The main thing that Rise has going against itself is that it replaces a version of the TMNT which was well thought out and brought together the best parts of previous versions.
- The Utrom council and Bishop from the 2003 series
- Alopex from the IDW series
- The Triceratons and Fugitoid from the Mirage series. (To be honest, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to dig those "lost in space" episodes but they turned out to be awesome.)
- The Punk frogs
- Making references to the movies in episodes like "Requiem"
- Referencing the "Me, myself and I" Mirage special which sees the introduction of Casey Jones
And took a fresh look at well established characters and made them different
- April is a teenager
- Casey Jones is a teenager and different from other incarnations, Casey and April do not become a couple.
- Master Splinter isn't a small stature seventies-something Yoda-kind of character but a 6 feet tall, very fit guy in his forties.
- The series was one continuous story, you can't watch episodes without them giving big spoilers to what happened before.
- Each turtle has a very distinct look. That was by far the best thing they did to the Turtles themselves and the idea that they all look different is also used in the Rise series.
So having to make a follow up to a show which went the distance as far as it did, would be like being on the Bill with a band like Queen, no way to follow it. So they didn't, they went at it with another POV.
But it IS telling that they've changed Michelangelo the least, no need to improve on perfection.
When watching Rise, I'm still waiting to hear him go "Booyakasha!"
