To me, 2012 as a whole registers in my mind in the same way as Star Wars: The Clone Wars, a fun watch and overall a really solid entry into the franchise that I have a ton of sentimental/nostalgic value for, but a nonetheless flawed show that is noticeably trumped in the consistency department by its predecessor from 2003.
I pretty much agree with most of your points here. Seasons 1 and 2 were genuinely fantastic, and the writing began to take a gradual but noticeable dip afterwards. The space stuff at the start of the season was fun but like you said, the second half just kind of lolls around up until Super Shredder. Like you said again, Splinter dying in Ep 14 would’ve made the second half a lot more compelling seeing the Turtles’ individual reactions to it, especially since they intended to kill him off at the end regardless. I think it would’ve been really cool to explore how each of the brothers different ways of coping with that loss, and how going through all of that work to try to save Earth and their father only for it all to be in vain would affect each one’s psyche, all with the eventual setup for Super Shredder looming in the background.
This is prime time for Mikey to finally shine and be more than just comic relief.
This is one of my biggest issues with the show. Mikey has no real growth and character moments through most of the later seasons, and gets progressively more obnoxious and grating. It really did feel like the writers were trying to box him firmly into comic relief later on, while the earlier seasons had moments where he would show flashes of his hidden potential.
Overall, I don’t think season 4 is necessarily bad, but like you said, it had the potential to be a lot better than how it ended up
