Review: TMNT - Back to the Sewer
The Latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Installment is on the CW
Oct 3, 2008
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are an 80s cult icon - they've been the subject of comic books since 1984 and on TV and in toy stores since 1987. In addition to their animated TV show, they've had four live-action movies and one live-action TV show. And now their animated fame continues. 4Kids TV introduces the next Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles story in the Turtles' newest series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back to the Sewer in CW's Saturday morning line-up.
New Series Picks Up Where Fast Forward Left Off
The first episode of Back to the Sewer starts with the Turtles still in 2105 with Cody and Sirling shortly after they defeated Viral and saved the future. The Turtles' time in the future is done, so it's time to go back to their own time and well, back to the sewer.
However, they can't go home without a few bumps and bruises along the way. Turns out, Viral wasn't exactly dead (as much as one can kill a giant cybernetic virus), and she has no interest in letting the Turtles go home, or really anywhere aside from their graves. She continually alters the time-space continuum to send the Turtles to new times in order to finish them off. It would be quite the short series if she succeeded, but she did succeed in reviving a cybernetic form of the Shredder, introducing a new villain from the future who claims he defeated the Turtles, and decompiling Master Splinter throughout cyberspace.
Just another day in the TMNT universe.
Same Turtle Fun for Everyone
For those who haven't watched a TMNT episode since the late 1980s, this new series won't leave you behind. No one has to have been watching every Turtles show since 1987 to catch up. When the cyber-Shredder appears, Raphael even says where they last heard Shredder was, so the audience won't be totally clueless at Shredder's strange appearance. Also, if the opening credits give any clues, old favorites are still present in the series, including April O'Neil and Casey Jones.
Everything about Back to the Sewer is true to the Turtles franchise. The four turtles still have their same distinct personalities, the show is full of slapstick comedy and bad puns, the fighting is cartoony violent (parents still don't have to worry about bloody or gory violence), there is plenty of technobabble to confuse everyone, and the Turtles still greatly overuse the word "shell."
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Back to the Sewer airs every Saturday morning on the CW Network at 9:30 a.m. EST.
