S06:E09 - The Saddle Row Review

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

Hello, new favorite Season 6 episode! I was very much reminded sweep of "Castle Mane-ia". Put the Mane Six in a kooky situation that lets their unique characters shine through, and enjoy the hilarity that ensues! This episode gave us sweep sweep so many meme-worthy faces, too. Each of the Mane Six gets sweep sweep their turn in the spotlight, fan favorites return, along with the introduction of what will sweep sweep certainly become a new fan favorite supporting sweep character and the flashback in a flashback concept was pretty sweep too.

 

I give this episode full marks, sweep out of sweep.

 

Sweep sweep sweep sweep...

[Stardust* 3,302]

I very much enjoyed it! Especially the adorable Fluttershy!!! And those raccoons lol

 

 

 

I liked the style of this one. It was fitting, made it more entertaining in my opinion.

[cider float 2,537]

The building owner had what I'm assuming is a Russian accent. I wonder if that means there are parts of Equestria or other pony lands that speak Russian? There's already a precedent with french...

 

Beyond the overthinking, great episode. Rarity is one of my favorite ponies and her episodes are usually very well rounded, must be why she's one of my favorites  .

 

Another episode with DJ-Pon3 and she has still yet to say a word.. 

I wonder why there is a stereotype of Russians being landlords? The landlord for Peter Parker in Spiderman was also Russian somewhat.

[Sunny Fox 5,950]

I wonder why there is a stereotype of Russians being landlords? The landlord for Peter Parker in Spiderman was also Russian somewhat.

It might be a deliberate reference... if I remember rightly, that landlord also had a teenage daughter...

[Justin_Case001 4,882]

Fabulous.  A++.  Rarity's Running Riot continues.  She always gets the best spotlights.  And poor Dashie often gets the worst, which is a shame because I really love her.

 

Anyway, this was a smash hit.  Not too much to say, it was just great, through and through.  I absolutely loved the interview storytelling style.  The back and forth chronological jumps and rapid cuts between ponies was brilliant.  Actually, it really felt like a step up in cinematography for the show.  To me, it felt like a very modern, slightly edgy, and overall mature storytelling style that assumes intelligence on the part of the viewer.  This is one of the reasons I really love this show.  For all the times when the drop the ball, there are just as many times where they raise the bar for how a story can be told in a kid's show.

 

In fact, the interviews were by far the best part for me.  I'd love an entire episode of just interviews.  Kind of a pony mocumentary.  That would be amazing.  But those interview scenes had some of the funniest lines and creative new facial expressions of the series to date.  AJ and RD's hoofbump was particularly good.  And of course, Twilight's Sweep Jam, or whatever you want to call it, was genius.  I wouldn't be surprised if that becomes as big of a meme as 20% cooler.  I want to see bronies wearing Twilight Sweep shirts!

 

And then we have the Pinkie clone.  Holy crap.  You better believe I flipped out at that one.  It's possible that it was meant to just be a throwaway gag, and not to be taken too seriously, but I'm assuming it's completely real.  After thinking about it for a bit, it's not a continuity error in the slightest.  They rounded up the Pinkies in Too Many Pinkie Pies, mostly by AJ herding them, and they basically just assumed they got 'em all.  In fact, I think they even said, "I think that's all of 'em".  I don't think they counted, and even if they did, they had no way of knowing how many there actually were.  And one of those Pinkies could have easily just skipped town at any time throughout the entire episode, and nopony would have any way of knowing.  If she actually settled in Manehattan, it's plausible that no one would even recognize her.  So, yeah, wow.  An escaped clone.  This feels reminiscent of The Sixth Day.  As in the end of that movie, it seems best for the two Pinkies to just go their separate ways and live their separate lives.  This actually opens up some interesting story opportunities, though I doubt they'll ever mention it again.  Probably just gonna go the way of Fluttershy's bat fang.

 

I think that's all I had.  Awesome, awesome episode.

