Tonal roller coaster

[neatoman]

So after a very recent marathon of every episode do far, I do have a somewhat lower opinion of the show than when I first watched the episodes.

Though something I'm not sure if I should if I should think of as a flaw is the tonal roller coaster. Granted it's not like I haven't laughed at some of the jokes or gotten invested in the darker stuff, but the fact that these elements are pretty far from each other on the spectrum and the fact they're in the same show seems a little off.

Sure, the Mirage run was hardly humorless despite what people say about it, but niether it or most other TMNT versions felt off when it came to tone. The 4Kids series kept the jokes to quick lines which didn't distract from the more serious elements and the FW series (while I don't enjoy it for a number of reasons, including the comedy) was at least consistent with it's comedic tone.

The Nickelodeon cartoon can either be funny or serious and do either element somewhat well, but it doesn't quite feel like they quite belong together, at least not when they're so far from each other. So when the show a scene with a joke like Super Mikey Bros or Ice Cream Kitty and another scene where Karai mutates into a snake monster or when Splinter explain his wife was murdered, it all feels like it doesen't belong in the same show.

Again, I'm not sure if I should really think this as a flaw considering that I still like both elements, it just feels really off a lot of the time. Maybe if they decided to make a more dramatic show with downplayed comedy for comedic relief it would have worked. Or if they went with a dark comedy, Shredder was eating a banana, Tang Shen slipped on the peel and broke her neck so Shredder blames Yoshi for giving him the banana in the first place. Either of those approaches would have been more consistant.

[Ravenshell]

2012 is more consistent tonally per scene... When they play something serious, like Splinter talking about losing his family, they don't cut into that with misplaced comic-relief moments... notable exception being Mikey and Raph interrupting April's mom... and even that wasn't wah-wah humor.

Not sure if 2K3's humor is downplayed, or they just didn't know how to effectively deliver a good punchline.

[Tarris Vaal]

I actually found that to be one of the show's strengths. Though it does shift from dramatic/serious to light hearted/silly (the Squirrelanoids episode seems a good example), I find it does at least manage to blend these pretty well.

Its pretty unusual for a tonal shift to feel really jarring in this show and I think that is quite actually pretty impressive because it doesn't pigeonhole the show into either being too dark/brooding or daft and jokey. It can be flexible and deal with serious matters without being bogged down by them.

[BubblyShell22]

I have to agree that the shows blends serious and comedic fairly well. When the moment's serious, it's shown through dramatic music and the characters' reactions to said serious moment. When the moment's funny, then the tone changes, but it's not abrupt, and at least they don't do it during the serious moments for the most part. So I'd say it's fine.

[Karai Samurai]

Gotta agree with the oter posters here. I think this show blends the serious with the humorous very well, as has gotten better since season one. Into Dimension X is a great example of this.