Worst season of the FW show?

[ToTheNines]

I lumped all of Red Sky together since it just makes up 24 episodes. Feel free to explain if you want to single one out in particular. I know some people hate season 9.

I think my vote goes to season 4. It probably has the worst stinker to banger ratio.

[sdp]

I personally find Season 7 boring, the first Lord Dregg season is also bad. Season 6 is not a strong season either but isn't that one the one that has all the playmates mutants appearing every episode? So that at least made those subpar episodes special even if they weren't particularly strong eps.

Season 4 might have too many "meh" episodes in a row and the fact the season is like 40 eps long doesn't help things but most of those are not truly terrible.

[neatoman]

I suppose you didn't put the first three seasons on the poll because of fan consensus that they have "a lot of 'good' episodes"? If I had to pick on of the pre-selected poll options, I would say 4 because there is a very obvious focus on quantity over quality there, just keep in mind that as far as I'm concerned there really isn't much meaningful difference from season 3 in that regard. They both essentially have the same problems largely stemming from the idea that you can just make over 40 episodes in one season to boost the total episode count, which is a very bad idea. Some might say season 4 has more bad ideas but I really can't tell given how many episodes of the are just built on bad ideas regardless of season, so it's not like I'm actually more impressed by season 3 when it has stuff like "let's reprogram a garbage collecting machine to flood the Technodrome with turtles" and "let's make the single worst Mxyzptlk homage ever".

The show wasn't exactly good even a season had fairly few episodes, season 1 had a bunch of really weird plot problems that people just seem to ignore and the final three seasons seemed to lower the episode count more to keep the budget down than increase quality, but I can at least say they seemed a little more selective about the ideas. A lot of seasons 3 and 4 scripts just seem to have gone into production, not because anyone thought they had good ideas, but because they "needed" an unusual amount of episodes.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by sdp

I personally find Season 7 boring, the first Lord Dregg season is also bad. Season 6 is not a strong season either but isn't that one the one that has all the playmates mutants appearing every episode? So that at least made those subpar episodes special even if they weren't particularly strong eps.

Season 4 might have too many "meh" episodes in a row and the fact the season is like 40 eps long doesn't help things but most of those are not truly terrible.

Damn, I love season 7. Interesting.

Originally Posted by neatoman

I would say 4 because there is a very obvious focus on quantity over quality there, just keep in mind that as far as I'm concerned there really isn't much meaningful difference from season 3 in that regard.

Crazy work

[sdp]

I've only watched S7 once, and perhaps I had heard so many great things about it that I went with high expectations? I remember being disappointed. I need to give the whole 87 show a rewatch.

[CyberCubed]

I already don't like the first few replies to this thread, so this thread needs to be locked.

As a whole if you count the European Vacation eps as its own thing, then that's the weakest season as a whole due to the writing/animation.

Season 4 is a mixed bag, because half the season is actually great and the other half is meh or forgettable. This is also around the point where the "formula" of Shredder/Krang just trying to repower the Technodrome for the whole show became apparent, the writers just stuck with the same concept. But Season 4 has a lot of gems, so I can't dislike it as a whole. Some of my favorite eps came from this season.

Season 9 is probably the weakest of the final 3 seasons, but even then I don't think it's bad. Some fun eps that season, Dregg trying to convince humanity he was on their side, Carter and the mutations were a nice change of pace for the show.

[ToTheNines]

Originally Posted by sdp

I've only watched S7 once, and perhaps I had heard so many great things about it that I went with high expectations? I remember being disappointed. I need to give the whole 87 show a rewatch.

Do it! Make sure you use the TMNTEntity episode order and see if you catch anything else.

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I already don't like the first few replies to this thread, so this thread needs to be locked.

thank you

As a whole if you count the European Vacation eps as its own thing, then that's the weakest season as a whole due to the writing/animation.

Yeah, good point. I should have made that its own option I guess. I personally just consider it part of season 4 though.

