Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)--Season 3 Epsiode 8: "Vision Quest" (And A Few Other Thoughts)1/22/2015 Just a warning: I've seen a few more episodes since my last entry. As in 2 1/2 seasons. Spoilers abound. If there’s one thing TMNT 2012 has consistently been good at, it’s looking good. Even the comparatively boring human designs are distinctive from one another, and all of the mutants are very creative (yes, even Spider Bytez, which is honestly the most unique spider monster I’ve ever seen, no matter how doofy everyone else considers it). And everything from the backgrounds to the color palette goes into making this one heck of a good looking show. However, I often get the impression that TMNT 2012 is so caught up in looking good that it forgets that it needs to make sense, too. It’s been trying to have a consistent and dramatic storyline, therefore it can’t just do whatever it wants narrative-wise whenever it wants, because that’s not what we’ve been led to expect. If the show had been episodic from the start, I would not be complaining about this. "Vision Quest" is yet another episode in the series that looks incredible, has incredible character designs and set pieces, good action and is overall good , but yet again contains a disconnect between what I’m told to feel and what I actually experience. The biggest reason I’m drawn out of the episode, I think? Because it went out of its way to look cool instead of make a wholly compelling story, complete with an extraneous character who has extreme and unfulfilled importance put on it. Though this was actually one of the better episodes of this season (I think the previous episode, “Eyes of the Chimera” was better), it still feels vaguely unfulfilling, beginning with the deer spirit Leonardo encounters, which becomes his impetus to lead his brothers on a three-day intense, gadget/TV/T-phone-free meditation trip so they can become one with nature. After a montage of the guys surviving in the wild, they receive a visit or vision of Master Splinter a la the 1990 movie. Splinter tells them that though they're doing all right there are certain things holding them back. So, they decide to suit up and fight their inner demons. That's actually a really good premise for an episode, and for the most part, it delivers. To be honest, their vision quest outfits are a bit silly, over the top, and look like they were designed specifically to sell a series of toys. However, I'm willing to let that go because it's not given as much importance as other things, and therefore there's no unfulfilled symbolism. And, after all, Ninja Turtles has mostly gone hand in hand with toy sales, and, well, they DO look awesome. Back to that deer. The deer spirit's design is incredible, and as I've said several times already, that's per the norm for TMNT 2012. The trouble with it comes from the fact that there's no point in having the deer in the episode past the beginning when Leo decides to get back to nature. Yes, Donatello mentions the place that deer have in the Shinto religion, but so what? What does the spirit deer mean or bring to the episode that absolutely needed to be there? Really, nothing, and they end up wasting about five minutes of episode kicking around with meaningless deer symbolism (though, since it has no meaning, I suppose it's not really symbolism). And I've seen it pointed out that we've seen the same deer (or, at least, the same deer model) in "Within the Woods" and "A Foot Too Big", which means you could call it foreshadowing. Except it really isn't foreshadowing, because those instances of those deer weren't significant enough to raise flags and make us think they could be connected. Mostly because the animal form is so disappointingly plain. If the other instances of the deer were supposed to be foreshadowing for this episode, then the animal form should have been more decorated so it stood out to the audience, probably with similar markings as its spirit form. That way, when we saw it the first time, we'd think, "Wow, that's an interesting looking deer", and the second time, "Isn't that the same deer as that other episode?", and finally get payoff when not only do we see the dang deer a third time, but get some payoff for being subtly instructed to remember it. That's what real, good foreshadowing is supposed to do. But even if that had been the case, and we had been alerted to this deer before this episode, I still ask: So what? What about this deer spirit makes its presence needed? What does it do for anyone, especially Leo, who it hangs around most? I honestly think the extra time given to it would have been better spent on longer fights, more creative solutions to the fights, or meaningful symbolism in some follow-up on the guys' opponents and why they have those specific opponents. For example, instead of seeing more of the deer, I would have rather seen follow-up of the Xever/ Raphael parallels that were established in "Stockman's Gambit". When Raph and Xever are forced together, they realize that they're more alike than they thought, which means they could have been friends, if things were different. They could be each other's greatest asset, each other's undoing, or their own downfalls. Raph managing to focus and defeat spirit Xever shows that he's committed himself to a different path than Xever, and won't let his attitude consume him. However, this point is more extrapolation and wishful thinking on my part than actual canon because in no other episode is this likeness ever followed up on. Similarly, Michelangelo fighting Rahzar seems like kind of a no brainer, since Bradford used to be Mikey's hero. But, that aspect of Mikey's life hasn't been touched upon since the third episode of the series. Yes, it's necessary for Michelangelo to fight him and work to defeat him, but how meaningful in terms of Mikey's character? He's never really been allowed to explore that betrayal, despite the fact Bradford is still a pop culture icon in their world, and Mikey even still has a cardboard cutout of him. Sure, Mikey tends to move from one interest to another really easily, but this is someone he put his trust in, was betrayed by, and then renamed twice. Yet, for the most part, Mikey still acts the same around Bradford/Dogpound/Rahzar--being silly, tossing insults, and kicking shell--as he does around the other villains. I like this show. It probably sound like I don't, but I think it's good. I just get frustrated at times that it puts on airs like it's ultra-serious and super continuity-driven, but it never really commits to that serial nature. The show all too often introduces storyline elements and then forgets them or resolves them in one episode... ten episodes after introducing it... after not mentioning it in the interim. Or it tries to take the cheap way out of an otherwise well-developing storyline by using mutagen as a plot twist (e.g. Kirby, Karai). Of course, we should probably already know the writers aren't good at foreshadowing and payoffThis show is at its best in episodes like "Pizza Face", "The Croaking", "The Tale of the Kuro Kabuto" and of course, "Mazes and Mutants", the 23 minute long homage to 80s fantasy movies and video games. It does fun and goofy exceedingly well. Not to say it doesn't have good serious moments; "It Came from the Depths" and Karai's storyline up until "Vengeance Is Mine" are very good dramatic episodes that show what this series could potentially have been had it truly committed to being a serious show and serious character development. So back to that beautiful, pesky deer. Why was it there beyond spurring Leo to take that meditation trip? Why did it absorb itself into Leo? Did it lend its power to Leo? Did it heal Leo's leg (which would totally be a cop-out)? What did Leo actually learn from the deer spirit. In Leo's own plea, "What is your lesson!" No, I don't want everything explained to me, but I shouldn't be doing most of the work to find the meaning in something. I don't need a show to be serious for me to take it seriously, which is why I would have been fine if this show was nothing but episodic fun in the vein of "Mazes and Mutants" and "Plan 10". But it's not, and since the plot and tone are all over the place, I'm left confused on how to feel overall about this series. I mean, I like it, but I'm also confused. Except about its art style. Because, man, does it look amazing.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |