a snobbish a-hole, and people like Gordon Ramsey and Simon Cowell act the way they do for a reason, the people they're critiquing have to be held to high standards and there's very little room for error in their career paths.
4015163 Agreed, people were snarking in the plot that Zesty is a Gordon Ramsay pony, but no, Gordon's ego is nowhere near like this.
It would have been nice to see Zesty impressed by the unique food, even if it was predictable.
4015170 You want to see a critic potrayal done right, see "Ratouile" by Pixar. THAT'S the kind of critic potrayal the animation medium needs to see more of. Yes, there are some pretentious critics out there, but most critics will recognize quality work from bad work, preeching conformity is bad.
Not really a "friendship problem" episode, the conflict between father and daughter felt like the C, maybe D story.