[neatoman]

While I would have liked to say season 1 as a cruel answer because I genuinely do not consider it good television and can show why, despite a lot of people consider it the "best" season, I can't really do that without lying because in a technical sense it really is the "best" season like they say.

[CyberCubed]

You know the original TMNT show and Pokemon anime have a lot in common. Both "peaked" in their first season which is considered the best season. Season 2 (and Orange Islands) are still considered good but a bit weaker than the first. While Season 3 of TMNT is good mostly.

Season 4 is similar to the Johto saga of Pokemon. This is where the "formula" of both shows kicks in with repetitiveness because the fads exploded and the show had to go on a long time. Johto got plagued with alot of filler and went on 156 episodes, like Season 4 of TMNT is the longest season at 40 episodes. Ash went for badges again with TR blasting off in every episode, whereas Season 4 of TMNT had Shredder/Krang repowering the Technodrome in repetitive plots over and over along with other random eps about mad scientists.

Both seasons essentially went on too damn long that the initial "fad" started to cool off and most original fans even as kids started to drift from the series. After that only really the hardcore fans stuck around (besides whatever new little kids got into them for the first time)

If I were to talk about the later seasons, Hoenn is probably similar to Season 6 of TMNT where it gets a bit of a rebound. DP is similar to Season 7 where the writers try to put more effort into the show again. Then XY is like Season 8 where they attempt to make the show more action oriented (the BW anime is considered the weakest for Pokemon, so I'll skip over it). And then after that the shows continued on until they ended with a change of art style or tone (Sun/Moon similar to Fast Forward of TMNT where they changed the designs and tried to make the show "lighter")

It's kind of funny how my two childhood shows have so many similarities. Both went on far longer than expected due to the worldwide fads making them last longer than they should, and why the anime staff kept Ash for so long before retiring him. Also Shredder/Krang/Bebop being foiled in every episode and escaping by portal or module is basically their version of "Team Rocket's blasting off again" at the end of every episode.

[MikeandRaph87]

Season 9, with no Shredder, no Channel Six crew, and adding in Dregg, Carter, and secondary mutations that make no sense especially since Splinter is unaffected. It only has the one very solid episode, Split Second with the well-crafted one-off Winston Frip/Chronos voiced by Maurice LaMarche. It does have the plot hole of how Fripp learned about Hamato Yoshi and the location of their lair, but no episode is perfect. Season 10 picks up with The Power of Three Arc, but it has Shredder and Krang which hurt season 9 with them missing. I feel like it was a missed opportunity by not having Burne be Dregg's media champion and then redeeming himself.

[sdp]

I also don't consider European Season as season 4, even if you want to it technically takes place after the season ends with that being the set up. I really wanted to love the European season and thought the hate was not earned but it really is as bad as people said. To have the turtles in Europe was a great idea, a new location for stories and yet we get some of the worst storylines. I could've forgiven the terrible animation and even bad dialogue if at least the plots had been interesting.

Originally Posted by ToTheNines

Do it! Make sure you use the TMNTEntity episode order and see if you catch anything else.

I shall

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Season 5 was the weakest in my opinion.

The most commonly cited Season 4 was full of medicore episodes, but also had alot of bangers.

Season 5 feels like it has mostly medicore episodes, but people are a bit softer on it because of Planet of the Turtleoids which is only 2 episodes but does most of the heavy lifting.

If Planet of the Turtleoids wasn't a thing, I'm very sure season 5 would've been almost everyone's least favourite.

[CyberCubed]

Season 5 is really good. It only has 2 bad episodes, "Donatello's Badd Time" being the worst one, lol.

"The Ice Creature Cometh" is one of my favorite episodes.

"My brother, the Bad Guy" with Shredder's brother is an excellent opener.

"Enter Mutagen Man" is a great episode.

