2k12 Appreciation Thread

[Turtle Soup]

This series is seriously underrated by most everybody here. 2k12 turned out better than anyone could expect.

[Zog The Magnificent]

I agree! The 2012 series is my favorite of the Ninja Turtles cartoons.

[neatoman]

I'd probably call it over-rated instead. There are quite a lot of people around here who are willing to ignore how the show fails to create a cohesive whole, despite clearly trying to, and failing miserably at it.

[newfan]

I find it had a mix when I first got here, good number of each who liked or disliked it, just time has passed so it's talked about less and also there are not too many talking on here anymore either.

[IndigoErth]

It had its weak spots, but it was a rather good show overall and a hell of a lot of thought and effort put into every aspect of creating it and appreciate that they did. (Heck, they even razzed the PD movies, that's the kind of show it was.) Served as a good middle ground between the '87 and 2003 shows.

There was plenty of episode discussion when the show was ongoing, and was the one show on tv that was a must for me and was usually eager to jump on here after each ep to talk about it. I miss that.


edit: Doesn't look like there's much appreciation for it now because the tons of old threads have probably fallen into archive status and are no longer active and included in the listed threads. They can probably be found via Google though.

[Zog The Magnificent]

I'd probably call it over-rated instead. There are quite a lot of people around here who are willing to ignore how the show fails to create a cohesive whole, despite clearly trying to, and failing miserably at it.

I refute the argument that it failed to create a cohesive whole. I wasn't crazy about either of the two finales, but the first four seasons and the first part of season 5 was an incredibly solid show. It had its ups and downs, sure, but I think it was overall good and well made.

If you're up for a discussion about it in more detail, I'd gladly participate, but if not, that's fine.

[Zulithe]

I think it gets very strong appreciation actually. And that will only grow with time.

[IMJ]

I agree... I don't think it's underrated by any means. I thinks it's generally accepted by the wider, older fanbase and it's probably the iteration of TMNT for a generation who watched it as kids ten years ago.

It's a great show.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Wait until 2030 something, when 2010's nostalgia kicks in. Fow now, this series rests in peace.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

I just bought and watched this whole series a couple of months ago and I was very impressed with it. I like all of the characters and their personalities. I can't say the same thing about Rise though. I like how they used a whole bunch of old characters even if they looked different like Mutagen Man, Wingnut, Slash, and even Beebop and Rocksteady. I especially like what they did with Napoleon Bonafrog.

[Aaronardo]

I need to rewatch this show sometime, because the only part of the show I feel compelled to revisit ever is Season 1. The whole writing team changed after that and iirc it showed...

I agree with neatoman that the show was attempting a cohesive whole but post-S1 it consistently shot itself in the foot while doing so. The "all is lost" moment of S4's finale is supposed to be Shredder killing Splinter, which would've felt climactic if they didn't fake out a Splinter death twice across the previous two season finales.

The Kraang were an important secondary threat alongside Shredder in Season 1, but kinda f*cked off randomly after Season 3 despite subsequent appearances by Kraang Sub-Prime. They got no send-off or ultimate defeat, there was no reason to believe S3's finale would've put them out of commission, certainly not any more than their other grand defeats. They're one of the more egregious elements the show just forgot about, but there were others like Mutagen Man and Xever that felt like they saw their last major appearances before their stories were really over.

There's also a massive time paradox in Earth's Last Stand that would make the show's entire universe fold in onto itself that's hand-waved away by the show (very similar to one that even the 1987 series acknowledged and made a plot point in its 10th season).

The dialogue gets worse too. I rarely got the impression post-S1 that these were actual conversations people would have with each other, like something out of a bad fanfic. S1 never had that problem, and on my recent 2003 watch if that show ever had that problem it felt more "comic book pulp" than fanfic. Again, I could be misremembering as it's been a few years, but for a show that wants you to take it a little seriously it sure has some awkward dialogue. One of my personal favs is in my signature, from S5's "Heart of Evil."

All that said, I really like a lot about the show. Its visual design is stellar with some nice Turtle designs and its fight scenes started good and only got better. And I trash on post-S1 but there were plenty of gems that kept me watching when it was airing, like the Slash ep and the Mad Max 3-parter. Voice cast was absolute genius for the most part, KMR as Shredder is just one of those things you hear and you go "yeah, it shouldn't be anybody else."

[superstaff]

I need to rewatch this show sometime, because the only part of the show I feel compelled to revisit ever is Season 1. The whole writing team changed after that and iirc it showed...

I still wonder why. Anyone know?

I agree with neatoman that the show was attempting a cohesive whole but post-S1 it consistently show itself in the foot while doing so. The "all is lost" moment of S4's finale is supposed to be Shredder killing Splinter, which would've felt climactic if they didn't fake out a Splinter death twice across the previous two season finales.

Yep. Stuff like that tires out viewers, and the impact of a huge loss like Splinter's death gets considerably weakened.

The Kraang were an important secondary threat alongside Shredder in Season 1, but kinda f*cked off randomly after Season 3 despite subsequent appearances by Kraang Sub-Prime. They got no send-off or ultimate defeat, there was no reason to believe S3's finale would've put them out of commission, certainly not any more than their other grand defeats. They're one of the more egregious elements the show just forgot about, but there were others like Mutagen Man and Xever that felt like they saw their last major appearances before their stories were really over.

Well put, and agreed wholeheartedly.

There's also a massive time paradox in Earth's Last Stand that would make the show's entire universe fold in onto itself that's hand-waved away by the show (very similar to one that even the 1987 series acknowledged and made a plot point in its 10th season).

Yes, agreed. I realized this after re-watching the Red Sky episodes last year, and it's embarrassing that the 2012 series was more careless about this plot point than the FW series. Eesh.

All that said, I really like a lot about the show. Its visual design is stellar with some nice Turtle designs and its fight scenes started good and only got better. And I trash on post-S1 but there were plenty of gems that kept me watching when it was airing, like the Slash ep and the Mad Max 3-parter. Voice cast was absolute genius for the most part, KMR as Shredder is just one of those things you hear and you go "yeah, it shouldn't be anybody else."

Yeah, this is more or less my same thoughts except add in a pure hatred of the intended 'series finale' of Mutant Apocalypse, and I guess I hated their crossovers with the 1987 TMNT too. I feel like the show got lost in itself at times, though I still enjoyed much of it. It just could've been way more solid than it ended up being.

[Aaronardo]

I still wonder why. Anyone know?

As far as I know, we never got any confirmation on this. The best speculation I can come up with is that Jennifer Ventimilia might have undergone gender reassignment around the same time as Season 2 would begin production. (https://deadline.com/2013/11/sternin-ventimilia-sell-autobio) Therefore, there may have been friction with Nickelodeon execs (the same execs that were supposedly "no-go" on gay in Legend of Korra), or it may have been a willing departure since she and Joshua Sternin sold a show to ABC reflecting that time in their lives. Either way, I'd be willing to bet that had something to do with it.

Also, something I forgot to mention -- generally I like the characterization in this show. It's the first time I remember Splinter acting like an overprotective stern parent and that actually working.

One of my favorite Michelangelo stories in general is this show's "It Came From The Depths," because it pushes the empathetic side of the character to the forefront as a distinguishing factor versus his brothers -- which is a rare treat among media outside of the comics. An argument could be made at that point in the show that Mikey is the most emotionally and socially mature of the four. But they wasted no time turning him into a complete brain-dead idiot after that. It seriously blows my mind watching, for example, the beginning of "Battle For New York" and wondering how that can possibly be the same character.