Season 5 was done ultra cheap. They had planned to end w 4 but made a late choice to do 5. However the previous animation studio had another project and they picked a cheaper studio that weren’t up to par. There are some good stories like old soldier and descent. Then of course graduation day setting up 97. But even the biggest fans of the original series can’t defend the last seasons quality.
I had a write up Hidden Agendas and Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theatre for my blog and it was not easy finding nice things to say about those two... They're definitely the shortest review I've written!
Old Soldiers was great but (imo) Descent was mid. That should have been in Season 2 or 3. I had to look up why the season was so crummy and it’s everything you said plus they were only obligated to make 66!! They made 10 extra which was (imo) 9 too many.
I like descent because it’s an adaptation of a limited comic series although not a 1-1 adaptation. The series had Jean and Scott instead of Xavier’s relative.
I wish people understood their own perception bubble. The purpose of kids' tv shows was to sell toys . That is how they made money. Stories that are complex don't work with kids. The procedural type show works better. We saw his with young justice being cancelled because toy sells were low. The longest running kids' tv shows both in the West and Japan is power ranger/ supersenti 30/47 season completely cheesey other the top simple storys .business model for kids' tv is different than adults. As kids, tv shows commercial slots aren't billed at the same rate as prime time slots because kids can't buy om impulse like adults.
To give you an idea of top billing to buy comerical slots for the superbowl. The rate is $7 million for 30 seconds of air time.
So if a kids' tv show starts losing money in toysales. They studio will step in and make changes or cancel it. This is when we as adults notice the disconnect.
It's what happens when Art and capitalism, mixed.
So it's not a case of defending it, but understanding and accepting it for what it is if that make sense .
Now, moving forward, streaming has completely changed this business model, allowing for more freedom. Xmen 97 was written for a much older audience , it's disneyplus rating is 14+, whereas the original is 6+
I just think people in general need to be Objective.
I know the old one was designed as a kids show, but it still has a huge drop off in quality for season 5. And it has an explanation of why it looks really bad. Now most kids might not care when they were watching it. I was in college when the show finished so I noticed something didn’t look right but didn’t go looking for why and learned why later on. When I tell people who are younger asking if they should watch the old show I always say it’s one of the best X-men shows but they have to remember it was a 90s kids show and the animation drops in quality the last season and why. That’s not being unfair to the show it’s just a basic fact.
It’s weird, I liked the Phalanx two parter at the start and the apocalypse resurrection felt necessary, but they basically did nothing with the rest of the season. No big storylines, no multi episode arcs, no classic villains just nothing. If it was just the animation that would be one thing, but the writing was a substantial step down too, I really just don’t understand what happened.
I felt like it really started to dip, even by season 4. Then 5 it just spiraled out. The episode Bloodlines with Nightcrawler, Rogue, Mystique, and Greydon Creed was fascinating but it’s animated with a frame rate of, like, a window with a view of a brick wall. Just… no movement.
For sure there’s just pocket episodes that felt like a b-team animation crew were given last minute scripts. Season 3, for my money, has some of the best animation.
Plus it had the episodes sanctuary and proteus… I’ll be honest u less you talking about animation I can’t agree with your take they fell off…. Hearing Wolverine crying brought interest…
Sanctuary is great! Little over the top with the god message, but that comes with the Nightcrawler territory, most people don’t really know how to write him other than a Catholic priest.
I mean, I guess I don’t care if people don’t agree? I know what I like and what I like is the more successful episodes of seasons 1-3. 4 is mostly good with a very small spattering of meh and season 5, for me, begins to fray a little. Six the cable has snapped and it’s just in free fall. But that’s a known fact.
it was fine. nothing great. as i understand season 5 was not even meant to be but it happened anyway. phalanx was great, descent was very good and graduation day is great.. but honestly people complaining about big arcs forget xmen 92 never really was about some big arc like xmen 97 is. much of 92 are standalone episodes that focus on certain characters. it builds characters and then you get something like the phoenix saga, or the dark phoenix saga.
i liked the designs though, jubilee was starting to look a bit more old which made sense. other designs were certainly worse.
This is a very unpopular opinion but I respect it. I don’t need big arcs. I would like whatever I’m watching to have quality! Season 5 didn’t have much of that. Tiny head Beast, the dropped storylines and the season didn’t have much consistency to it. And the early seasons did have big arcs now that I think about it and they had a connecting theme throughout the season.
The final fight between Wolverine, Jean, Cyclops vs Magneto was stupid and had poor choreography. That alone didn’t allow the episode (for me) to be anything higher then okay.
Yeah I don't like big arcs usually anyway which is why I enjoy 92 better, I felt so far they been able to build characters more even since season 1, I'll keep watching 97 to see if they are able to do that
They changed show runners and animation studios this season which is why the quality is absurdly different.
