Episode review: "The Perfect Pear"
Entry posted by Thrond
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Melodrama is one of My Little Pony's foundational blocks. So many of the most emotionally affecting episodes of the show are melodramatic in nature, from "The Last Roundup" to "Hurricane Fluttershy" to "Wonderbolts Academy." But starting in season 5, the show's most dramatic episodes have become increasingly grand and pretentious in nature. Even the most naturalistic episodes of this time, "Amending Fences" and "The Mane Attraction," strained to have a greater point and to reflect the show at large, and then there are episodes like "A Royal Problem": tense, overstuffed, high-stakes stories which bear more resemblance to the two-parters than to the melodrama episodes of old.
Until now, the only episode like "Hurricane Fluttershy" in the past few seasons was "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks," that adorable, genuinely moving highlight of season 6. While "The Perfect Pear" has baggage which prevents it from reaching that level, it's every bit as emotionally effective in its own melodramatic, gooey way. It avoids any tough questions and builds on elements which the show never properly established, but goddamit, I wish the show were always this sweet and emotional and adorable. If "A Flurry of Emotions" represents half of what the show has been missing in recent years, "The Perfect Pear" represents the other half.
When Apple Bloom brings home some pear jam for breakfast, Applejack and Big Mac immediately seek to hide it due to the longstanding feud between the Apple and Pear families. After some discussion, they then set out to ask Goldie Delicious, the Apple family historian, about the cause of the apple feud, and in the process learn a little about their parents, an Apple and a Pear who fell in love despite their family differences. Curious, they then seek out other family friends to learn the rest of their parents' story.
The obvious question is whether this episode actually reveals why the Apple parents have been absent for the entire show. Unfortunately, "The Perfect Pear" never answers that question, and somewhat distractingly attempts to derive a emotional power from the parents' absence in spite of this. The dialogue softly implies that the parents might be deceased, but the show continues to be too cowardly to explicitly reveal that, and exactly when and how the Apple parents died is unclear. The way Applejack & co. talk makes me think even they don't know what happened to their parents, but again, the episode refuses to explicitly state that despite gaining a lot of its emotional power from the suggestion. Am I overestimating how much little kids can handle this? Death is a fact of life; would it not be nice for this show to try helping its target demographic with that?
It's also distracting that this is yet another season 7 episode which attempts to derive emotion from something which was never established. Learning about their parents seems to mean a lot to the Apple kids, but exactly what is left up to guess work, because it's not even clear if they ever knew their parents, let alone for how long or in what capacity. Thankfully, the simple fact of the parents' absence is enough to carry many of the emotional beats, and a lot of this is down to the strength of the dialogue and performances. Nearly every character in the framing story speaks with evocative tones of affection and wistfulness, and the Apples add a slight hint of melancholy as well. I usually don't emphasize the quality of the acting, as this show always excels in that regard, but the comparatively muted and nuanced performances here add a lot to the episode's emotional power.
The flashback structure of the episode is entertaining in its own right, as it allows the show to deepen secondary characters and make its world feel more lived in. Most of the ponies the Apples talk to are new to this episode, but even these new faces expand the show's world, and we also get to learn a little more about Mrs. Cake as well. Mayor Mare also appears, and her part of the story makes her feel slightly more integrated into the show, but it doesn't reveal much about her. It's also just nice to finally know who Applejack's parents were, even if we still don't know much about why they're not around and may very well never know.
A lot of the episode's emotional beats are found in the main story between the Apple parents, namely their father Bright Mac and their mother Pear Butter. This story ultimately comes down to a much happier version of Romeo & Juliet, but the characters are deeply charming and their plight is easy to sympathise with. The flashback story has an abbreviated structure, and by necessity it jumps from beat to beat, but that just enhances its emotional pull. Both parents are only lightly characterized, but they're distinctive enough, and the flashback structure gives the spotlight to their situations. We see how heartfelt their love is, and we see how they're both torn between love and family. Pear Butter's ultimate choice to stay with the Apples is clearly a difficult one, and that's exactly what makes it so heart-wrenching.
And it's just so sweet. The episode's structure carries that wistful tone from the performances, only showing us major highlights of Bright Mac and Pear Butter's romance, and while it's cliched and cheesy, I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff, and it's structured perfectly here. We see a few small moments where they're starting to get together, then a song abbreviates their growing relationship, and then one small gesture represents its peak right before Pear Butter's father, Grand Pear, announces his intention to move to Vanhoover. It makes for a very mushy story, to be sure, but it's also an effective one, and I'm not gonna lie, I cried at the end. It's also enhanced by the framing story, which is triggered by Grand Pear returning to Ponyville to sell his wares and ends with him visiting Sweet Apple Acres to make amends. I can't discern an explicit moral from any of this, but it's all just so emotional!
"The Perfect Pear" is irresistible on a level with some of the show's best episodes. It suffers from vagueness in certain areas, and I wish it had answered more questions about the Apple parents, but what we've got is adorable, moving, and surprisingly deep between the lines. The best moments here are small ones which only enhance the subtle melancholy of the framing story, and there's a powerful message about moving on after tragedy if you're willing to read that much into it. I still wish this episode based its emotions on something more tangible, and its refusal to address what happened to Applejack's parents feels cowardly, but even as is, this is easily one of the best this season and is an absolute delight from start to finish. We just don't get episodes like this that often anymore.