"Michaelangelo meets Mondo Gecko" is a fun one, even if Dr. X is lame as hell

"Muckman Messes up" is a good episode

The second Bugman episode, the Napoleon Bonafrog ep where he mutates and gets muscles.

"Landlord of the Flies" is a fun Baxter ep.

"Leonardo cuts loose" is the Casey Jones ep with the muscle people in the Gym.

The Wingnut/Screwloose ep with Zack in the boys home was fine.

I'm also quite fond of "Donatello's Duplicate" with the Donatello evil clone, the one where Raph thinks he's dying and becomes a superhero, and the Mad Dog Mcmutt episode.

And of course Planet of the Turtleoids.


Man, going over this list I think I love Season 5 more than I remembered. The Technodrome being stuck in the Arctic was also nice.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Huh, I forgot about many of those episodes. My Brother the Bad Guy was awesome.

I actually found Donatello's Badd time quite funny.

Many of the others weren't bad at all by any strech, but I found them weaker than other seasons (like Season 5's Baxter and Casey episodes being so much weaker than the Season 3 ones).

Seasons 5 and 6 were *good* but I find myself always going back to Seasons 1,2, 3 and 7 when I think of episodes that were downright fantastic.

[Powder]

Can I just cheat & say merely the "European vacation" chunk of S7? Most of those are easy skips for me.

[cammy85]

Season 6 was the least interesting. Though it truly does have good episodes, the fact that S&K only appeared in seven out of 16 episodes ruinined it for me. I;m aware of the reason why; but still. Two weeks in a row/four episodes in a row without them was frustrating as a teen. Season 7 was way better. Again, not that season 6 was bad. Krangenstein Lives, Sword of Yurikawa and Shreeka's Revenge were great S&K episodes. Then factor in Donatello Trashes Slash, Return of the Turtleoid and somehow Too Hot To Handle. Again, remember I was a teenager. My opinion has changed about them since. But it still stands as the weaker season.

Season 9 was mentioned; and I coldn't imagine watching that as a first run seaspn.

[cammy85]

Originally Posted by Powder

Can I just cheat & say merely the "European vacation" chunk of S7? Most of those are easy skips for me.

Agreed. It wasn't until getting the Turtle Van complete set that I watched those. Edutainment, but of course filler since by the time they aired, the Technodrome had long since left the volcanic asteroid in Dimension X; so we knew any plans there would have failed; though the last one did come close. The same could be said about the first batch of Season 4 episodes since thoise aired during Season 5 or 6 here before being replaced with Goof Troop.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by sdp

To have the turtles in Europe was a great idea, a new location for stories and yet we get some of the worst storylines.

That's the thing with interquels. Seing the Technodrome on the Volcanic Asteroid again while the Turtles were in Europe, you knew from the beginning the Technodrome wouldn't move around.

[cammy85]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

That's the thing with interquels. Seing the Technodrome on the Volcanic Asteroid again while the Turtles were in Europe, you knew from the beginning the Technodrome wouldn't move around.

Bingo! You knew they weren't going to win, so why both watching? But on the other hand, at least in my area, Plan Six through Back To The Egg-ish, aired during season 6 so we knew the Technodrome wasn't going to moce there either. But the closest they came to succeeding was "Superhero For A Day" where it did kinda bust out of the small volcano before being sucked back in.

[TheUltimateBum]

I dunno if I can answer this properly, but I think seasons three to six are only serviceable but in the end forgettable. There are only a few episodes that I can remember from these seasons (and it's mainly the most off-the-wall stuff like Shredder gaining Mikey's personality, Bebop and Rocksteady becoming TV execs, the Turtles becoming babies and the Turtles meeting their elderly selves through time travel or episodes with pretty memorable guest characters like Lotus, Baxter Stockman, Shreeka, Sherlock Holmes, the Rat King, Leatherhead, Casey Jones, Dirtbag and Groundchuck), but most of them just blend together for me.

So I guess I would just clump those seasons together as my choice for the weakest.