 

 

Too bad Spike missed out on all the excitement.

mhm. it sure is kinda bad for twi to just leave him home hope he behaved well when they're gone

He probably went to the Hoofball game in the Crystal Empire with Big Mac.  I think they were playing Fillidelphia this week.

[Thaliel 116]

At least one Pinkie clone has survived...or could it actually be the real pinkie while we have been deceived by a clever clone the whole time? ....dundundunnnnnnnnnnn

[Hazy Skies 1,010]

At least one Pinkie clone has survived...or could it actually be the real pinkie while we have been deceived by a clever clone the whole time? ....dundundunnnnnnnnnnn

 

Hahaha I don't think so.. The real Pinkie would have no reason to hide or disguise herself..

 

And interesting observation though.. I wonder if we'll ever see her again as a running joke, or

if this is the only moment we get to see.. Uhh.. Pinkopy Pie? Idk..

[OtakuBrony 349]

Howdy all!

 

Another great episode this week!

 

Rarity was being Rarity As she opened up her own shop in Manhattan with help from her friends.

At first i thought it was gonna be Rarity takes Manhattan redux but nope it came off as hillarious romp.

 

Nick Confalone writes another gem in this episode.

 

The rest of the mane ponies was funny during the interview with the reporter Buried Lede (The J Jonah Jameson lookalike voiced by Alan Mariot)

 

Alan also voiced Mr.Stripes the landlord.

He was a hoot.

 

His daughter Plaid voiced by Lili Beaudoin

Was pretty cool too.

 

Bummer DJ PON3 did get a voice but someday she will.

 

Poor Coco Pommel with bad case of the sniffles.

 

Im curious no Spike in the episode.

 

Ya know how he feels about helping out our favorite Fashonista.

 

(Anything for you Rarity!-Spike from Castle Sweet Castle)

 

Overall it was fun to watch.

Edited May 22, 2016 by OtakuBrony

[PiratePony 8,475]

Fantastic Mane 6 episode featuring Rarity.

 

It hit a little close to home, living in New York City, even though I'm in an outerborough. Angry landlords, loud music pumping through your store (in this case my house during the summers), and even the way her boutique looked in the end was very New Yorkish. 

 

Rarity and a "rag-tag group of ne'er-do-wells": perfect description of the MLP Cast.

 

I absolutely adored the Mane 6's moments in this one. I thought Dashie was absolutely adorable and hilarious in particular. Although all of them had great moments that made them...them. 

 

The friendship lesson here was great and really sweet. By using their own special skills and personalities, they were able to help her out in her time of need. And the way Tabby delivered the last line ("I know I can always count on all of you, and nothing can be more perfect than that") really tugged at the heart strings.

 

A++.

[Redhatbrony 59]

I am  feeling a little disappointed about this episode.

And have to apologise for this review.

But I really think, that is an average episode.

Excuse my lack of investment.

https://youtu.be/56C3AIK4t1M

[Emiko Gale 199]

I love me a Rarity-centric episode but didn't we already have one a few episodes ago? But then again Rarity-centric episodes are usually well written.

 

I was on the edge of me seat! I expected a disaster...And I feared this episode would become a generic character is stressed out and ends up working her friends to death and has to apologize trope but it didn't!

 

Also Pinkie was hilarious in this episode. Wonderful episode bravo!

[JH24 385]

After re-watching the episode I suddenly realized that no one is even noticing the princess of friendship helping with the opening of the boutique. Like for example Mr. Stripes. Or even a comment from that reporter he had an exclusive interview with Princess Twilight. You would think that's the best kind of promotion and advertising for Rarity's new store.

 

On the other hand, I think I like it this way. Twilight can stay herself and nothing about her interactions with others has to change.

Edited May 22, 2016 by JH24

[Foliha 395]

mhm. it sure is kinda bad for twi to just leave him home hope he behaved well when they're gone

Since the entire Mane Six was away, he was probably pet sitting.

[Truffles 2,033]

 

 

Fabulous.  A++.  Rarity's Running Riot continues.  She always gets the best spotlights.  And poor Dashie often gets the worst, which is a shame because I really love her.

