Worst Season of the FW TMNT Cartoon?

[TurtleGuy]

Season 1: Contains 5 episodes with an ongoing arc. Usually regarded as the best season by most fans

Season 2: Contains 13 episodes. Things start taking a focus more on comedy, but still has an air of seriousness(at least in comparison to the seasons that follow.) Notable for the Eye of Sarnath arc and Baxter becoming a fly.

Season 3: Totaling at a whopping 47 episodes, season 3 is the longest season by far. Also has wildly inconsistent animation between episodes and other such problems such as using first drafts of scripts. Things start really getting silly as the show focuses more on comedy than action. Introduces characters such as Leatherhead, the Rat King, and Miyamoto Usagi(who is mistakenly called Usagi Yojimbo in this series).

Season 4: Contains 39 episodes. Michelangelo loses his nunchucks and gains a grappling hook due to nunchucks being banned in UK television at the time. Infamous for it's abundance for generic mad scientists and mobsters. It also introduces fan-favorite characters such as Mona Lisa and Slash.

Season 5: Contains 20 episodes. Introduces characters like Mondo Gecko, Muckman, Hokum Hare, Wingnut and Screwloose.

Season 6: Contains 16 episodes. Don't really know what else to say...

Season 7 Vacation in European: Contains 13 episodes. These episodes are supposed to take place in season 4, but for some reason was aired later.

Season 7: Contains 14 episodes. This is pretty much the last season of the show to use the classic formula. Also the violence gets ramped up and we get better fight scenes as a result.

Season 8: Contains 8 episodes. Things get darker in the season as there is now a permanently red sky, less of a focus on humor, and things get more serious. This is the last season to feature the Channel 6 crew and Shredder, Krang, Bebop & Rocksteady as regulars(though Shredder Shredder and Krang would return for a bit in the final season.).

Season 9: Contains 8 episodes. Things get even more of a change as Lord Dregg replaces the Shredder as the main villain, the Turtles get a new ally named Carter, and the Turtles themselves start mutating into super mutants.

Season 10: Contains 8 episodes. The turtles are still fighting Dregg, but the super mutations stop after the first 2 episodes. Notable for bringing back Shredder and Krang for 2 episodes. This was the final season of the series.

So which of these seasons do you consider the worst?

[Prowler]

European vacation being listed as a separate season makes it an easy vote. Otherwise, it'd be a lot harder. So if it wasn't for the European vacation I'd vote for... season 4 perhaps. It has some duds with poor animation.

[Leo656]

Vacation Episodes, for me. Last time I did a marathon run of FW, I remember barely getting through that batch and being really pissed off the entire time. It's like everyone's worst memories of the FW cartoon, contained in one place. Borderline unwatchable, for me. Not he worst idea in the world, honestly the premise is intriguing, but the execution was awful.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Vacation Episodes, for me. Last time I did a marathon run of FW, I remember barely getting through that batch and being really pissed off the entire time. It's like everyone's worst memories of the FW cartoon, contained in one place.

There were a couple of decent eps, though. The last one ,the orient express was fun. And I also liked the London one with Shredder getting the sword.

[Utrommaniac]

European vacation. With my biggest peeve of the whole season:

Did they miss the part of the legend about how the sword can only be drawn by the one true king of England?
What does that make Shredder, a modern Japanese man!?

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

European vacation. With my biggest peeve of the whole season:

Did they miss the part of the legend about how the sword can only be drawn by the one true king of England?

Worse than that, they were completely wrong about my city. No, bulls don't run on the streets of Lisbon at all and there's no such thing as a bullfighting feast here or wtv that was. I still have this feeling that the episode was originally meant to be set in Pamplona, Spain; but whoever wrote that episode wasn't that good at geography.

[Aaronardo]

I always hated that Rob Paulsen didn't voice Raphael at all, and Barry Gordon was only present as Donatello for a couple episodes of the European Vacation sideseason, seeing as I hate their replacement voices with a f*cking burning passion. Oh yeah, and most of the episodes are total ****, with maybe two exceptions (the Orient Express one is a good example).

I especially hate that we don't get to see the TMNT arrive back at New York after this is all over. I mean, seriously, we end the last episode of the sideseason in Europe, and then, what? In the 2nd episode of the 4th season they're just magically back in New York?

Yeah, if you didn't guess, my vote goes to the European Vacation sideseason. But if that wasn't its own vote... hmm, I guess my vote would go to either Season 9 or Season 5. Probably 5, actually. That one has some damn horrible duds, which is pretty ironic considering that was the season that got me into the show

[Powder]

That European Vacation season is doo-doo butter. What a waste of some good concepts.

[MikeandRaph87]

Season 9 easily. It introduces dislikeable characters in Dregg and Carter replacing Shredder and company and the Channel Six News crew. I love season 8 and would think it a successful direction to continue in. Shredder and Krang were refreshed and formidable and uene's vendetta forgotten as was his character. Not much interesting happens in the 9th season. Season 10 has great moments duevto three episodes featuring Shredder and Krang. Two others that finish off the season are very good as well. Not to the caliber of season 8, but still oretty decent. I suspect season 6 is my least favorite of the first 8. Shredder and Krang only apoear in half of the episodes just like season 8, but the episodes without them are weak such as Too Hot To Handle, Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo, Polly Wanna Pizza, and Turtle of A Thousand Faces. 8 am not big on Pirate Radio an episode that involves Shredder either. Still a few pretty good ones despite quite a few weaker episodes wirhin thiscseason set.

