"Young Justice: Phantoms" Great Concepts, Messy Execution

 

Source: comicbookrevolution.com

    I'll start off this review addressing the title, because as a die-hard fan of this series, I understand how passionate fans can get about this show, and for good reason, since us fans have to constantly battle for this show to continue. I really did enjoy this show, I liked the new format compared to season 3, and felt that perhaps with longer episodes or a tighter focus, this season could have been fantastic, perhaps even surpassing the first 2 seasons(which are beloved by fans). Its just, the flaws are so glaring, and I don't know if the showrunners can fix them, or want to fix them.

    What I mean is that oftentimes the scope of this show is so large and grand that it forgets that each episode is only 24 minutes. While us fans do love to argue about the budget of this show and the general neglect Warner Bro's tends to give it, I do really feel as if the show should have been much longer, or at the very least expanded, so that it didn't all feel so crammed. I understand the need to constantly grow the show, after all our young heroes cannot stay young forever, and they all lead their own lives. 

    Take for example the "character driven" arcs format that the show took this season, which sound great in theory, with about 5-6 episodes relegated to a former member of the OG Young Justice team. Sadly, what ends up happening is that in order to create an overarching story, many of the arcs, specifically Nightwing's, gets shafted in order to make room for a conclusive ending that combines all of the arcs together. Personally, if I was a producer on this show, I'd have it so that each episode is basically the team members meeting up on a sort of weekly basis and investigating something, which in this case would be Connors Death, while also having a rotating cast of supporting characters, to show how deep this universe really goes. Personally, because of the way the arcs were formatted, fans were left feeling unsatisfied, as they had to wait a while to see their favourites in action, not to mention multiple moments where episodes just felt like setup for future seasons, with little to no focus on the actual protagonist of the current arc.

    While the ideas introduced were fantastic, and plant the seeds for something much bigger and cooler in the future, the reality is the show stretched itself too thin. The original team should have seen more screen time together, and surely the scope could have been pulled back just a little bit in order to have a product that felt more cohesive. Despite all of my complaining, I did really enjoy the show though, and I never really felt bored of anything being introduced, from Mars, to magic, to Kryptonians, there's something that exists for all fans of every corner of the DC Universe.

    Now, I'd like to take a second to talk about the final episode, which I think did as good of a job as you could expect tying up all the different plotlines that were occurring throughout the season. First of all, it once again suffers from an issue many of the previous episodes had, which was that it was pretty exposition heavy, especially when M'gann and Dick end up basically relaying a bunch of exposition to each other in order to catch up viewers and each other on what was happening. I also really enjoyed the final fight and wedding, though felt that it would have been cool for those scenes to just be a tad bit longer, as this episode really felt crammed for time.

    I understand that those reading this review might think I hate this season, after all I've barely said anything kind about it and have just complained about the show, but the truth is, I complain about it because I'm very passionate about this show. It is one of my favourite animated TV shows of all time and I'd just like to provide my own input on what could have been improved and what I noted from watching this season from start to finish. I do really enjoy the messaging the showrunners try to insert into the show, as its a sign of solidarity and understanding of what the main viewer base may be going through, even if it does feel a little heavy handed at times. Moreover, the return to focusing on OG members makes me so happy, as one of my main complaints about last season was that there were way too many characters and it felt very crammed at times.

Final Score: 68/100

    Overall, this season has given me and many others hope for the future of this show, assuming it does get renewed for a 5th season(it has not officially been renewed please stream the show on HBO max I beg you). The show seems to try to reconnect to its roots while also still being more ambitious than the first couple seasons ever really were. I do think that this show is labor of love and trust the showrunners to do what they think is best for the direction of this show, and I will continue to shower it with the attention and praise that it deserves.


    

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