 

Although this was technically a Rarity episode, I don't really consider it one since the resolution didn't depend on her very much and she was not the character focused on. She bookended the title sequence and had a few scenes in the middle, and then got locked in the display window while her friends fixed the problem they created on their own.

 

This was truly a ReMane 5 episode where the others beside the one who set up the premise got all of the focus.

 

If it helps, I'd say Rainbow was in top form in this episode. I found her interstitials to be the funniest overall, even though the "Sweep, sweep. sweep" moment and Pinkie copy callback were the two highlights of the episode for me. Rainbow's "Why are you writing this down?" questions, facial expressions, and "sweepmix" brohoof with AJ were the most consistently funny parts of the interview.

 

 

 

After re-watching the episode I suddenly realized that no one is even noticing the princess of friendship helping with the opening of the boutique. Like for example Mr. Stripes. Or even a comment from that reporter he had an exclusive interview with Princess Twilight. You would think that's the best kind of promotion and advertising for Rarity's new store.

 

Yeah. I'm just happy the reporter didn't treat the princess like she was some kind of low life, however. Maybe word about her desire to not be treated like royalty has finally spread to the far reaches of the realm?

 

 

Since the entire Mane Six was away, he was probably pet sitting.

 

I'd like to think:

Twilight, whispering: "Spike, keep an eye on Starlight - make sure she doesn't stray from the path I've set her on."

Spike: "You got it!"

Twilight, whispering: "Starlight, keep an eye on Spike - make sure he doesn't get greedy and turn into a 5-story high monster, okay?"

Starlight: "Um, sure... Should I know more about this?"

[Amethyst Splash 86]

Why have a sweeping song? It was weird.... yay

Edited May 22, 2016 by OreoPony

[Scootalove 10,689]

This episode took a somewhat boring concept and ran a home run using said concept, balancing out the comedy and giving each of the Mane 6 a chance to shine. Boy did they shine in this episode! I tend to have a heartwarming sensation when watching a character centric episode focusing on one character or more, it helps a character learn and grow.

 

I'm giving this Rarity episode, an +A. Fabulous, darling!

 

[powerpuff-tsubasa 448]

Since the entire Mane Six was away, he was probably pet sitting.

hopefully he doesnt fail pet sitting like the other episode. he can be bratty about diamonds -.-

[bluseymoe 258]

Great mane 6 episode disguised as a Rarity episode. 10/10 Rainbow Dash as well. She really stole the show in that one diner scene.

[snowflame 189]

Nice that it was not just a Rarity episode, I missed mane six doing things together. Pinkie Pie clone was a highlight. But it was a bit meh for me, especially after the amazing episode last week. There should have been at least little less formula, everyone except Twilight was doing the "what Rarity would want" bit. And I would have liked a bit more unreliable narrators for comedy and suspense, I like the flashback format a lot but not everything was taken out of it.

[twiia 1,843]

Who else thinks the Plaid Stripes is crazy?

 

Anyways, Rarity episodes are usually great, this one being no exception. I was so excited for this one to air, and it was so worth watching.

[Weird Thing 10]

This was probably the funniest episode ever. The sweeping part was hilarious.

[Music Chart Fan 819]

Overall, this episode was okay. There were some entertaining moments, the structure of the episode is different than the norm, and the story is good enough, but I don't really find all of it to be terribly compelling or rewatchable. As I detail below, we never find out why all of the work preparing the boutique had to be done in one day, the Mane Six seem particularly naive about how they approached their interviews, and it's frustrating to see Rarity and Applejack dealing with Plaid Stripes.

 

First, possibly the biggest source of conflict in the episode is that Rarity and the rest of the Mane Six have to freak out trying to get the boutique ready for the opening that night. But how was Rarity not aware that there's a dance club above the rented space? And why did Rarity seemingly do no work preparing the boutique before opening day? Did the landlord refuse to allow Rarity access until her planned opening day? This seems like it should be a major part of the story, and the subsequent article written about it, but the audience never finds out the reason for the rush.

