Green Lantern: The Animated Series

NOTE: IGNORE the reviews in the parents' section. It's quite obvious they happened across their precious little Jimmys watching the Star Sapphire episode and had to take to the internet to express their righteous outrage, ignoring everything great this show has to offer because they deemed some outfits worn by female characters (in one episode, I remind you) to be too skimpy. Who said aliens have the same standard of modesty as humans, anyway? --- When people think of all the great animated series cut down in their prime (especially by the tools running Cartoon Network), Young Justice is probably the first to come to mind. Which is completely fair, as that series was amazing, but another DC franchise that was airing at the same time deserves to be mourned as well. Green Lantern: The Animated Series is full-blown, in-depth exploration of the various Lantern Corps and the overall cosmic mythos of the DC universe. --- The setting is vast, the story build on itself intelligently, the characters are fully formed, and the action is great and inventive. The seemingly simple CGI animation style takes some getting used to, and prevented me from watching the show for quite some time, but after a while you will grown to not only tolerate it but appreciate it. --- The show electing for TV-PG rating as opposed to the TV-Y7-FV of its predecessors such as Justice League allows it to more seriously discuss and portray the consequences of various earth-shattering (and I mean literally earth-shattering) actions and events that occur throughout its run. Words like "death" and "kill" are not sugar-coated, and the action scenes are not obscured by the infamous flashing white screen from older DC animated shows, meaning you can enjoy the fights in all their glory. That being said, the show is never overly bleak or violent, and has a healthy sense of humor. --- It's amazing how much ground the show covered in one season, introducing lesser known colors of the emotional spectrum such as red (for rage), blue (for hope), and violet (for love) as well as insanely powerful but rarely seen villains such as the Anti-Monitor. It's a tragedy that the live-action Green Lantern film did so poorly because that, without a doubt, had a role in this show's demise. This series is an epic space opera shown across twenty-six 22-minute segments and it's a bittersweet feeling to think what else this show could have accomplished given another season or two.

My son found this show on netflix and really enjoyed it. However, about three episodes in I realized that women were mainly being used as sex symbols. Seriously, I watched two episodes myself and in both the women were being used to seduce the green lanterns! Also, whether the women are trying to seduce the men for evil purposes or not, they are dressed very provocatively. I would not expect to see an intergalactic leader wearing the same outfit as a professional dancer, if you know what I mean. I think this is more age appropriate for ten or even twelve-year-olds. I would not let my eight-year-old watch this. This way this show presents women does not align with our family values.