[DevilSpooky]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Worse than that, they were completely wrong about my city. No, bulls don't run on the streets of Lisbon at all and there's no such thing as a bullfighting feast here or wtv that was. I still have this feeling that the episode was originally meant to be set in Pamplona, Spain; but whoever wrote that episode wasn't that good at geography.

Well to be honest they did nail the bull fighting arena in Campo Pequeno though, and it was funny hearing April say Cascais. But yeah, the streets of Lisbon and the bull running where lifted directly from Spain, maybe the joke that Americans think that Portugal is a city in Spain is not that off the mark

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by DevilSpooky

Well to be honest they did nail the bull fighting arena in Campo Pequeno though, and it was funny hearing April say Cascais. But yeah, the streets of Lisbon and the bull running where lifted directly from Spain, maybe the joke that Americans think that Portugal is a city in Spain is not that off the mark

Well, Campo Pequeno is real, indeed. We do have bullfighting in this country and there are also some places in the country where bulls run on the streets, but certainly not in the capital!

it's been ages since I've seen this episode, but wasn't the beach in Estoril? I also remember Shredder ordering Bebop and Rocksteady to turn a bulldozer on and Bebop saying they didn't speak Portuguese... even though it said "on and off" in English. Could have been just another joke about their lack of intelligence.

[DevilSpooky]

Originally Posted by Prowler

Well, Campo Pequeno is real, indeed. We do have bullfighting in this country and there are also some places in the country where bulls run on the streets, but certainly not in the capital!

it's been ages since I've seen this episode, but wasn't the beach in Estoril? I also remember Shredder ordering Bebop and Rocksteady to turn a bulldozer on and Bebop saying they didn't speak Portuguese... even though it said "on and off" in English. Could have been just another joke about their lack of intelligence.

Damn, stupid me, you're right, it was Estoril and yeah, you're also right about B&R bit in the bulldozer, but they did manage to put some Portuguese words on the Arena, some really random ones though

[neatoman]

Oh gee... Let me think here...

... Season 4 including the european episodes. On avarage the show was rather sloppy in writing and animation but seasons 3 and 4 suffered in particular due to the massive amount of episodes produced. Deciding between the the two, I went with season 4 (alongside the Euro season since it was produced as part of it), the reason is that season 3 at least had a reason to be so long.

Season 3 had 47 episodes, add that up with the 18 before and you get the 65 episodes required for syndication. Yes, it's a greedy excuse but it's still an escuse and knowing that it's at least understandable why they did it, even if it doesn't help the actual quality. With season 4 there's no such excuse, they just rushed out 52 episodes for basically no reason.

Other seasons, such as season 2 and 9, are also really poorly crafted but are at least mercifully short...

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by DevilSpooky

Damn, stupid me, you're right, it was Estoril and yeah, you're also right about B&R bit in the bulldozer, but they did manage to put some Portuguese words on the Arena, some really random ones though

Since my nationality is Portuguese I love the fact there's an episode set in Portugal. I need to rewatch that episode. Anyway my vote is Season 9 because it's never a good idea to get rid of your main villains before the show ends.

[DarkFell]

Even though I wasn't a huge fan of the Season 7 Vacation through Europe episodes, I was even less of a fan of Season 9.

Lord Dregg had some potential to become a really good villain. However, I felt that the scriptwriters handled Dregg (almost) as badly as they did with making the Turtles mutate into the super mutants and bestowing them with some weird abilities.

So, I voted for Season 9 being the worse season imo.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Season 9, of course!

[Cryomancer]

Euro Vacation. It was bad, inconsistant with both earlier seasons and itself, and a total waste of potential.

Did they even attempt to, you know, check out their namesakes at all? And most of it was at best inaccurate legends when it could have been actually halfway interesting / approaching educational if it would have tried.

[Prowler]

Originally Posted by DevilSpooky

Damn, stupid me, you're right, it was Estoril and yeah, you're also right about B&R bit in the bulldozer, but they did manage to put some Portuguese words on the Arena, some really random ones though

I vaguely recall seeing the word "corrida" in that episode.

As for season 9, it was the weakest Red Sky season, but I never skip season 9 when I decide to re-watch the series, unlike several season 4 episodes and most European vacation ones.

[pannoni1]

At least the European Vacation is forgivable since it aired on a non-kids cable network, but its definitely Season 9. It provided an arc away from New York that allows the Turtles to explore the world a bit further, was actually animated in France, and plots are typical of the midseason episodes (lots of April kidnappings, some clever jokes, very silly fighting styles). It's still the second worst because of its lack of resolution, a missed opportunity for the Technodrome to appear there, some alternate voice actors, and the final few episodes are some of the worst in the series, but at least we got Shredder in most episodes and it still felt we were watching "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".

Season 9 just showed that TMNT was show trying to keep up with the trends with the Super Mutations, April's reduced role, Carter, a very phoned-in feel, and some rather pointless battles and plots. It is similar to the worst episodes of the 4Kids' Fast Forward and caused me to give up on the show not knowing there was a Season 10 until much later. Considering that there were only eight episodes, this was especially disappointing.

To some it up, the Euro arc was worst in terms of fulfilling potential, but the Seasonal Rot of S9 just didn't have much potential, and the execution wasn't nearly as good to match.

[ryukenden]

The Red Sky seasons were when I stopped watching. I found the mutations so late in the game to be quite ludicrous, not to mention inconsistent. Carter I never did like and the fight scenes were still rather tame despite trying to be more "darker and edgier".