Did it start back in season 1?

[Powder]

Originally Posted by srmff

Anyway what I don't understand is the fact that everyone was complaining about Donnie being obsessive and the whole romance plot but now that it's subtly in the background and he isn't being obsessive, people are still complaining.

Again, that's exactly it. They know it's gonna come back at some point, & they'd rather it be done sooner than later. The folks who dislike it wanna get it out of the way & not worry that there's a looming romance plot over their heads.

Personally I like the Donnie/April thing, but I too am eager to see where it's going.

[Refractive Reflections]

I made a couple of posts about this gradual appearance of the problems mentioned:

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

The first season was the best of the series (at least from what I tried to continue in watching), particularly the first two-thirds of the first season.

One of the biggest reasons was that we saw the Turtles engage and relate to the characters, especially the villains, in a deeper way (Bradford with Mikey, Fishface with Raph, and Leo with Karai and Fong, Donnie with Timothy); by doing so, it revealed the different facets of the Turtles, and as the series continued, appeared to be a progressive path of character development for the Turtles. Yet as it neared closer to the end of season 1... somehow that all fell apart:

1) The increasing caricature or one-dimensional depiction of the main characters. Mikey's increasing idiocy, the hyperfocus on making Raph a one-dimensional character with anger problems, Donnie's growing stalker like behavior around April, April becoming more like a Mary Sue, the ongoing overemphasis of the Donnie-April-Casey love triangle, etc.

2) The transition of making the villains as interesting characters with a backstory (i.e. Bradford, Fishface), to becoming "mutant villains of the week" (Season 2 and afterward).

3) And the most grating: The plot amnesia with the show, which undermines whatever lessons learned or whatever little growth there was for the characters (i.e. through the characters relating to each other as explained earlier), and now traded for more cliche school morale messages (i.e. "I can do anything if I believe in myself and my training!")


I don't know if it was the pressure from Nick or the production crew to change the format of a serial show to a more procedural-leaning one (with the show's plot amnesia), or to focus on the action figure merchandise (aka "mutant of the week") from Nick, or the departure of Sternin & Ventimilia, is the cause for the very disappointing tone and execution shift, but somewhere near the end Season 1 there's a gradual change in the show's direction.

It wasn't my favorite TMNT series from the start, but at least with the first season there was a lot of potential from what I saw and I was genuinely interested to see where it would go, but it never seemed to want to explore that potential in the show's narrative or maybe it was just oblivious to what good potential it had. By the time I saw the Season 2 finale, all of that potential I once saw, now all seems wasted and a distant memory.

What makes it worse is how this show was seemingly meant to encapsulate the "best" of the TMNT legacy, but it doesn't seem to quite do that. It doesn't have the solid, serial-formatted storywriting that 4Kids has, neither does it have the witty humor of the OT but rather has low-brow immature humor (i.e. Mikey being painfully dumb, farts, belching, the ongoing love triangle). It has quickly forgotten villains and developments (i.e. the Technodrome, the Foot Clan becoming nearly invincible robots, TigerClaw's ruthlessness), which the show hypes beyond the actual magnitude of their impact. Strangely enough, the show seems to be on its own non-distinct (by using numerous other TMNT elements and horror movies) and fairly unimpressive path within the TMNT franchise.

Originally Posted by Refractive Reflections

For me, near the end of the 1st season the signs that made things go downhill for me was the gradual emergence of Mikey's stupidity (the beginning of one dimensional character depictions), introducing the Technodrome so soon within the series when it was so iconic of the OT rather than focusing on its own iconic imagery (the beginning overuse of OT elements), and then by the season 2 premiere with the first sign of plot amnesia (April storming away from the Turtles and leaving them, despite the constant Kraang threat when just back at the ending of "Karai's Vendetta", there was an intense emotional scene on how she would have to live in the lair for a long period of time because of the Kraang threat) and "mutant of the week" plots (with the mutagen canisters falling everywhere, which was a bit too obvious of a plot device though for creating any bizarre random mutant).

These signs became more prevalent as the second season progressed until it dawned on me that these "random" occurrences were changing the tone of the show in becoming the norm, and by the season 2 finale, I lost my patience with it and stopped watching.

Anyways, I lost interest with the Nick series, now even to the point of what's going on plotwise (midway through Season 3). So I don't know how things are now, it might have changed for all I know now, but I don't currently feel in putting effort into knowing about it.

[CyberCubed]

There is no plot amnesia. Plot threads and episodes are called back upon when the time arises to go back to them.

They're not going to have April stand around moaning about her mother for 20 episodes until they find her.