Revisiting 2012

[Vegita-San]

So, now that all the show drama has had time to die down, and i t's not tainting the series at all for me... I thought I'd go back and re watch everything from the start, see if it flows any better with out the super long breaks.

Season 1 - clearly the best season. tries to keep things a little more grounded. evens things out between shredder and the krang pretty well. characters set up nicely.

Season 2 - Normally I'd skip 'worthless' episodes like Pizza Face, The Pulverizer, and a few others (Squirlenoids) but this time I sat through 'em. hardest was the Shellacne episode, weirdest was the Fungus episode. Season 2 isn't the best. but it has it's moments. including slash. Things that felt forgotten about the first time around where clearly a bit better planned out when you watch it full through, like Karai finding out her parenting secret.

Season 3 - on it now. This season, honestly, felt like the crews horror movie wet dream. EVERY single episode so far is some kind of horror movie rip off. as someone not a real fan of the genre, it just comes off pointless to mix the two so much. Normally, there are SO many episodes I would have skipped. the stupid epsidoe with April's mother that got totally forgotten about later down the line. The Creeper...the frog episode...etc. but, in interest of fair shakes, watching it all..

[FredWolfLeonardo]

A pretty fair analysis. Looking back, I think the show started off pretty strong with seasons 1 and 2 but went downhill on season 3 and the first half of the season 4, before getting better once again.

[TylerD]

Originally Posted by FredWolfLeonardo

A pretty fair analysis. Looking back, I think the show started off pretty strong with seasons 1 and 2 but went downhill on season 3 and the first half of the season 4, before getting better once again.

Exactly how I feel. I loved the first season, the next I really didn't care for..... I find myself going back and watching the first season quite often.

[Vegita-San]

So, Season 4.

I always enjoyed season 4. It felt MUCH more cohesive. it felt like a different team running it. even with the longer breaks, it didn't feel like anything was forgotten or over looked. the plot stayed consistent.

There really isn't a bad episode in the bunch of the space arc. From the Weird World of Worym (Their version of Q or Mr.Mxy), to the odd journey to the center of mikey's mind. Arena of Carnage is kind of boring, since we've seen it done before, but the rest are perfectly fine.

The only odd thing : How does Krang Sub Prime keep coming back to life? they kill him each time and somehow he always comes back. That's why I say they forgot about Krang Prime after season 3. He wasn't dead, the drome just sunk back to the ocean.

Even Dregg was a bit more likeable this time around. at first I thought it was a bit stupid that they made him more biological than technological....but it does separate him from the krang more. the only thing I didn't like with him was showing that he had a ....robot head? never gets mentioned again and didn't make much sense. and then they kill him off..supposedly. ( think he returns again somehow in season 5?)

on the second half now.

[The Great Saiyaman]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

So, Season 4.

I always enjoyed season 4. It felt MUCH more cohesive. it felt like a different team running it. even with the longer breaks, it didn't feel like anything was forgotten or over looked. the plot stayed consistent.

There really isn't a bad episode in the bunch of the space arc. From the Weird World of Worym (Their version of Q or Mr.Mxy), to the odd journey to the center of mikey's mind. Arena of Carnage is kind of boring, since we've seen it done before, but the rest are perfectly fine.

The only odd thing : How does Krang Sub Prime keep coming back to life? they kill him each time and somehow he always comes back. That's why I say they forgot about Krang Prime after season 3. He wasn't dead, the drome just sunk back to the ocean.

Even Dregg was a bit more likeable this time around. at first I thought it was a bit stupid that they made him more biological than technological....but it does separate him from the krang more. the only thing I didn't like with him was showing that he had a ....robot head? never gets mentioned again and didn't make much sense. and then they kill him off..supposedly. ( think he returns again somehow in season 5?)

on the second half now.

The first half of the fourth season takes back six months in the past, so Kraang Subprime hasn't been taken out by the Triceratons yet.

Plus he was send to the Mirage Turtles dimension in the crossover episode which also could well save his ass from getting killed.

[Vegita-San]

yes, b ut even before that, Bishop supposedly took him out in dimension X AND he came back in transd turtles. So, regardless if he's been killed, somehow he keeps coming back. most likely because they enjoyed godfrieds performance alot.

[sdp]

I also made a watch through thread on the drome, here are all my thoughts of impressions of the 2012 TMNT seasons as I watched them. But don't let other people's comment in the thread influence you, I personally think season 4 is the best since Season 1. Season 5 has many fans but I only liked the series finale which is Mutant Apocalypse, make sure to watch that at the end as it was intended and the crossover before). That finale 3 parter is perhaps the best episode(s) of the 2012 show.

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

This season, honestly, felt like the crews horror movie wet dream. EVERY single episode so far is some kind of horror movie rip off.

It doesn't get much better, each season has about 5 horror themed episodes or more, it's my main complaint, the writers wasted so many episodes on horror tributes. It's almost as if they wanted to write another type of show and only dealt with the turtles to be able to have their stupid horror tributes.

[IMJ]

I'm normally pressed nowadays for my screen time, but now that you posted this, I truly would like to sit down and rewatch it too.

I'm going to see if I can do it..... I remember I got legit bored with the show around the cabin season.

[AquaParade]

Yeah, I seem to have a fonder memory of the show but I dipped it out around season 2, so maybe that's why.

