User blog:AnimationFan15/Why "Deep Cuts" Fails

When I gave my first thoughts on "Deep Cuts" on DeviantArt a few days ago, I was a little too angry to say anything because I was just baffled at how bad it was. Now that I took some time to think about it, I'm going to elaborate on why I find this episode to be really problematic, and why it's deserving of the 3/10 I gave it.

The Good Things
First, some positives. I know I'm contradicting myself here when I stated previously that nothing made me laugh. Well, that time of processing actually made me remember on what I did like about the episode.


 * 1) The song is actually really catchy. The best part of the song was the reprise at the end, where Lori, Luna and Luan's harmonious singing was amazing.
 * 2) Luan calling Luna a "hippie". I don't know why, but that felt good.
 * 3) The giant acorn destroying the school. The reason I found that funny is because it felt like the ultimate wake-up call for the protesters to show them how idiotic they've been acting.

The Problems
Even if I like those three things, the episode is still really hard to sit through. Here are some of the main problems I have with the episode.


 * 1) Lori and Luan were thrown in just to make more conflict. I think one of the biggest red flags of this problem is just from the plot alone. It states that Luna is leading a protest to save the music club, but surprise, Lori and Luan are leading protests too, because their protests are affecting the other clubs.
 * 2) Lincoln's complete uselessness. There are two things about Lincoln here that are really problematic. First, his role in the episode is completely unnecessary, and just feels added in to make the episode longer or to throw in a joke that really failed to land. Second, I found Lincoln's actions here really dumbed down, as he's unknowingly intervening in an ongoing argument, and making comments like nothing is happening. For example, during the second argument, Lincoln is just stating what Lynn Sr. is cooking for dinner, not noticing that the three bickering sisters are in the middle of something (throughout this whole scene, I'm like "Dude, now's not the time. Why are you telling them this now?")
 * 3) The repetitive humor in not interesting. You know why I find "Not a Loud" and "Can't Hardly Wait" good episodes despite their repetitiveness? It's because the joke is executed differently every time the setup is used. It also helps that the humor in those episodes were well-paced and rapid fire, which keeps it engaging to watch. In "Deep Cuts" however, the repetition comes from the fact that the sisters are just arguing with each other because of their actions, and just do the same shtick with their principal every time.
 * 4) The pacing in this episode is way too fast. For the first entire half of the episode, it has this formula: some club is cancelled due to budget cuts, the members of said club do a performance in front of their principal to change her mind, the principal agrees to keep the club, another club is cancelled as a result, rise and repeat. Just when it seems like everything is saved, everyone goes back to arguing, they accidentally destroy the school, and make enough money to fix it all in the span of five minutes. With the amount of content in this episode, it honestly feels like this should have been a full length episode.

There it is, my reasons on why "Deep Cuts" is an episode that just isn't for me. Is it one of the worst of the series? Absolutely not, as it more decency than the episodes I hate from Season 1. In all honesty, I think "Deep Cuts" could've been a good episode if the entire story was just Luna and her band mates spending the entire episode fighting to save their club, and the conflict could stem from the group's struggle to convince the principal to change her mind.