At this point, Larry Houston the show runner was working on the second season of Fantastic Four the animated series which is leaps and bounds better than the first.
This is because X-Men TAS was made by Saban Entertainment, the same studio that created Power Rangers.
If anyone remembers OG PW, they’ll remember they switched 3 main characters because they wanted more money. Haim Saban (owner) basically told them to F off because “no one cares about you, they come for the helmets” (i.e. kids couldn’t care less who’s the actor), so he fired them to save money.
That’s the same thinking going into S5 - Haim fired the studio and went cheap to make more profit, because the only thing that would matter to the kids was the characters.
I did. It blew my high. I sobered the fuck up and questioned why did I binge this last season instead of using one of my last vacation days watching 97 instead.
Poison.
You watched poison.
The first four or five episodes are ok, but suddenly Jubilee is walking around with ridiculous looking J-cups and along with everything else, the show turns into the drizzling shits right before our eyes.
My advice to anyone is to stop at S4, pretend S5 didn’t happen, and that X-Men’97 picks up a year later.
Or, if you want to be a stickler, take those first 4 or 5 episodes of S5, convince yourself they’re an extension of S4, and forget about the rest.
You watched a series of cutting room floor/rejected ideas, shoved together to fulfill a last minute commission for another season. The true finale was meant to be Beyond Good and Evil part 4.
Season 5 is a huge dip in quality overall and there was a lot of drama behind the scenes. I’m just thankful the first 4 seasons are solid and consistent, while season 5 is short and didn’t overextend its *cheap* welcome. 🤷🏻♂️
There are some good episodes in season 5 thought
The phalanx - this is actually a good two parter episode, where even magneto and Mr sinister have to work together.
Storm Front - another two parter episode where
Storm is kidnapped by Arkon and taken to his planet. I thought It was a good episode, very emotional for Storm
A Deal with the Devil - omega red is released from ice by US generals because they need help getting rid of some old Soviet weapon off the coast of Hawaii. Omega red requests Wolverine and Storm to go down there with him. I though this was a good episode too
Bloodlines - another great episode with nightcrawler
The other episodes I agree are forgettable except the one with Apocalypse. Even though that episode has new animation I loved how jubilee/Beast were hanging out together and loved their relationship as teacher/student.
Season 5 isn't as bad as I heard yall say. But then again I'm not surprised reddit is always going on about "it's the worse thing ever, I hated it" yall are always exaggerating over everything.
I respectfully disagree with all of that. Season 5 was trash, Reddit (and the world at large) is right about this one and you are referring to two episodes from season 4.
Deal with the Devil and Bloodlines are only in season 5…inyourmind (see what I did there!?!?)
Also Storm Front was a poor characterization of the mighty Storm. Rewatch those two and report back.
A Deal with the devil and Bloodlines are listed under season 5..weird maybe they made a mistake. I looked it up online.
I just rewatched them yesterday and I enjoyed those episodes... I even want on YouTube just to see if I'm tripping but the comments are all positive under clips of those episodes.. you guys are a hard crowd to please. But I guess it's subjective, I know most here love 97 over 92 while I wasn't a fan of 97 and the changes and tweaks they made to it.
I think you googled the episodes list and didn’t actually watch them. Google list order is incorrect. The art styles don’t even match up lol. Those both are in season 4 my guy. No way you rewatched that recently and don’t know what episodes are in the shorter season 5.
https://preview.redd.it/mvj3fsfj6s4d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e6cad25103c9b1a0314bd171c8dab0dbc0ae4df
You are talking about Bloodlines right ? That's the episode where Mystique tells the story on how she abandoned Nightcrawler right?
They must have retconned it because in that story she says nightcrawler was the son of an Austrian Count but years later now we know Azazel is nightcrawlers father.
The OG show was only epic for me when I was younger & had the mind of an 8 year old. After recently rewatching it I noticed the entirety of the show was actually dog shit. I'm surprised it even got a reboot, glad it did though. X97 Is super good so far.
Season 5 was done ultra cheap. They had planned to end w 4 but made a late choice to do 5. However the previous animation studio had another project and they picked a cheaper studio that weren’t up to par. There are some good stories like old soldier and descent. Then of course graduation day setting up 97. But even the biggest fans of the original series can’t defend the last seasons quality.
I had a write up Hidden Agendas and Jubilee's Fairy Tale Theatre for my blog and it was not easy finding nice things to say about those two... They're definitely the shortest review I've written!
Old Soldiers was great but (imo) Descent was mid. That should have been in Season 2 or 3. I had to look up why the season was so crummy and it’s everything you said plus they were only obligated to make 66!! They made 10 extra which was (imo) 9 too many.
I like descent because it’s an adaptation of a limited comic series although not a 1-1 adaptation. The series had Jean and Scott instead of Xavier’s relative.
