Voltron: Legendary Defender

Through season one and into season two, I'd say I'm enjoying the series and I'm fairly invested. I'm not quite sure what it looks like to someone without I-watched-the-old-series nostalgia glasses, though.

Of course, it's not perfect. I could use with the comedy being tuned back - not removed entirely, but the more serious episodes resonate better for me. The first season ramps up sharply in the last couple episodes from establishing setup and working to add some depth to cast members to "whoa, stuff is happening!" the series has a tendency to introduce plot points semi-subtly and then either forget about them entirely or bring them back a couple episodes later as a "big reveal," all the while leaving me thinking "shouldn't they be talking about this?" in the meantime.

Also, the setting feels kind of hollow. That was probably the case in the original more than I remember, and many more flesh-out-feeling settings are accomplished by storytelling smoke and mirrors, but it's striking enough for me to think about it. The monolithic Galra empire is usually represented by a fleet of drones and a capital ship which (from all we see) might have as few as half a dozen living people on it and hordes of sentry robots (because, hey, you can blast them freely in a cartoon, right?). The Castle of Lions is a large vessel occupied by seven people and four space mice. Earth's Galaxy Garrison may be a callback, but the name here seems like a joke when humanity doesn't appear to have left the solar system and still thinks aliens may not exist. Overall, I'm glad the characters get some fleshing out (though some could use more), because the setting is pretty superficial.

But it's a reasonably fun space adventure so far and it has the advantage of bringing to the table more continuity of story than the old monster of the week beaten by Voltron finally forming his blazing sword.