Thread:Gilgameshkun/@comment-29720851-20170503182211/@comment-995426-20170507060652

Well, one thing you have to remember about Mikey and his entire family, is that they live in the sewers. They're used to dealing with things, at least outside their home, that aren't very clean. Mikey's collection of dirty underwear is a bit of cringe comedy, but his fascination with underwear at all is perfectly understandable. And keep in mind that in that same episode, Mikey and Raph ate pizza that had been lying on the floor of Mikey's already squalid bedroom for three or four days, and they were soon both visibly high, as if taking drugs; who knows what kind of mind-altering fungus had been growing on it during that time.

Mikey's bedroom scene (including the clutter, the underwear and the drug trip pizza) was all part of a sight gag making it clear how much of a slob he is. Was it funny? Eh, bits and pieces. But that's cringe comedy for you.

Like I've been trying to say, I don't like violence or drama for their own sake detached from story context. I just don't like TMNT to tone itself down for children. Let the characters be fairly honest, acceptably realistic, and relatable to adult audiences, and real to the roles they live (in this case, ninja) and actually allowed to age and mature over time just like real people do. What I really want are more good stories that don't assume that I'm 7 years old or that I'm 37-going-on-7 as if I'll never grow up. (Granted, these audiences buy the most profitable toys, which is why showrunners have an incentive to keep focusing only on this audience over time. See: "Merchandise-Driven."  But it tends to result in really stagnant TMNT that hardly anyone older than 12 can take seriously.)  With my interest in TMNT, I'm not trying to relive my childhood&mdash;I'm enjoying adult comics. The first two seasons of the 2012 series were an anomaly in that there was much to appreciate as an adult for the same reasons I appreciate Mirage TMNT. But come season 3, that came to an end.