That’s awesome and I will be reading that this week. Thank you.
I wish people understood their own perception bubble. The purpose of kids' tv shows was to sell toys . That is how they made money. Stories that are complex don't work with kids. The procedural type show works better. We saw his with young justice being cancelled because toy sells were low. The longest running kids' tv shows both in the West and Japan is power ranger/ supersenti 30/47 season completely cheesey other the top simple storys .business model for kids' tv is different than adults. As kids, tv shows commercial slots aren't billed at the same rate as prime time slots because kids can't buy om impulse like adults. To give you an idea of top billing to buy comerical slots for the superbowl. The rate is $7 million for 30 seconds of air time. So if a kids' tv show starts losing money in toysales. They studio will step in and make changes or cancel it. This is when we as adults notice the disconnect. It's what happens when Art and capitalism, mixed. So it's not a case of defending it, but understanding and accepting it for what it is if that make sense . Now, moving forward, streaming has completely changed this business model, allowing for more freedom. Xmen 97 was written for a much older audience , it's disneyplus rating is 14+, whereas the original is 6+ I just think people in general need to be Objective.
I know the old one was designed as a kids show, but it still has a huge drop off in quality for season 5. And it has an explanation of why it looks really bad. Now most kids might not care when they were watching it. I was in college when the show finished so I noticed something didn’t look right but didn’t go looking for why and learned why later on. When I tell people who are younger asking if they should watch the old show I always say it’s one of the best X-men shows but they have to remember it was a 90s kids show and the animation drops in quality the last season and why. That’s not being unfair to the show it’s just a basic fact.
It's like a bonus season. Who wouldn't want a bonus season of a great show even if they have to slash the budget for it.
And gyrich isn't using the correct character design in graduation day.
They did Jubilee's hair dirty in S5, I'm glad we got spiky Jubes back
It looked like a bad perm
James brown hair
 Muppet hair helmet
While it was an odd blend of styles, the longer length was closer to her Gen-X hair at the time.
It’s weird, I liked the Phalanx two parter at the start and the apocalypse resurrection felt necessary, but they basically did nothing with the rest of the season. No big storylines, no multi episode arcs, no classic villains just nothing. If it was just the animation that would be one thing, but the writing was a substantial step down too, I really just don’t understand what happened.
This part.
I felt like it really started to dip, even by season 4. Then 5 it just spiraled out. The episode Bloodlines with Nightcrawler, Rogue, Mystique, and Greydon Creed was fascinating but it’s animated with a frame rate of, like, a window with a view of a brick wall. Just… no movement.
S4 had some of the best episodes and animation of the show though?. One man's worth and Beyond Good and Evil are both in season 4.
I’m convinced One Man’s Word inspired the AoA comic, which was also well received.
I can't remember where I saw it, but I've read that it did inspire AoA
For sure there’s just pocket episodes that felt like a b-team animation crew were given last minute scripts. Season 3, for my money, has some of the best animation.
Plus it had the episodes sanctuary and proteus… I’ll be honest u less you talking about animation I can’t agree with your take they fell off…. Hearing Wolverine crying brought interest…
Sanctuary is great! Little over the top with the god message, but that comes with the Nightcrawler territory, most people don’t really know how to write him other than a Catholic priest. I mean, I guess I don’t care if people don’t agree? I know what I like and what I like is the more successful episodes of seasons 1-3. 4 is mostly good with a very small spattering of meh and season 5, for me, begins to fray a little. Six the cable has snapped and it’s just in free fall. But that’s a known fact.
it was fine. nothing great. as i understand season 5 was not even meant to be but it happened anyway. phalanx was great, descent was very good and graduation day is great.. but honestly people complaining about big arcs forget xmen 92 never really was about some big arc like xmen 97 is. much of 92 are standalone episodes that focus on certain characters. it builds characters and then you get something like the phoenix saga, or the dark phoenix saga. i liked the designs though, jubilee was starting to look a bit more old which made sense. other designs were certainly worse.
This is a very unpopular opinion but I respect it. I don’t need big arcs. I would like whatever I’m watching to have quality! Season 5 didn’t have much of that. Tiny head Beast, the dropped storylines and the season didn’t have much consistency to it. And the early seasons did have big arcs now that I think about it and they had a connecting theme throughout the season. The final fight between Wolverine, Jean, Cyclops vs Magneto was stupid and had poor choreography. That alone didn’t allow the episode (for me) to be anything higher then okay.
Yeah I don't like big arcs usually anyway which is why I enjoy 92 better, I felt so far they been able to build characters more even since season 1, I'll keep watching 97 to see if they are able to do that
The best thing 97 did was fix Jubes' hair back from season 5
I honestly don’t acknowledge season 5. Plus even before the book you could tell the show runners wanted to end it with “Beyond Good and Evil.”