Score:
Entertainment: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Themes: 6/10
Story: 7/10
Overall: 83/100
Until now, the only episode like "Hurricane Fluttershy" in the past few seasons was "The Fault in Our Cutie Marks," that adorable, genuinely moving highlight of season 6. While "The Perfect Pear" has baggage which prevents it from reaching that level, it's every bit as emotionally effective in its own melodramatic, gooey way. It avoids any tough questions and builds on elements which the show never properly established, but goddamit, I wish the show were always this sweet and emotional and adorable. If "A Flurry of Emotions" represents half of what the show has been missing in recent years, "The Perfect Pear" represents the other half.
When Apple Bloom brings home some pear jam for breakfast, Applejack and Big Mac immediately seek to hide it due to the longstanding feud between the Apple and Pear families. After some discussion, they then set out to ask Goldie Delicious, the Apple family historian, about the cause of the apple feud, and in the process learn a little about their parents, an Apple and a Pear who fell in love despite their family differences. Curious, they then seek out other family friends to learn the rest of their parents' story.
The obvious question is whether this episode actually reveals why the Apple parents have been absent for the entire show. Unfortunately, "The Perfect Pear" never answers that question, and somewhat distractingly attempts to derive a emotional power from the parents' absence in spite of this. The dialogue softly implies that the parents might be deceased, but the show continues to be too cowardly to explicitly reveal that, and exactly when and how the Apple parents died is unclear. The way Applejack & co. talk makes me think even they don't know what happened to their parents, but again, the episode refuses to explicitly state that despite gaining a lot of its emotional power from the suggestion. Am I overestimating how much little kids can handle this? Death is a fact of life; would it not be nice for this show to try helping its target demographic with that?
It's also distracting that this is yet another season 7 episode which attempts to derive emotion from something which was never established. Learning about their parents seems to mean a lot to the Apple kids, but exactly what is left up to guess work, because it's not even clear if they ever knew their parents, let alone for how long or in what capacity. Thankfully, the simple fact of the parents' absence is enough to carry many of the emotional beats, and a lot of this is down to the strength of the dialogue and performances. Nearly every character in the framing story speaks with evocative tones of affection and wistfulness, and the Apples add a slight hint of melancholy as well. I usually don't emphasize the quality of the acting, as this show always excels in that regard, but the comparatively muted and nuanced performances here add a lot to the episode's emotional power.
The flashback structure of the episode is entertaining in its own right, as it allows the show to deepen secondary characters and make its world feel more lived in. Most of the ponies the Apples talk to are new to this episode, but even these new faces expand the show's world, and we also get to learn a little more about Mrs. Cake as well. Mayor Mare also appears, and her part of the story makes her feel slightly more integrated into the show, but it doesn't reveal much about her. It's also just nice to finally know who Applejack's parents were, even if we still don't know much about why they're not around and may very well never know.
A lot of the episode's emotional beats are found in the main story between the Apple parents, namely their father Bright Mac and their mother Pear Butter. This story ultimately comes down to a much happier version of Romeo & Juliet, but the characters are deeply charming and their plight is easy to sympathise with. The flashback story has an abbreviated structure, and by necessity it jumps from beat to beat, but that just enhances its emotional pull. Both parents are only lightly characterized, but they're distinctive enough, and the flashback structure gives the spotlight to their situations. We see how heartfelt their love is, and we see how they're both torn between love and family. Pear Butter's ultimate choice to stay with the Apples is clearly a difficult one, and that's exactly what makes it so heart-wrenching.
And it's just so sweet. The episode's structure carries that wistful tone from the performances, only showing us major highlights of Bright Mac and Pear Butter's romance, and while it's cliched and cheesy, I'm just a sucker for this kind of stuff, and it's structured perfectly here. We see a few small moments where they're starting to get together, then a song abbreviates their growing relationship, and then one small gesture represents its peak right before Pear Butter's father, Grand Pear, announces his intention to move to Vanhoover. It makes for a very mushy story, to be sure, but it's also an effective one, and I'm not gonna lie, I cried at the end. It's also enhanced by the framing story, which is triggered by Grand Pear returning to Ponyville to sell his wares and ends with him visiting Sweet Apple Acres to make amends. I can't discern an explicit moral from any of this, but it's all just so emotional!
"The Perfect Pear" is irresistible on a level with some of the show's best episodes. It suffers from vagueness in certain areas, and I wish it had answered more questions about the Apple parents, but what we've got is adorable, moving, and surprisingly deep between the lines. The best moments here are small ones which only enhance the subtle melancholy of the framing story, and there's a powerful message about moving on after tragedy if you're willing to read that much into it. I still wish this episode based its emotions on something more tangible, and its refusal to address what happened to Applejack's parents feels cowardly, but even as is, this is easily one of the best this season and is an absolute delight from start to finish. We just don't get episodes like this that often anymore.
Score:
Entertainment: 10/10
Characters: 9/10
Themes: 6/10
Story: 7/10
Overall: 83/100
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