[CyberCubed]

The Northampton arc is only the first 8 eps of Season 3, I have no idea where this nonsense of "half of Season 3 being horror themed" even comes from, but it should have been shorted to 5 eps in Northampton. The bulk of the space eps were good aside from a few of them (the gremlins ep and a few others)

Fungus Humungus is probably one of the best episodes of the season.

EDIT: Also the irony of Vegita-san complaining about "fillers" when he loves the Fred Wolf cartoon where almost 1/3rd of the eps can be skipped (and I'm saying this as someone who loves the original cartoon)

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

EDIT: Also the irony of Vegita-san complaining about "fillers" when he loves the Fred Wolf cartoon where almost 1/3rd of the eps can be skipped (and I'm saying this as someone who loves the original cartoon)

Yeah but it doesn't really "need" to be spoken of in regard to the FW cartoon like it does with the Nicktoon. By this point most of the FW show's flaws are oft-recognized, even by people who are fans of it. By contrast, the Nicktoon still carries this reputation for being this amazing show when objectively it kinda wasn't. There was a ton of stuff wrong with it that people just "weren't supposed" to mention because people were so thrilled to have a new TMNT show out. Now that it's been over with for a few years I think we'll see a lot more criticism coming out as people revisit it.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Yeah but it doesn't really "need" to be spoken of in regard to the FW cartoon like it does with the Nicktoon. By this point most of the FW show's flaws are oft-recognized, even by people who are fans of it. By contrast, the Nicktoon still carries this reputation for being this amazing show when objectively it kinda wasn't. There was a ton of stuff wrong with it that people just "weren't supposed" to mention because people were so thrilled to have a new TMNT show out. Now that it's been over with for a few years I think we'll see a lot more criticism coming out as people revisit it.

It's very common for kids cartoons to have half the season be filler or stand-alone episodes, so kids can jump in at any episode and not be "confused" by what's going on. The 2012 show mixed filler/stand-alone eps with plot eps coming directly after, so it's not like there was entire seasons of nothing happening.

I watched the 2012 series in full 3 times, it has a number of arcs each season. Of course some stuff gets flanderized and some of the mutant of the week eps could be boring or whatever, but the better parts hold up.

[newfan]

I was surprised to see it was you who created this thread VS By the time I got here you weren't a fan but I think I remember you saying you liked the early stuff.

I also feel the earlier seasons were stronger, I know for a number of people season 2 was a big drop but I liked it, not the pizzaface ep though With the horror stuff I think it was mostly grouped in the Northampton arc, I liked some of that (mostly the first ep) though it's not something I would want to go on too long. With season 4 I preferred the later half as the Space arc started to go on too long for me.
As for 5, I preferred having an on going series to having tales but I didn't dislike it, didn't feel the horror arc needed 4 eps but it's not really a big deal. 5 At least worked with all the airing issues, it would at least air the arcs at a time.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

EDIT: Also the irony of Vegita-san complaining about "fillers" when he loves the Fred Wolf cartoon where almost 1/3rd of the eps can be skipped (and I'm saying this as someone who loves the original cartoon)

Well... in his defense there is a bit of an expectation that 2012 was carrying a cross-season story and whereas the FW show had maybe a single continuity thread ever that could be encompassed by the term "recognition" - like "where has Shredder been since we sank the Technodrome" or Rat King shows up and it's simply "this guy is back".

I think the nature of the show can command an observation like Vegita-san was making. Filler in 2012 stuck out like a sore thumb whereas filler in FW was "just another episode".

[CyberCubed]

I actually think some of my favorite eps were some of the fillers. As I mentioned, Fungus Humungous is one of the funniest eps of the series and had the best visuals too with the Turtles tripping out due to the fungus spray making them hallucinate. But I do agree some eps like the Pizzaface ep and the Pulverizer eps were pretty bad, and my least favorite ep overall is the Bigfoot ep which was terrible. I loved The Creep ep though, it was a very well done episode.

Season 5 is probably one of the strongest seasons after Seasons 1-2, but Seasons 3 and 4 also have many great episodes. The backhalf of Season 3 is fantastic, and Season 4 had a number of great eps in space and then when they get back to NY almost every ep was important since they were wrapping up most of the character arcs back then.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I actually think some of my favorite eps were some of the fillers. As I mentioned, Fungus Humungous is one of the funniest eps of the series and had the best visuals too with the Turtles tripping out due to the fungus spray making them hallucinate.

Oh man it's been so long I forgot about that... that was hysterical.... I think, in hindsight I might have fonder memories of that show than it deserves on the basis that it's one of the few cartoons I ever actually laughed out loud at now and again.

I'm going to have to re-watch it.....

[AquaParade]

I've been meaning to watch season 5 one of these days. Is that the apocalypse arc?

[newfan]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

I've been meaning to watch season 5 one of these days. Is that the apocalypse arc?

Apocalypse is the last arc of season 5.

I've not gone back and watched the show from start to finish, just revisited whatever ep I've wanted to watch.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by newfan

Apocalypse is the last arc of season 5.

The Nickelodeon Bebop and Rocksteady crossovers were the final episodes to air, but the Mutant Apocalypse episodes take place much later.

[newfan]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

The Nickelodeon Bebop and Rocksteady crossovers were the final episodes to air, but the Mutant Apocalypse episodes take place much later.

But besides Nicks airing the production order didn't change, I don't think anyway. So if someone buys the series to watch then M/A would still be last.