Well this was slightly unfortunate… just when I thought this season had a pretty good start, they have something like this. On regular standards, this episode is mediocre, however, it missed so many opportunities, and I couldn’t help but feel disappointed by the end.
This episode surrounds the lovable CMC (Cutie mark crusaders) as they get thrust into a somewhat serious situation that involves a serious subject. Bullying. And an episode dealing with such a serious subject needs to be either A.) Great character wise or… B.) Seriously dealt with!
Instead, this show went the EXTREMELY safe route, which could be considered worst of all. As not only does it come off as lazy, irreverent, and dumb, but also as a boring episode of television all together. And I say these criticisms not because I’m some ignorant asshole, but because I see many ways they could have improved on this episode!
“One Bad Apple” introduces a new character, Babs Seed, whom is equally adorable and interesting… until she opens her mouth in the second scene. From an interesting clean slate to develop a cool and interesting character I’d want to see back on the show, they instead went for the two-dimensional boring character. If you haven’t already guessed, she turned on the CMC and began bullying them, by siding with the worst characters of the show (not personality wise, but in general).
Here’s where I think this episode faltered and failed completely. It had an opportunity to create these absolutely terrible characters (Diamond Tiara, and Silver Spoon) into 3-dimensional beings with interesting backstories and some fantastic dialogue. But nope, nope nope nope nope NOPE… instead they went the safe and boring route where the CMC get bullied and have to stoop down and form some elaborate high jinx to get back at her, only to have it backfire… etc etc. We have seen all of this before in many different shows.
Instead of focusing on the CMC (who are fairly well developed) they could have switched gears and focused as to why DT and SS are such bitches all the time. How maybe… JUST MAYBE, DT has some issues with her father (Filthy Rich, that’s his name…). For example, he could not pay much attention to her, causing her to act out in that sort of way. And how SS thinks she’d look better by putting other people down due to her hidden insecurity issues. This, THIS could have been the most character driven and BEST episode the show has ever done. This is why I have such immense frustration over this episode.
It took the safe route instead of creating something truly original. Something I could point to, to show skeptics of the show how interesting it can sometimes be. Now it’s just a stain on this season, marking the season’s first truly disappointing episode.
If I’m honest, the plot itself has already been done to death with countless shows out there, and if I didn’t notice these glaring possibilities I would have given this episode a high-mediocre grade and moved on. However, it truly fails at its core for providing a deep and heartfelt episode.
ANYWAY, let’s move on. The song in this episode? Fantastic. It was choreographed really well, animated to perfection, and sung fantastically. Plus it was catchy as hell. Also, the voice acting was convincing enough to pass for an episode like this. Lastly, Pinkie had some fun dialogue and amazing physical comedy bits that saved this episode for a split moment.
In the end, however, this episode was one I was not eager to re-watch. But again, these are just my opinions, and if you enjoyed this episode, the more power to you.
Pros:
-Good voice acting
-Fun setting
-Great song
-Pinkie Pie being awesome
Cons:
-Missed opportunities
-Oddly paced
-DT and SS being… well… them.
-Unconvincing storyline and redemption.
-Introducing a new character and failing to develop her well.
Grade: C-
awkwardreviews 
I took issue with Applejack telling the CMC that all of this could’ve been avoided if they had come to her. I do think that the first thing you should do if you’re being bullied is tell someone about it, but telling an adult doesn’t always solve everything. That’s a gross oversimplification. What is Applejack actually shown to do about Babs’ bullying when she finds out about it? Nothing. That, and to then imply that the CMC were becoming bullies themselves by trying to stand up to Babs is an awful message. When Babs arrived, she was terribly self-conscious about not having a cutie mark, so the CMC offered her a group where she could deal with that specific issue and have their support, and in return, she made their lives hell.
The CMC originally weren’t going to do anything, until she kept pushing them and acting like more of an asshole. Standing up to her does NOT automatically make them bullies. While I think the idea of centering the episode around Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon and actually giving them some depth and character development is an infinitely better idea, the episode still could’ve worked – if Babs wasn’t a bully, and if it focused on Babs learning to open up and overcome her insecurities by sticking with the CMC, and in the process becomes stronger, so that we really sympathize and cheer for her at the end when she stands up to DT and SS; if we actually got to know her over the course of the episode instead of just “she’s mean, she’s mean, she’s mean, oh wait, she’s actually not that bad after all”, which made it very hard to sympathize with her. I also didn’t think Pinkie was funny in this episode. All she said were bad jokes, like “Don’t leave me”.
All of that said, bullying has been handled far worse in cartoons before. Plus, it had an A-Team reference and a kickass song, but that’ll only get you so far. Hopefully they can give a bullying episode another shot in the future, and do it right. My grade: C
Appreciate the comment! I do agree that if they developed Babs a little more she could have been bearable but i digress. I think i was more referring to when Spike starts floating up into the air (in a Disney-ish way) after he smelled something delicious, and Pinkie running in and pushing him out of the way to float away on her own. I though that was hilarious, and the fact that the show wasn’t like ‘LOOK AT THIS JOKE’ made it also very subtle.
The song was amazing.
The rest of the episode… Meh
The moral was horrible, Babs’s motivation for bullying is unjustified, and seeing fillies being bullyied for an entire episode is just painfull. At least Pinkie was here, and the CMC were pretty much in-character.
So I’d say One Bad Apple is a good time… If you’re drunk
yeah, i wouldn’t say that i’d give this a “dogshit” but…. still. Maybe i’d forget it in T-minus 1 minute.