Does anyone else still feel like Season 1 is the best?

[Garfield]

I don't notice a drop or rise in quality through out the entire series. It's just been an okay show from the start to me. I don't recall it being better than any others though I prefer season 1 and 4 over season 2 and 3 being my least favorite. But I don't think any season is objectively better than another.

[Nasubionna]

Originally Posted by ObiWanFan4life

While I still enjoy the Nick TMNT show, I feel like the show has become hit and miss. The first season in my opinion wasn't perfect, but had the best writing, the most focused storyline, and the most consistent quality. Am I alone on this?

Not alone, I definitely feel the same way.

[TMNTInsighter]

Well, as part of my watch-from-beginning-to-present-episode run, I watched episodes "Baxter's Gambit" (underrated episode) and "Enemy of My Enemy" (good episode, more influential in later episodes than others think) and they remind me so much of late S3 episodes "The Fourfold Trap" (disappointment) and "Annihilation Earth" (masterpiece). I think the similarities would make good discussion in the meantime:

"BG" vs. "TFT"
BG was a light episode, as most S1 episodes are compared to S3. The turtles are still growing while learning just how difficult and dangerous their job can be. When they brought in a lot of the Avengers writers on the staff to make them act more serious and grown up later on, the animation and tone also took a melodramatic and more darker route as displayed in TFT (especially how it modeled itself after "Saw").
In the meantime, BG was still a funny and interactive episode that was able to successfully work out it's theme of the importance of foresight AND the sub theme of working together. TFT however couldn’t even recognize it’s own theme despite the fact that it was about working together as well: split up with no way out of their situations (save for contrivance on Leo’s part), Leo doing all the work, Splinter fighting Karai alone to the end, and a new “theme” (not giving up) shoehorned in at the end are your examples here! One of the few things TFT had going for it compared to BG was that it was able to make Stockman relevant without even being present as his character had long fallen by the wayside before this episode aired...not to mention that it was quite a welcome back for the mousers since the last time we saw them was in the S1 finale, and how Karai used them was ingenious!
What I meant by melodramatic earlier when describing S3 episodes, comes largely from the definition: sensational plot with exaggerated emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization. It was fun seeing Raph and Xever come to an understanding and develop each others' characters a little, even if they don't change at the end of the episode—which is still as it should be. Karai on the other hand, had been brainwashed since "The Deadly Venom" and one of the usual drawbacks with this trope is that there's no possibility for development, as was by and large the case here. Mind you, I did like how TFT concluded (very strikingly similar to how "The Invasion" ended), but the road it took to get there was not worthy.
In short, the plots are similar but the tone and characterizations are definitely different. S1 wins out here.

"EoME" vs. "AE"
These two episodes had several similarities going for them and most of it has to do with alliances and how fragile they can be. When you look back on it, it really is amazing how much the breaking up of these alliances mirror each other despite the difference in the magnitude of the consequences. The fact that they were both committed by a different side shows just how much the turtles have grown from it (and I'm sure it's a situation Leo wishes he could take back every day) while the other side has not--or even got the chance.
I've always said that "AE" is like an action and sci-fi version of a Shakespearean revenge tragedy...and no! Any comparisons between Brandon Auman and William Shakespeare is all in YOUR head! More than that, it's like chamber music for heroes and villains. And while I don't think it's the best episode of the series or season, I do say it's the standard by which all other episodes are measured. Just as how Splinter has built a legacy and redemption around the turtles after the tragedy that happened in Japan, the turtles have also built a legacy in gaining and inspiring allies to aid them in their causes (and for some of them, it is redemption). It's what allows LH and the turtles to work with someone who they've always regarded as an enemy (Bishop), and in allowing Bishop to gain some sort of redemption in helping them stop the Kraang's invasion, it shows just how different they are from the Shredder and the Triceratons...as the ending in Part 2 shows.
While EomE has Karai throughout a lot of the episode, the other still has her play a big role without being there. Could Karai's physical presence have stopped Shredder's betrayal in "AE"? If "Earth's Last Stand" is any indication, maybe. It certainly looked as though the creators intended to get the ending they wanted out of "AE" by any means--a weakness both TFT and this episode had (the only difference is that AE had more than enough to make up for any shortcomings). Now that I think about it, "Enemy of My Enemy" and TFT show just how different Karai's character is from Shredder, even back then. Karai was focused on what has to be done rather than the goal at hand, and in TFT Shredder gets the "focused" Karai he wanted back then. ...That's three out of the four episodes I mentioned that examine her character and show her importance, all in different ways. When you consider how turning against Karai in EomE was a mistake, Splinter (along with the fact that he felt he had no choice) might be forgiven for choosing to forge a (temporary) alliance with Saki. Unfortunately, as Karai has shown, she's no Shredder.
All in all, while "Enemy of my Enemy" is a great episode; "Annihilation Earth" is a masterpiece for doing so many things right (all while having enough to compensate for any of its shortcomings), including taking some of the strengths from Season 1 episodes like EomE and building on them.