Mini Re-Reviews: "The Ticket Master & Applebuck Season" - Season 1 Episodes 3 & 4

With EqD engaging in rewatch streams in place of new episodes (didn't stop during previous Hiatuses, though), I felt compelled to watch along and reabsorb the older episodes of the series at a slower pace then my initial binge two years back. I missed the stream last week of the two-parter pilot, but I'll rewatch it in my own time soon enough and post a mini-review of it. In the meantime, though, we have "The Ticket Master" and "Applebuck Season".

And I'll say this - it's quite a leap, going back to episodes that are nine years old. Even watching seven seasons in two months, the show's changes are a subtle process, but going from the Finale all the way back to the beginning is a huge adjustment. Mostly of the good kind, some Early Instalment Weirdness excepted.

As these are Mini Re-Reviews, they assume the reader knows the episode already and don't bother with a plot recap.

"Ooh, a pair of tickets, Spike! Are they for a time machine so we can go back to before the Epilogue episode?"

The Ticket Master is an alright episode. It's painfully obvious from watching it that Ticket Master began life as a 11-min episode, with everything about its structure slotting perfectly into a generic 11-min cartoon, just with ponies. More strikingly, naturally enough, is the fact that this was the first episode conceived of and the first script to be written (in its initial form, anyway) and much like quite a few of these early S1 episodes, the fingerprints of Faust, Renzetti and Keating Rogers figuring the show out are all over the episode, from deciding how assertive certain characters should be (Fluttershy here, though still played timidly, isn't nearly as passive as she is 4 episodes later in Dragonshy), to particular aspects of characterisation for all the characters, and so on. Probably the episode's biggest detractor is it's nature as a "series pitch" episode, one designed primarily to show executives what it will look like, but which can't help but feel somewhat out of place one slotted in next to other episodes. Most cases of Early Instalment Weirdness are something I quite like, but here, I can mostly just react with "it's a series pitch episode, what're you gonna do?"

That said, it's not mediocre by any stretch. Just padded and finding its footing. It's a generic, predictable plot, but there's still fun in exploring early aspects of the character's personalities (Spike is quite a delight here, with his and Twilight's solo conversations being very lovely) and much of the comedy along the way got chuckles out of me. Nothing character damaging either. On my new rating scale (out of 10, though with half-points allowed), I give it a 6.

"Boy, Big Mac, we sure seemed to have more apple trees in these here panning shots then in later episodes, didn't we?"
"Eeyup."

More agreeable, though by no means a great episode, is Applebuck Season. As the first episode to prominently focus on a pony other then Twilight, it's a good template for a lot of future episodes across the whole series (as since Twilight is almost always the pony of focus for two-parters, her solo episodes are less numerous then you might think offhand). If Ticket Master is about finding the show's tone, Applebuck Season is, though also that too, about finding more aspects of AJ's character. To be honest (unintentional, I swear), it's clear here why she's such a tricky lead, especially in these earlier episodes where more classical cartoon silliness abounded more frequently. She's far too level-headed to make mistakes in the role of a sympathetic lead, so she loses some of that level-headedness to facilitate the plot. In this case, it's not that big a problem, since she simply got wrapped up in her work and it's early enough in the series that it's understandable she wouldn't be quite sure about asking the others' help. It's only when she becomes oblivious to the damage around the town that I raise an eyebrow. There's also the matter of here agreeing to do tasks with all the others despite doing Applebucking Seasons alone, but I always pass that off as them being agreements made before Big Mac got his injury.

I find a lot of the Early Instalment Weirdness here more agreeable, personally. That mule joke is still a keeper, as is the reveal of the cows being sentient. Much of the business RD and especially Pinkie get here really lands (she goes all the way to 11 quite a few times), though Rarity is barely present (according to Rogers, a scene there that was cut for time and for being too repetitive). The whole ceremony scene in particular is a goldmine, easily the episode standout (though AJ's picking of the wrong ingredients is a close second). Discussing a more comedy, slapstick era of the show is hard beyond simply stating the gags that work (I tend to fully dissect why the comedy in these early seasons excels as well as it does in a future min- review duo).

