Which Season is the Best?

[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.