Wish Sprig didn't fall for her at the end. Platonic friendships are so important.
Ivy: [Low voice.] "Do you like being randomly attacked?"
Anne: "Not at all!"
Ivy: [Normal voice.] "Well, too bad. See you later, Sprig." [Sinister voice.] "But you won't see me."Hop Pop: "I'm getting the courtship kit." [Running up stairs.]
Anne: "This is so exciting! I'm gonna go get my dating magazines. BRB!" [Runs off.]
[Awkward silence.]
Polly: "I don't actually care."Hop Pop: "If our families merge, WE'LL BE RICH!"
Hop Pop: "All right, boy, go get that lucrative business relationship! I mean, romantic relationship."
[Chuckles.]
Hop Pop: "Saved it."
Polly: "Uh, counterpoint. Why don't we just LEAVE THEM ALONE?!"
Hop Pop: "Sprig, next time we won't get the courtship kit out until you're good and ready. Now I can focus on finding love for Polly."
Polly: "NO!"
Anne: "Oh, you just fell in love with her, didn't you?"
Sprig: "Yeah, I just fell in love with her."
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-12-20T03:26:34Z
[7.6/10] I enjoyed this one a lot! I love the idea that Spring and his young playmate Ivy have a tremendous spark together that occurs naturally from their mutual loose, roughhousing styles, but that in trying to stoke it, their parents and friends almost snuff it out by forcing them into traditional modes and rituals. It’s a little outsized, as most things on Amphibia are, but there’s something true at its core, and something funny in how it satirizes both parental expectations (and machinations) for their children’s romantic lives, and the relationship article industrial complex at the same time.
Part of what makes it work is that Sprig and Ivy are very cute together. The fact that Ivy loves to engage in surprise ambushes of Sprig is adorable. The duo have a great, free spirited energy between them that endears you to them as a pairing. I also enjoyed how mutually awkward but game they felt about having to dress up and do the dance and all the other things their guardians expect of them. And the fact that they cut loose and go watch fireflies instead shows how, despite their parents messing this up by trying to force it, the duo are so natural together.
I do get a kick out of Hop Pop and Felicia Sundew taking a very traditionalist and transactional approach to the budding romance. Both have sclerotic expectations for how a courtship ought to progress that throws roadblocks in love’s way rather than easing its path. And the fact that they see this as much as a business transaction -- trading labor for special seeds -- shows how craven and ridiculous the elder generation’s perspective on such things is.
But I appreciate the fact that there’s a dig at the current generation too. Anne is hardly the voice of reason, necessarily, but she’s closer to having Sprig’s best interests at heart than Hop Pop here. And yet she’s not only blinkered by Cosmopolitan-style nonsense, but she gives Sprig a complex about all the magazine’s made-up/implausible statistics rather than just following his heart with someone he’s already in sync with.
There’s some good gags that follow, with the adorable/terrifying love birds, and as usual Poly being a total blast as the one member of the family who recognizes how ludicrous all this messing with romantic success is. And Ivy and Sprig proving that they’re good doing things their way by rescuing the lot of them from the malevolent love birds is a good note to go out on.
Overall, this is a successful introduction to a new (hopefully) recurring character and relationship for the show, and “Dating Season” does it well. Throw in some good jokes and a nice message, and you have a superb episode.