Nickelodeon's TMNT

[BentonGrey]

Haha, yeah, a lot of the old 'toon episodes had plot holes.  The first season is pretty excellent, but they really did get lazy after that, to point of contradicting themselves within the same episode in later seasons!

As for this show, I do want to say, I LOVE the hilarious parody versions of classic cartoons/shows.  The latest one with the Thundarr the Barbarian reference had me laughing out loud. 

"We the slug people bring you greetings and gifts of..."
"Kill them!"

Ha!  They really capture that 60s animation style perfectly.

[Glitch Girl]

Thundarr was late 70's, early 80's, Benton.  Trust me on this*

But yeah, they did capture it perfectly.  Down to the title cards.  That was hilarious.

*- remembers getting up early on saturday as a kid and watching it among many other things...  RIP Saturday Morning Cartoons, you will be missed.

[oldmanwinters]

Rasputin... Gosh!!!
Idiots!

[spydermann93]

Rasputin... Gosh!!!
Idiots!

Oh, lord!

He's back!

Spoiler

Hurray for Napoleon Bonafrog, though!

[Glitch Girl]

I'm still not sure how they managed to do riffs on Napoleon Dynamite, Apocalypse Now,adn classic original TMNT all at the same time. 

[oldmanwinters]

I'm still not sure how they managed to do riffs on Napoleon Dynamite, Apocalypse Now,adn classic original TMNT all at the same time. 

The horror.... the horror...

[SickAlice]

From SDCC 2015 via CBR:

During Nickelodeon's panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the panel announced some guest stars who will appear in the show's fifth season.

TMNT Season 3 premieres on August 2 at 11am PT. Last month, TMNT was renewed for a fourth season, where comedian Seth Green will replace Jason Biggs as the voice of Leonardo. Both Season 4 and 5 will include 20 episodes.

Some of the guest stars are:

David Tennant (Dr. Who) guest stars as The Fugitoid who was once an alien scientist named Dr. Honeycutt, but after his body was destroyed, his brain was saved and placed into the body of a robot.
Peter Stormare (Fargo) guest stars as Lord Dregg, an arrogant, insectoid crime lord. When the Turtles incur his wrath, he becomes one of their most dangerous enemies.
Michael Dorn (Star Trek) stars as Captain Mozar, the supreme Commander of the Triceraton Fleet. He is a cunning and brutal military commander who answers only to the Triceraton Emperor.

Other stars include "Lance Henriksen (Aliens) as Zog, a scout for the alien Triceraton army; Ron Perlman (Sons of Anarchy) as Armaggon, a vicious, bounty-hunter robo-shark with a taste for turtle; and Zelda Williams (The Legend of Korra) as fan-favorite Mona Lisa, a highly skilled Salamandrian warrior."

Yeah! Worf as a Triceraton and Perlman as Armaggon. Sign me up.

[BentonGrey]

Gah...see...so much of this sounds awesome, and this show is so often ALMOST awesome....

Seeing Armaggon show up would be amazing...but I imagine it will fall short, like most of their adaptations. 

The voice casting is interesting, though.

[SickAlice]

Too each their own. I'm fortunate again I guess to not be anchored to any specific version (uncertain which is " original " for whom here even, it's hard to tell with Turtles) rather when I came in it was straddling multiple versions (Mirage, 80's cartoon, 1st movie, video games and Archies respectively) so I developed an appreciation whichever version contained the characters spiritually and kept it from the to now. Really it may be the sole franchise I can think of that I can do that with? Either way I think the show is awesome and crave the new episodes like I do the new comic issues. MOAR!!!

[Silver Shocker]

Yeah, those guest stars sound awesome. David Tennant as the Fugitoid is perfect casting.

I'm still really enjoying the show. It's got some ups and downs (the farm arc was especially frustrating to get through for me) and I wish it dialed down the humor a bit but I really get into the more serious plots.

[oldmanwinters]

So... did anybody see the shocking season 3 finale?  There were a couple of twists that I didn't expect at all.  Fortunately, season 4 starts in October, so we won't have to be left hanging for too long.