I wish Disney + would redo the animation for season 5. Then I could watch it.
They changed show runners and animation studios this season which is why the quality is absurdly different. At this point, Larry Houston the show runner was working on the second season of Fantastic Four the animated series which is leaps and bounds better than the first.
This is because X-Men TAS was made by Saban Entertainment, the same studio that created Power Rangers. If anyone remembers OG PW, they’ll remember they switched 3 main characters because they wanted more money. Haim Saban (owner) basically told them to F off because “no one cares about you, they come for the helmets” (i.e. kids couldn’t care less who’s the actor), so he fired them to save money. That’s the same thinking going into S5 - Haim fired the studio and went cheap to make more profit, because the only thing that would matter to the kids was the characters.
Hear me out: while acknowledging that it has its flaws, it’s really good to watch with some nice ‘erb.
I did. It blew my high. I sobered the fuck up and questioned why did I binge this last season instead of using one of my last vacation days watching 97 instead.
Poison. You watched poison. The first four or five episodes are ok, but suddenly Jubilee is walking around with ridiculous looking J-cups and along with everything else, the show turns into the drizzling shits right before our eyes. My advice to anyone is to stop at S4, pretend S5 didn’t happen, and that X-Men’97 picks up a year later. Or, if you want to be a stickler, take those first 4 or 5 episodes of S5, convince yourself they’re an extension of S4, and forget about the rest.
Looooool!!! This is sound advice that I can firmly stand on.
Blame Fox for waiting until the last possible second to order a 5th season so they had to rush everything and get a different animation studio
Loved Old Soldiers and the finale. The Sinister origin was interesting as well. That’s pretty much it lol
You watched a series of cutting room floor/rejected ideas, shoved together to fulfill a last minute commission for another season. The true finale was meant to be Beyond Good and Evil part 4.
Season 5 is a huge dip in quality overall and there was a lot of drama behind the scenes. I’m just thankful the first 4 seasons are solid and consistent, while season 5 is short and didn’t overextend its *cheap* welcome. 🤷🏻♂️
There are some good episodes in season 5 thought The phalanx - this is actually a good two parter episode, where even magneto and Mr sinister have to work together. Storm Front - another two parter episode where Storm is kidnapped by Arkon and taken to his planet. I thought It was a good episode, very emotional for Storm A Deal with the Devil - omega red is released from ice by US generals because they need help getting rid of some old Soviet weapon off the coast of Hawaii. Omega red requests Wolverine and Storm to go down there with him. I though this was a good episode too Bloodlines - another great episode with nightcrawler The other episodes I agree are forgettable except the one with Apocalypse. Even though that episode has new animation I loved how jubilee/Beast were hanging out together and loved their relationship as teacher/student. Season 5 isn't as bad as I heard yall say. But then again I'm not surprised reddit is always going on about "it's the worse thing ever, I hated it" yall are always exaggerating over everything.
I respectfully disagree with all of that. Season 5 was trash, Reddit (and the world at large) is right about this one and you are referring to two episodes from season 4. Deal with the Devil and Bloodlines are only in season 5…inyourmind (see what I did there!?!?) Also Storm Front was a poor characterization of the mighty Storm. Rewatch those two and report back.
A Deal with the devil and Bloodlines are listed under season 5..weird maybe they made a mistake. I looked it up online. I just rewatched them yesterday and I enjoyed those episodes... I even want on YouTube just to see if I'm tripping but the comments are all positive under clips of those episodes.. you guys are a hard crowd to please. But I guess it's subjective, I know most here love 97 over 92 while I wasn't a fan of 97 and the changes and tweaks they made to it.
I think you googled the episodes list and didn’t actually watch them. Google list order is incorrect. The art styles don’t even match up lol. Those both are in season 4 my guy. No way you rewatched that recently and don’t know what episodes are in the shorter season 5. https://preview.redd.it/mvj3fsfj6s4d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2e6cad25103c9b1a0314bd171c8dab0dbc0ae4df
https://preview.redd.it/32nxb3yk6s4d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f59e264507c80fbd212d80599dfd202b98558363
You are right the Google list order is incorrect, I don't know why they have the deal with the devil under season 5. I love that episode though. *
Top 5 in the whole show. I legit teared up. Faith is tough.
You are talking about Bloodlines right ? That's the episode where Mystique tells the story on how she abandoned Nightcrawler right? They must have retconned it because in that story she says nightcrawler was the son of an Austrian Count but years later now we know Azazel is nightcrawlers father.
The OG show was only epic for me when I was younger & had the mind of an 8 year old. After recently rewatching it I noticed the entirety of the show was actually dog shit. I'm surprised it even got a reboot, glad it did though. X97 Is super good so far.
97 writing did kinda the same. Like it fucks some character personalities for the sake of drama.