I've been watching Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles for years. I started watching it with my brother when he was a kid. It was amusing then and in its various incarnations, I've always continued to love the story. Even if, yeah, sometimes it repeats story arcs.
This latest version of the show has been hit and miss. It was never bad, though sometimes it was just meh. There were some decisions they made about the nature of the turtles and Splinter that my roommate and I have often times discussed the value of doing. Some of the episodes have been filler and that's been annoying. Some of the motivations have been lacking. The thing is, when this version has been good, it has been VERY good.
The last three episodes (shown altogether as a kind of minimovie) are a great example of this. It was a kind of What If story. The world has been hit by a mutagen bomb and everything is basically Mad Max now. The story explores how this would affect each turtle and does so in a way that I felt was true to their characters. When the bomb hit, Leo sacrificed himself to save his brothers and therefore felt the greatest impact of the mutations. Donnie died but transferred his consciousness into a robot. Mickie became a crazy wiseman and Raf became our Mad Maxlike pov character.
All of the right Mad Max elements were there, including a Thunderdome battle. The story had all levels of conflict ( vs. nature, vs. others, vs. self), all of which were resolved to a satisfying climax. In the end, our heroes get what they wanted, in some cases even more than they wanted. It was just glorious.
I love it when television gets it right.
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