[Silver Shocker]

No I haven't, because Canada gets the episodes a week late because f you that's why. I am psyched for it though and did read one really cool spoiler in advance (which I'll touch on below). I can say though, that the Zog episode was great.

Spoiler for Dinosaurs In The Sewers:

Spoiler

Loved the Ghostbusters 2 references (Venkman was here!) and as a fan of the 2003 series having Raph befriend Zog instead of Mikey and Zog revert to a bad guy in the end was a refreshing change. The last few minutes were genuinely chilling and have me psyched up for some Turtles in Space action.

Spoiler for S3 finale:

Spoiler

When I read that 2003 series fan-favorite (and one of my personal favorites) Agent Bishop was going to appear, and that he'd be a rogue Kraang (referred to an "Utrom") I was ecstatic. But then the episode came out and I learned more. Voiced by Nolan North, same as the regular Kraang? Lame. Having the exact same design as the regular Krang disguises but with sunglasses? Really lame. On the other hand, the chess piece calling card and the reference to Kraang Sub-Prime? Awesome.

[BentonGrey]

I suppose I've pretty much given up on this series.  Maybe I'll give it another shot with season 4.

[Silver Shocker]

Benton, IMO the show's at its best when it does the more serious plots, and this season has been very uneven in that regard. The show gets into a pattern of show a whole bunch of childish comedic filler, show one or two episodes that move the plot forward at a time, save an epic two-parter for the middle and very end, rinse and repeat. It's very frustrating because of that, because I don't find the comedic fillers all that funny. I want it to be awesome all of the time, instead of just some of the time. So the show in general is very hit or miss for me.

[Silver Shocker]

So I've been watching season 4 and so far I like it a lot better than the farm arc in season 3.  David Tennant is still marvelous as the Fugitoid. He's as perfect a casting choice as voice acting gets.

[oldmanwinters]

So I've been watching season 4 and so far I like it a lot better than the farm arc in season 3.  David Tennant is still marvelous as the Fugitoid. He's as perfect a casting choice as voice acting gets.

Oh, yeah, this is the most interesting take we've ever seen on the Fugitoid BY FAR compared to his other incarnations in TMNT media.  Somehow Tennant pulls off that rare feat of playing the character similar enough to his roots but simultaneously putting his own unique artistic imprint upon him.  As far as I'm concerned, he now owns the character.

[Silver Shocker]

So since I was discussing this show in another thread, I decided to bump this up because the show's coming back with new episodes starting TOMORROW in the U.S., so look forward to that.

It's going to be City At War. Yessir. And from the grainy ripped promo clips that leaked online, and the episode descriptions, it looks like they're going to be straight-up adapting elements of IDW's City Fall arc. Karai's coming back too. To quote Baxter Stockman "This is gonna be good!"

[HarryTrotter]

I recently rediscovered my love for TMNT,and I watched the first 2 seasons of this version.And I was not exactly amused.Turtles are all jerks.They all freaking hate Mikey for some reason.Donatello is a creepy stalker for April.Also everyone is younger and hipper.Because thats kewl.Splinter is stripped of his snark and pretty much everything that made him interesting.And now hes Hamato Yoshi,just like in the 80's cartoon.The pretty much has no continuity between episodes.And every episode follows the exact same pattern.Turtles argue,Splinter says something wise,they learn the value of teamwork.Until the next episode when they repeat the whole thing.

On the other hand;Rat Kings episodes were probably the best ones around,and Newtralizer was kinda cool I guess.Slash showed promise.

[Silver Shocker]

Well Spade, while I can't really argue with any of the other points, I disagree with you on Splinter. IMO this version of Splinter is the best version they've ever done. He's funny, ("THE CHEESE PHONE!") he comes off as genuinely wise, he can kick butt, I love Hoon Lee's performance of the character, and he lacks the senile old man humor that the 4Kids version often delved into.

As for your assessment of the show up to that point, I mentioned this in a different thread, but the show gets better from there. The episodes you singled out as being good in all ones I liked. The season 2 finale is where things get really good, but after that the show becomes a Walking Dead-esque mixed bag. It's either really good (pretty much anything involving Shredder and Karai, and the outer space stuff with David Tennant's Fugitoid) or frustratingly childish (all but about 2 or so episodes of the farm arc). If you don't like the show now, you're going to HATE the farm arc. I actually would recommend people who had trouble getting past S2 to skip every episode of the farm arc except the first one, the last one, and the one about April's mom.

[BentonGrey]

I agree with SS about Splinter.  Pretty much everything else is spot on.  The show is a master class in wasted potential (not having seen the later episodes that SS praises).  There's so much there that is great, but it is all diluted and misused.

[HarryTrotter]

Its just that I found this Splinter a bit bland.And I felt that the parenthood triangle with Shredder was tacked on.But thats the least of the problems I have with the show.
My biggest problem is that it lacks a strong storyline.I guess the idea is that the kids can just tune in to any episode.But it gets really annoying when you watch a few episodes in bulk.

[Silver Shocker]

See, I really liked the stuff with Splinter, Shredder and Karai. I found it added a personal angle to the Shredder-Splinter conflict that keeps things from getting too stale. Earlier in this thread, during the first season, I complained that Shredder was too hands off, and I don't really have that problem after the S1 finale or so. The nice thing is Shredder's never a comic relief villain (like the original cartoon) and he never really gets handed any kind of definitive defeat (like pretty much every other iteration of the franchise) so unlike, say, the 4Kids show, where he'd die, come back, lather, rinse and repeat, here they managed to keep him from losing too much currency 4 seasons in now. I honestly expected Shredder to be defeated at this point.

For the record, I still haven't seen the City at War episodes because Canada is absurdly behind for some asinine reason, so I'm only talking about the parts of the show I have seen so far. I know there's some "filler"-type episodes thrown in the middle there, but really that's not a surprise.

On a related note, a Youtube reviewer I watch got into Star Wars Rebels, and because it's a bit of continuation of Clone Wars he directed his viewers to a really cool chart that tells you what storylines you need to watch for the show, and which one's are basically throwaway filler you can skip. It's totally the kind of thing I either wanted myself or someone else to make, and I feel like it definitely can be applied to this TMNT show. I wonder if someone's made one yet.

[HarryTrotter]

Actually,I would say that '03 Shredder managed to stay a danger thru the whole series.He comes very close to killing the turtles in every fight they have.Final fight with the Shredder(Exodus,not counting Turtles Forever),sets them all in body casts.It takes a good part of season 4 for Leo to recover from PTSD of that fight.And things progressed with Karai becoming the new Shredder,and Hun building his own criminal empire.And being that 2003 version stuck pretty closely to original comics,dying and coming back isn't all that odd for Shredder.
This version doesn't fight the turtles all that often.He mostly threatens his minions and yells: HAMATO YOSHI!And even when he does do something,he just sends some new mutant after them.I admit,at least the Shredder/Splinter plot leads somewhere,unlike almost everything else.April being half-alien?Never mentioned again.Squirrelnoids?Pizzaface?IMO that was the worst episode in the two seasons.Dogpound evolving to Rahzar?A 2-part build up for the cameo of '87 turtles?Okay we did learn where the ooze comes from,but its still a build up for a 30 seconds sight gag.Almost nothing here ends up making any sort of impact.There are no consequences of anything.Its basically the Simpsons formula of somebody does something trivial-it escalates-its sorted out-status quo restored-end episode.So the next episode can repeat it all again.

[Silver Shocker]

Yeah, don't get me wrong I sounded way more negative than I should have regarding 2003 Shredder (who I've defended many times, including in the early pages of this thread) All I really meant to say is that the Turtles did hand him defeats several times. This Shredder didn't really get defeated (the closest as of where I am is the end of the Outer Space arc), they just foil a minor plan by him. For example, the turtles haven't defeated him in combat (mind you, they don't end up fighting him that often, but they never cut his head off or anything)

As for your other comment: i do agree, the Squirrelnoids and Pizzaface were both a low point. Generally anything where Mikey gets the spotlight irritates me. Ironic, because I always enjoyed the superhero stuff with Mikey in the 2003 (actually, I just found out one of the newest episodes is a Mikey superhero-themed episode) April's alien heritage is used more later on, the 87 Turtles get a MUCH more elaborate crossover episode in season 4 (which never got mentioned in this thread, giving a real sense of how much discussion of the show had died out). The second half of season 3 and the outer space arc in season 4 have a good deal more direction (though not without their done-in-one filler style episodes). If you don't like the show by the end of S2, you're probably never going to warm up to it. The S2 finale was pretty much what won me over. Which is why the farm arc peeved me off so much. It felt like 98% of the show was put on hold, the TMNT version of a filler saga.

[HarryTrotter]

I saw that there was a crossover with '87 turtles,I just felt their cameo in Wormquake was...a bizarre moment.And I will probably continue watching when I find some time.Because they can be fun sometimes after all.And okay,finale of S2 was good.Again,what bothered me was the formulaic nature of almost every episode,and the reset button at the end of almost every episode.

I guess it pretty much impossible,but I wonder how a crossover with 2003 series would look like.

[oldmanwinters]

I'm a big fan of the show, but for some reason my favorite episodes and story arcs seem to be the ones that many other fans dislike the most.

The Farmhouse arc of Season 3 Pt.1 and the Dimension X/Space arc of Season 4,Pt.1 for instance... I couldn't get enough of 'em, but many other fans be like... "Ugg, let's get back to New York!"

Eh, to each their own, I suppose.

Characterization wise, I think Nick Leo is possibly the most interesting version of the character, as it actually gives him idiosyncrasies and hobbies beyond just being the perfect student who likes to give orders. 
I think Nick Mikey is funny and charming, and probably much more competent than the other characters give him credit for... having suffered through Mikey's self-implosion of maturity in the last few seasons of the 4Kids TMNT cartoon, I've developed a very high tolerance for when Mikey becomes insufferable.  Personally, I think it's hilarious how he names all of the villains, even if a few of them seem way too convenient.
Donatello, I'll admit, I was never a fan of having him crush/stalk over April... poor gal.  But when he's not being awful in that area, he's probably my favorite turtle to watch work or talk.  Much of that probably has to do with Rob Paulson's performance.  If they could mature him enough to move past the "April is my one true love," I'd be perfectly happy.
Raphael is played a little too close to his tough-guy stereotype seen in other incarnations of the franchise of the last 15 years or so, but I think Sean Astin does a great job voicing him.  And this Raph at least seems fairly self-aware of his anger/rebel streaks.  For the most part, he comes across and laid-back with many more interests beyond fighting.  It's when he thinks the other Turtles are neglecting some kind of duty that he gets irritable. 
The new Casey Jones is played a little too dumb at times, which I don't ever like to see.  The new April is played a little bit too "Mary Sue" but it will be interesting to see where she ends up at the end of Season 4 due to her evident corruption courtesy of the Aeon crystal and her mental powers.  I really love the new Splinter and find Karai a very fun character to watch. 
I like that the show isn't afraid to introduce new mutants and re-interpretations of older obscure characters.
The villains can be a little bland in their motivations, especially Shredder (although I liked the fact that he genuinely seemed to care about Karai despite kidnapping her and lying her entire life).  The new Bebop and Rocksteady crack me up, even though I think the characters work a little better as street punks.  Chris Bradford was cooler before he mutated and mutated again.  Fishface has made me laugh at times and he has a great design.  I wish Baxter the Fly had more personal motivation and maybe background.  Tigerclaw is pretty vanilla but he still works as a believable threat in a fight.  The Kraang were always amusing to me, even if their original plotline has basically played out.  I was glad to see the Space Arc introduced the idea of the Utroms which were the uncorrupted version of their species.  Speaking of the Space Arc, man, that was probably my favorite era of the show to date.

Like I said before... BEST Fugitoid EVER.

Now all that said, I still prefer the tone of the Fred Wolf series, even if the animation and writing weren't always up-to-par.  I think the FW Turtles and their supporting cast are the kind of characters I would actually be comfortable hanging out with.... any other version of the Turtles would either start to aggravate me or worry me about some kind of major crisis disfiguring me beyond recognition.  Even the old Channel Six News crew subplots which I'm sure many fans hate... I find them hilarious as I get older.  And despite the formulaic nature of many villain plots, it's quite endearing to see the bickering family dynamic that Shredder, Krang, Rocksteady and Bebop had.  The home life of the Turtles themselves seem the most desirable.  You have a wise and serious Splinter who can still use humor but often motivates his students with subtlety rather than threatening to whip them into shape.  And the Turtles seem to have general self-motivation to train and develop their individual gifts and interests, with the possible exception of Michelangelo.  I love the way they always call each other by their full names rather than the abbreviations made famous by the first live-action movie.  I really like the way the full names sound when voiced by somebody like Peter Renaday or the late James Avery.

[HarryTrotter]

The comparison with 4Kids version seems unavoidable.Because they are almost nothing alike,I guess.
I dont see whats so changed about Leo,other then the fact he like SF shows now.And even that is phased out soon.
In 4Kids series,Raphs anger issues come to front when he beats up Mikey during training.Here,because he argued with a random guy.Im not a fan of that episode either.Splinter forbids  them to use violence to get the phone.Forgeting their lives are at stake here?And nobody ever thinks they could just STEAL it?
In the 4Kids version;when Leo is injured,they stay with him and tell  him why they need him.Here,they stick him in a tub and move on.Except Raph,nobody else shows anything resembling concern.Thou Friday13 parody/Bloodsucker allusion of the episode was funny.

[Silver Shocker]

Oh boy...so much to respond to.....It's on baby!

Winters:

-I really liked the space arc. It had some done-in-one style stories, and some forced comedy, and Casey was at his absolute most annoying, but pretty much everything else I loved. Fugitoid, The Triceratons, KRANG SUB PRIME!, Salcommander and Mona Lisa. Heck, Lord Dregg was decent. it had a Mr Mxysptlk stand-in voiced by Dwight Schultz. How can I complain?

Farm Arc I can't get behind. The three episodes I mentioned were fine. But it was mostly an excuse to fill the front half of the season with Mikey humor and horror homages and I'm just not a big fan of either. And like I said, about 3 episodes of it or so actually contribute anything. You really can't say that about the space arc.

I have no idea what you mean by 4Kids Mikey's "Self Implosion of maturity". Mikey was one of my favorite parts of the 4Kids show. He was childish, but not nearly as much as Nicktoons Mikey, who frankly seems like he needs to be prescribed some Ritalin or something. 4Kids Mikey also shows signs of competence, responsibility and effectiveness (as Donnie said "he stepped it up") When he had to have a rematch in the Battle Nexus Tournament because he didn't win fair and square, he had to learn humility and ask Leo for help, and, as in the superhero episodes, he put his skills and what he learned to use and they paid off. The only time I remember such a thing with Nicktoons Mikey was that drunken-boxing "fight without thinking" business in the Falco episode back in season 1, an episode that was about Donnie. And it never came up again.

Agreed with Donnie. Not big on the April crush thing (I was never really into the idea of Turtle/Human romance, even if Leo/Karai seemed like a pretty natural ship) but yes, Paulson owns that character. And I glad he was cast, that and Bravoman were the first time I'd really enjoyed his work since probably Pinkey and the Brain. I felt he'd gotten a little overexposed. Now I'm enjoying his work a lot more again.

Rapheal, well, I really liked that romance with him and Mona, it was very cute and added an extra lair to the character.

Spoiler

Ditto the replacement for Spike.

That being said I have one issue with Astin's performance for the character and I've had it for the entire show's run. He cannot. Do. ANGER. And I'm not talking typical annoyed Ralph, I'm talking the white-hot anger he's prompted to deliver when something happens to warrant it. I was saying that for about a year or so during S2, then I got to the otherwise excellent finale where a dramatic scene got hurt a tiny bit by his forced, underacted delivery. "nooo  you monster" was the kind of take that the replacement voice for Ash from Pokemon got flak for for years. Even the 4Kids Ralph sounded more convincing and natural IMO.

Didn't mention Bebob and Rockteady, but yeah, I get a hoot out of them. I like to imitate some of Bebob's more memorable lines. Generally I like what Nickolodeon has done with them across the comics, movie and show. They're still comedic, but are genuinely dangerous. I think that's the take all us fans who grew up on the 87 series wanted to see back when Tokka and Rahzar made their debut. Tigerclaw I'm a big fan of. I liked that his defeats and failures were, for the most part, kept to a minimum. I feel this show has made a contentrated effort to try to avoid Villain Decay (except for Bradford and Xever, arguably), and I give them credit for that. I'm also an unapologetic fan of KRANG SUB PRIME!

Spoiler

It's funny when I first saw that S2 finale I said I wanted him to come back even though by all appearances he clearly died. And he came back, oh mercy, did he keep coming back.

Spoiler

That being said I was VERY disappointed by the writers throwing away the character of Irma? Stephanie Gooch from Scrubs as a new high-school friend of April? That totally worked for me. That twist kills, man, but I wish that character stuck around. It also seemed a bit odd that James Hong's Lo Pan-esque sorcerer character could tell there was something odd about her, but not why?
The Rook thing with the Utrons was neat, but it only served to solidify the question of whether there was ever a real Irma.

Yes, Tennent's Fugitoid was the best ever, but admittedly, the deck was stacked in his favor. In terms of the cartoons, we had C-3P0-type voice and mannerisms versus DAVID TENNENT doing a C-3P0-voice and mannerisms, on a massive amount of sugar, and also some funny sounds effects thrown in for good measure, and a LCD screen flashing emojis, and some really solid dramatic beats...and unlike a lot of the star power guest stars, he was basically a main cast member and he stole the show. Interestingly, the writers for the 4Kids show briefly talked about doing something similar with Nano. Kinda curious how that would have turned out.

Spade:

If you took out the wacky humor and 87 nostalgia, the two shows would be pretty similar. I'd be lying if I said the 4Kids show didn't have its share of filler or comedic storylines (Golden Puck and Fast Forward, anyone?) I'd say they're still more similar to each other than the 4Kids is to the Fred Wolf version. The thing is, the 2003 version pretty much single handedly revitalized the Turtles and kept them around up to this point. The comics were dying a slow, fascinating death. I think the fact that every version of Turtles since has had Karai in a prominent role and Hun and Bishop keep popping up says a lot about the influence that one show had. For a lot of us (myself included) my knowledge of Karai was "oh, that character from that Tournament Fighters game on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis".

Well, you're in the early episodes of the Farm Arc, right? Well Winters and I are coming from the point of view of seeing the stuff that comes later. I do agree Leo seems more mature after that. Seth Green played him more focused and disciplined (actually probably one of my favorite Seth Green roles of all time) than Biggs and Contrambone's more green approach.

Yeah, I was't a fan of the SpyderBytes episode myself (other than the character being voiced by Lewis Black, of course). Seemed like a bit of a childish idiot plot. And that villain, along with Snakeweed, had NO currency. Hence why neither seems to show up again.

Well, dunno if you ever saw the original live-action movie, but that first episode of the farm arc was lifting from it scene for scene. Just about the only thing wasn't a recreation of that part of the flick was the monster. I don't remember the farm arc in the 4Kids version wearing out its welcome like this one did. Though the fact that it saved some for a later season and took the opportunity to adapt a few stories from the comics definitely helped.

I think one of the HUGE things about this show that keeps me wanting to watch more dispute my hangups on it is the extended voice cast. If they want David Tennent, they get him. If they want Lance Henrickson, Micheal Dorn, Ron Perlman, Lucy Lawless, Dwight Schultz and Keith friggin' David, they get them. If they want the original cast of the 87 cartoon, they get them. (Something I fully admit 4Kids couldn't deliver, though the stand-ins did an admirable job) Ah, so many awesome castings in that outer space arc alone.

[oldmanwinters]

I have no idea what you mean by 4Kids Mikey's "Self Implosion of maturity". Mikey was one of my favorite parts of the 4Kids show. He was childish, but not nearly as much as Nicktoons Mikey, who frankly seems like he needs to be prescribed some Ritalin or something. 4Kids Mikey also shows signs of competence, responsibility and effectiveness (as Donnie said "he stepped it up") When he had to have a rematch in the Battle Nexus Tournament because he didn't win fair and square, he had to learn humility and ask Leo for help, and, as in the superhero episodes, he put his skills and what he learned to use and they paid off. The only time I remember such a thing with Nicktoons Mikey was that drunken-boxing "fight without thinking" business in the Falco episode back in season 1, an episode that was about Donnie. And it never came up again.

I was speaking primarily of Michelangelo during the last two seasons of the show: Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer.  I thought the first two seasons of the show may have arguably been the best media portrayal of the character.  He was fine in seasons 3-5, even if he did seem to have the requisite focus-episodes where he had to re-learn the same "life lessons" he had supposedly already experienced in previous seasons.  The two best Mikey episodes were probably "The Unconvincing Turtle Titan" and "Grudge Match."  He had some really heartwarming moments too, like when he thought the sewer cave-in killed Leatherhead or when he was dealing with the disappearance of Splinter or Leonardo's injuries sustained in Season 1. 

Many fans point to his unlikely victory in the Battle Nexus tournament as the turning point that sent his character into an increasingly annoying and narcissistic direction:
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=36318

It got turned up to 11 in Fast Forward, when his primary interest seemingly became pranks and video games. 

When the show brought the cast back to their present-day in the final Back to the Sewer season, Splinter's essence became digitally scrambled with no guarantee that he'd ever become flesh-and-blood again.  Donatello was the only character who devoted himself to recovering Splinter, while Leonardo and Raphael hoped for the best but seemingly resigned themselves to a grim possibility.  Mikey, however, couldn't seem to grasp the solemnity of potentially losing their father.  He would routinely change the subject to something stupid anytime Donatello talked about his progress on the Splinter search.  He also became quite conceited and insecure, and none of the other characters ever called him out... mostly just dismissed it as "Mikey being Mikey" no matter how offensive or insensitive he might get.  In the FF episode "Clash of the Turtle Titans," he became so jealous that a superhero 100 years in the future called himself "Turtle Titan" that he went out of his way to pick a fight with him and even disabled his jetpack while both of them were flying over the city.

Back to the Nick show...
I liked the Farm Arc because it seemed every episode was a brand new way to creep the characters out.  They weren't always great plots, but it was a fun way to challenge the team emotionally and mentally, as few of those episodes could be resolved with traditional martial arts prowess alone.

I think you are correct that Sean Astin doesn't do rage/anger well.  For me, I take that as a fortuitous fact that might discourage the writers from overplaying Raph's dark side.  Fred Wolf Raphael ("cool but rude") is still my favorite take on the character, and I find the character more interesting if he isn't afraid to have a softer side.

[HarryTrotter]

Well,everyone got flanderized in Fast Forward.It wasnt just Mikey.Raphael got reduced to being grumpy and hating the future.Joe Kelly,it was not you best moment.Even if it did have some cool villains.
I disagree about the two shows being similar.Its pretty obvious this show tries to emulate the 80's  one.In goofy tone,villains,almost no internal continuity.
Even the filleresque episodes of '03 show lead somewhere,tied into the bigger plot somehow.Here Punk Frogs,Dream Beavers,Speed Demon,etc are forgotten after one episode and are not in any way related to the bigger plot.