 

Next, the Mane Six seem particularly naive about what they said to Buried Lede and how they handled their interviews. When they were first contacted about interviewing for a story about how Rarity's boutique came together, they should have kept in mind that the primary goal is to try to get positive publicity for Rarity and her boutique. Everyone contacted should have worked with Rarity to come up with a plan: what Rarity wants the story to be, whether they should accept interviews at all, and if so, how they should act and what they should and shouldn't say. Rarity has talked both in this episode and before about how brutal and cutthroat the fashion industry can be, and that would extend to the press covering it. This whole article could easily have been an attempted smear piece or hit job, and they all should have been prepared for that possibility.

 

Instead, the interviewees frequently badmouth how Rarity's boutique came together and don't acquit themselves very well during their interviews. No one should be saying things like "It was a plum-puckered, pig-pushin' disaster!". Rainbow shouldn't be saying anything that she doesn't want to be written down. Pinkie shouldn't be stuffing her face with an obscene amount of food and sticking Buried Lede with the bill. Plaid Stripes probably should have been kept away from being interviewed entirely. No one should be acting too self-satisfied or rambling about irrelevant details. All of these things could give Buried Lede a bad impression and affect the article he writes, or even become part of the article itself. But the thing is, the rest of the Mane Six only seemed to realize the potentially bad consequences of their interviews after the fact, as we see when they're rushing over to Rarity's boutique to try to stop her from reading the article. What did they think would happen when they gave their interviews? Rainbow says "I still can't believe we all just blabbed everything that happened to that reporter!" and Fluttershy says she wishes Buried Lede's behind-the-scenes access had been more fettered, but they have no one to blame but themselves.

 

Of course, the final article ended up having a relatively positive spin, with Buried Lede apparently being "a believer". It's rather surprising that he put up with and made an article out of the ramblings of all of the Mane Six, the raccoons Fluttershy brought along, Plaid Stripes, and Coco Pommel. Would this story really have been expected to be all that interesting to readers, to be worth all the work it took to write it? But it seems that Rarity lucked out and everyone's misbehavior during the interviews hasn't yet come back to bite them. Still, some readers of the article, despite whatever positive spin Buried Lede gave it, could come away from it with a more negative impression of Rarity and her Manehattan boutique. They could still conclude that Rarity only barely has her act together, and that the long-term success of her "whimsical" Manehattan boutique is still in doubt.

 

Another thing about the episode is that I can't see Plaid Stripes as anything but an entitled brat, and it's painful to watch Rarity and especially Applejack indulging her ego, apologizing to her and saying she has "good ideas". Mr. Stripes is forcing Rarity to "hire" her as a condition of renting space in his building, although it seems less like "hiring" and more like babysitting, with the further insult of having to pay for the "privilege". When Plaid Stripes yells about her delusions of what she would sell and how she would operate the store, I wish she would be told "No, you don't get to say how the store is run - you're the employee and you do what your employer tells you to do". If I were in Rarity's place, Plaid Stripes would be doing menial work - things that, with her total lack of qualifications, she hopefully wouldn't mess up too badly - unless and until she proves herself to be a valuable employee. In the meanwhile, the employees with actual qualifications could do the real work. Of course, the problem is that Plaid Stripes can always run and cry to Daddy whenever she doesn't like something. Consequently, I would be doing the bare minimum to prevent that from happening - so, for example, no superfluous praise to feed her ego or pretending that she's a valuable contributor when she isn't. 

 

I've had to work with people who were hired solely because of their connections to people in positions of authority, rather than because of their merit and qualifications, and this situation with Plaid Stripes definitely brings back those feelings of frustration and resentment. Everyone (me, my colleagues, my supervisors) was frequently annoyed and exasperated with the "privileged hire", but we all had to pretend that we weren't. We had to keep finding things for the "privileged hire" to do that couldn't be messed up too badly (because, as you might expect, she didn't really have the aptitude for the kind of work we were doing), and even then, we still had to clean up her messes and often redo her work the right way. We could have gotten more and better work done in less time without the "privileged hire" around. I can easily see a similar outcome with Plaid Stripes, Rarity, and the rest of the boutique employees in the future.

 

Finally, the raccoon family, if we are to treat them as sentient like ponies or humans, are clearly squatting on Rarity's rented space and on Mr. stripes's property. Consequently, the raccoons have no right, and should have no expectation, to continue to live there if Rarity doesn't want them there. And so, when Fluttershy asks them to leave, it's clearly illegitimate for them to try to attack her, and she or any of the rest of the Mane Six would have been justified to use force to stop them and remove them from the premises. Again, if the raccoons are supposed to be sentient, then they have to respect property rights like every other sentient member of society.

 

Now for the rest of my miscellaneous observations:

 

We might expect Coco Pommel to have better manners than to sneeze right in Rarity's face, rather than covering it.

 

I couldn't help noticing that none of the Mane Six's jobs they volunteered to do involved finishing cleaning or renovating the place, which you would think would be a pretty high priority. And there were a lot of renovations done - apparently new walls, lots of new lighting, inset shelves in the walls, clothing racks, making the setup for DJ Pon-3, and on and on. How was there enough time for all of that to be installed in a matter of hours? And how could all of that have been done without alerting Rarity at all?

 

Couldn't the rest of the Mane Six have gotten at least a little direction from Rarity before rushing off to the tasks they volunteered to do? For example, how hard would it have been for Twilight to ask Rarity how she would like the clothing organized, or for Rainbow to ask Rarity what hiring qualifications to look for?

 

I expected the potential salesponies to refuse to participate in, or at least protest, Rainbow's race - wouldn't that be undignified, and irrelevant besides?

 

If Rarity was locked inside the left window display all day, then who set up the right window display, and when? Was Rarity really okay with spending that much time on one window display and not the other?

 

Rarity seems to spend very little time looking around the newly renovated boutique before she opens it, and we don't even see her ask any questions about anything. She would probably be woefully unprepared if anyone asks her any questions about, say, the layout or design of her boutique.

 

The way that Pinkie shamefully pushes the check for her obscene amount of food to Buried Lede doesn't say anything good about her character. Either there was no arrangement for him to pay for the food and Pinkie is trying to pawn the bill off on him anyway, or if there was such an arrangement, Pinkie far overstepped his hospitality. Although if the latter were the case, I would wonder why Buried Lede didn't cut her off at some point.

 

Finally, I don't get how this whole dance club/boutique combination is supposed to work. Is the club upstairs still operational, or is Rarity's boutique effectively the club now? Will ponies have to pass security at the door, and maybe even be charged to enter, as though it's a club, even if they're only there to shop? Or is there no charge to enter the boutique, like any normal store, but DJ Pon-3 is now being paid by Rarity? This seems like a complicated arrangement, and something I would think that Rarity would want to be privy to and approve of herself.

[Thrond 3,263]

After re-watching the episode I suddenly realized that no one is even noticing the princess of friendship helping with the opening of the boutique. Like for example Mr. Stripes. Or even a comment from that reporter he had an exclusive interview with Princess Twilight. You would think that's the best kind of promotion and advertising for Rarity's new store.

 

On the other hand, I think I like it this way. Twilight can stay herself and nothing about her interactions with others has to change.

She seems to be happiest when she can forget that she's a princess. 

[Jangocoolguy 433]

Not a fan of the lesson--which is one we've had before, and better--but it was oh-so lively and funny I really don't mind

 

While making much of the episode an elaborate flashback within a flashback was a little confusing, but once you got the hang of it it's quite a ride

[Sig Hoovestrong 838]

Lovely episode with good narrative. I like twist with havin episode play out as they were telling the story to this reporter also he reminds me some person….

Where is Spidermare!

 

Yes it had allot good character moment followed up by funny ones. Writer i feel did good.

Good work Nick Confalone. Good work *Claps his hooves*