Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is definitely one of my favorite television shows of all time. It was undoubtedly a show for children, but it was mature enough that I can still appreciate it. I started watching a few episodes when I was in high school, but it wasn't till this past year when I was able to watch them in order and their entirety. Probably at this point I should emphasize that I am referring to the 2003 series as opposed to the 1987 series.
The 1987 series was indeed for children. Until the show became way too silly, the show was fairly entertaining. This series was actually a poor adaptation of the comics, but one of the big things that this show did was make the Shredder a major enemy of the Turtles. In the comics, the Shredder only appears in the first comic. Imagine nowadays a Ninja Turtles adaptation without the Shredder. While I cannot deny the significance of the 1987 series, I honestly cannot watch this series anymore after watching the 2003 series (except to listen to that unforgettable theme song).
The 2003 series up to season five was just great. Probably my favorite aspect of the show was that the villains seemed credible. Not only was the Shredder a scary guy, so was every other villain. There are more villains, but these are the main ones.
- The Shredder. He was easily the most memorable thing about the show. The Shredder's story was one of the most original and interesting stories that I have ever seen on television. What makes it especially cool is that the Shredder's main enemy and concern isn't even the turtles - they are just an annoyance. The Shredder's real foe is a group called the Guardians who guard the Shredder's most hated enemies, the Utroms. There is also a secret about the Shredder which is easily in my top favorite plot twists of all time (hmm that sounds like a good idea for another blog).
- Baxter Stockman. More true to his comic counterpart in this series, this guy was an evil genius who 'worked' for the Shredder. Actually except for the first time, he only 'works' for the Shredder out of fear or in order to plot against him. This made Stockman a very dynamic and unpredictable character.
- Hun. Created for the show, he is Shredder's most powerful and loyal henchman. Hun is actually the leader of the Purple Dragons street gang, but for some reason he is incredibly loyal to the Shredder doing whatever is necessary to earn his favor. His loyalty makes him a very cool character.
- Karai. The adopted daughter of the Shredder. Aside from the fact that this makes the Shredder an even more awesome character, Karai struggles between keeping her honor and obeying her father. In season three, this character dynamic is very interesting as she is an ally of the turtles, but in the end she is still a villain. Season 4 is even more fascinating when she takes up the mantle of the Shredder. Her devotion toward her father despite also keeping her honor makes Karai one of my favorite characters. She is very similar to Talia Al Guhl from the Batman cartoon.
- Agent Bishop. A government agent who is pretty much the leader of an MIB-organization. His main motivation is the protection of Earth and humanity from all threats. What makes him a villain is that he is very machiavellian in that he doesn't care how he protects mankind. He is even okay with the idea of a couple billion people dying since he thinks that a lower population would be better for humanity. The other cool thing is that he is actually two hundred years old and can hold his own against the turtles, Hun, and even Karai all at the same time (too bad we never see him and Shredder go at it).
This is kind of a side note, but one thing I really hate about genius characters is that they are too smart. I can accept the idea that April O'Neil can hack and do other computer tasks because she was a programmer for Dr. Stockman. Donatello like many other genius characters just serve as a means to introduce deus ex machina devices or create new gadgets. There is no way that Donatello could be smart enough to create or reverse engineer technology that is much more advance than what society knows. A great example of this is when Leonardo asks Donatello if a trans-dimensional portal is possible (from Turtles Forever). There is no way a person could know how to build a trans-dimensional portal on the fly. I think that the only reason that this bothers me is because I am an engineer and know how difficult some of this technology is to produce (not talking about the trans-dimensional portal, more like microchips and advance mods to vehicles).
As mentioned before, I only like this show up until the end of season five. Season five ended with a really beautiful ending. The last two seasons felt forced (especially the last one). Season six involves the turtles going into the future (lame), and season seven has them return but face the most ridiculous villain, the Cyber Shredder. The Cyber Shredder is defeated by a Decompiler Ray (what more is there to say?). Season five just did a really great job at wrapping up the series. It gave the series an epic feel, and showed how everything in the series was connected.
Within the five seasons, I hated just about every episode that dealt with the superheroes of the universe. I won't deny the plausibility of superheroes in a universe of teenage mutant ninja turtles, but I felt that they took away focus from the turtles. I mean how can I believe that the turtles are necessary when they have the Justice League (they have some other name) who can come in and save the day. I feel that this was a really bad decision by the creators. The only other vigilante should have been Casey Jones who the series did do a great job with.
The only other thing that disappointed me with the series was that while the Utroms had a great three-part episode, they were kind of forgotten until the end of season 3. Considering the Shredder's origins as well as the turtles, I really wish that the Guardians could have had more screen time.
The fifth season was a complete change of pace for the series. Until this season minus a few episodes, everything was science fiction. Now we are in total fantasy although they also do a magic-tech thing which is pretty cool. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the ending to this season was so satisfying and happy. This season was a complete tangent from the previous four seasons, but they were able to connect everything that brought not only closure for everything but gave the turtles a greater sense of purpose.
Overall, this series was just really fun to watch. I could really get into the story, and the characters were interesting. Some episodes were terrible, but most of them were great. Oh I forgot to mention my favorite episode of the series. Note that there are huge spoilers of the early series in this episode, but you'll be okay to at least see the special opening. With that said, this episode is so awesome that someone named Yoraee made a special introduction to this episode.
Well I hope you enjoyed my favorite episode. Unfortunately, you cannot download these episodes from iTunes (as far as I can tell). If you see the DVD's, I give you my highest recommendation to buy them.
References:
- Fleming, Mike (2010, May 27) Platinum Dunes Steers 'Turtles' Relaunch. http://www.deadline.com/2010/05/platinum-dunes-steers-turtles-relaunch/
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