Before I share my review I want to share a little story. When I was a kid, this show was one of my favorites. For the first three seasons I was there for almost every episode premier. But when I was around 11-12 I stopped watching, at the beginning of season 4. Even for a dumb little kid like me, going into space was too much. Eventually ~7-8 years after I stopped watching I began rating shows I watched and I decided to rewatch it so I could rate it.
Now before season 4, there are definitely still some stinker episodes, bigfoot and dream beavers comes to mind, and there's definitely many filler episodes. But after season 3 there are entire arcs of this show that are just atrocious. The first half of season 4 is dedicated to one of the most basic and borings space arcs I've ever seen. The Triceratons, Lord Dregg, and Armaggon are just such uninteresting antagonists, but the show kept trying to insist on them. And after you finish this horrid space arc you get to realize that it was almost completely pointless. They travel back in time in the first place to prevent the Triceratons from getting the pieces to the blackhole generator, and they fail completely, meaning that when they return to earth to fight them the only 2 differences is that they arrive five minutes early and that April now has this crystal. The entire arc just feels so pointless and it really makes me feel like I could've just skipped to the last episode of it and the rest of the show would still make complete sense. Luckily the rest of season 4 is on par with the rest of the show. Season 5 however takes another dip in quality. The first few episodes are interesting enough but the entire middle part of this season (side from one episode featuring a flashback told by Splinter) is pure filler, and not even entertaining filler at that, although it had a good ending.
Now all that being said, I still overall like this show. The filler before season 4 is mostly funny. This show has some absolutely phenomenal antagonists, especially the ones that work for Shredder. The vast majority of story related episodes are also amazing (except the space arc). If I watched solely the Foot related episodes I could easily imagine myself giving this show a 9/10 or 10/10.
But alas, this show was genuinely grueling to watch towards the end. In season 4 and 5 I was solely watching for completion. In the end I would only recommend this show if you have a lot of free time on your hands, or if your watching for nostalgia like I did.
Now before season 4, there are definitely still some stinker episodes, bigfoot and dream beavers comes to mind, and there's definitely many filler episodes. But after season 3 there are entire arcs of this show that are just atrocious. The first half of season 4 is dedicated to one of the most basic and borings space arcs I've ever seen. The Triceratons, Lord Dregg, and Armaggon are just such uninteresting antagonists, but the show kept trying to insist on them. And after you finish this horrid space arc you get to realize that it was almost completely pointless. They travel back in time in the first place to prevent the Triceratons from getting the pieces to the blackhole generator, and they fail completely, meaning that when they return to earth to fight them the only 2 differences is that they arrive five minutes early and that April now has this crystal. The entire arc just feels so pointless and it really makes me feel like I could've just skipped to the last episode of it and the rest of the show would still make complete sense. Luckily the rest of season 4 is on par with the rest of the show. Season 5 however takes another dip in quality. The first few episodes are interesting enough but the entire middle part of this season (side from one episode featuring a flashback told by Splinter) is pure filler, and not even entertaining filler at that, although it had a good ending.
Now all that being said, I still overall like this show. The filler before season 4 is mostly funny. This show has some absolutely phenomenal antagonists, especially the ones that work for Shredder. The vast majority of story related episodes are also amazing (except the space arc). If I watched solely the Foot related episodes I could easily imagine myself giving this show a 9/10 or 10/10.
But alas, this show was genuinely grueling to watch towards the end. In season 4 and 5 I was solely watching for completion. In the end I would only recommend this show if you have a lot of free time on your hands, or if your watching for nostalgia like I did.