It's an episode that becomes quickly eclipsed as the seasons finds its footing more, but it's perfectly serviceable, and fits a 22-min runtime much better. My AJ bias just sneaks this to a 7, but even a 6.5's still fine.

Even in these early episodes, the show has that early Pony charm that I love in spades. A charm missing even by the time of S4, to be honest, though perfectly forgivable as the show had other things in place by then. Briefly, it blends the more classic CN-era cartooning Faust, Renzetti and the other writers excelled in well, and it really works. Twilight's slightly more brash side is something I still adore from this early on, for instance. And the early Pinkie ditties, though not the full-on songs that would come to define the show, are lovely and engaging. In my current Season rankings (indefinitive until the whole thing's being rewatched to be safe) S1 sits at 3rd before S2 and S4, and this early quirkiness is part of the reason why. I like it when different eras of a show have their own unique thing going for them, as long as it is something that works and isn't disrespectful to the other eras.

Next week they'll have Griffon the Brush Off and Boast Busters, two episodes I remember working a good bit better then these two, with their Early Instalment Weirdness being less questionable, among other things. That Pinkie and RD have great comedic chemistry is obvious from E5 alone, and while I prefer Magic Duel, Boast Busters alone is enough evidence as to why Trixie was so beloved so quickly (by now, I'm able to overlook the fact of its writer). Personally I think Dragonshy is the first truly "great" episode of the series, but we're nearly there too. Anyway, we'll see how those two episodes hold up next week.

STRAY OBSERVATIONS
- Ticket Master is one episode that makes it super obvious RD and AJ's elements really should have been swapped.
- These episodes also REALLY show the early adjusting of the crew alongside the writers. Much of it is charming rather then aggravating - the scale shots of the number of apples in Sweet Apple Acres show more trees then most future seasons do, and some of the VA still finding their tone oddly works (Andrea makes Flutterhsy's not-as-timid moments fly quite well, despite the separation between her and Pinkie not being as apparent). The show finding the right amount of background detail is clearly something still settling, but it's never aggravating, and while aspects of the character animation seem a bit rudimentary at times, there's always enough going onscreen that's agreeable that it's never distracting. And the meme faces here all feel unique and as a result of the moment (RD gets two stellar ones, one being her laugh in Ticket Master from the hole in the cloud looking down at Twilight, and the other as she coos "awesome" at the podium during Applebuck Season), rather then forced for the sake of having a meme face.
- Of course, nothing stands out as much as AJ's early voice, far less deeper then it would become. I'm so used to her proper voice (it's such a better fit for her character, even apart from being the right call to differentiate her from RD) that it made the two episodes, mostly Applebuck Season, a weird throwback at times. It makes her seem more young and less mature, which has the odd effect of make her lapses of judgement more forgivable, oddly enough. It's never not going to make AJ-focused moments this early in the show odd (whereas even in The Last Roundup, while her voice's not as deep as it is these days, it's close enough that you stop noticing the difference pretty quickly), but it's not really a problem. Just something that has to be pointed out.

Comments

[Loganberry]

Right, now I've rewatched these myself, I can read this. Just a few thoughts.

Mini Re-Reviews

Quite substantial Minis, though! Mini Coopers?

Fluttershy here, though still played timidly, isn't nearly as passive as she is 4 episodes later in Dragonshy)

True. Though for a lot of "Dragonshy" she's out of her element on an adventure, or planning for such, rather than safely in the Ponyville she knows and trusts.

The whole ceremony scene in particular is a goldmine

Oh yes. It's also a more entertaining Twilight freakout (eventually) than some we got in recent years, at least to me.

that early Pony charm

At one point, I was thinking of giving each season a nickname. I never finished, but I do remember that I called S1 the "Season of Innocence".

Ticket Master is one episode that makes it super obvious RD and AJ's elements really should have been swapped.

A view also shared by many S1 fans, if a joke on that very subject in Friendship is Witchcraft is anything to go by!