I'd hazard to call Transformers Prime "overrated", yet I gave it a 7/10, consistent with it's user score, and I'd place it behind Beast Wars and Transformers (G1) at least, which it is if you look at the user scores. So actually it's pretty fairly rated on that metric alone.
Let's start off with the good: the show is paced well, the action is very fluid, the animation is fantastic and the voice acting is excellent. Not only do you have the return of series regulars Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their roles as Optimus and Megatron respectively, but many of the new comers prove to be great additions to the cast. It's a very, very tidy, clean show. To use an analogy fitting for Transformers: the show is like a Toyota Camry fresh off the assembly line, perfectly engineered down to the last part.
However it's perfection makes it a tad sterile. To best sum up the show it's a bit like a love child of Beast Wars (animation and close knit cast) and Generation One tropes, and the children are somewhat akin to what we got in Armada. The lore and mythology in the show draws from the 'Aligned continuity' which connects directly to the War for Cybertron games, and if you squint really hard, no, that still doesn't make any sense. As a result the universe it's in is G1 adjacent, so it possesses the artifacts and storylines of G1 (scraplets, the matrix, vector sigma, T-cogs, cosmic rust, energon, etc.) without actually following any pre-established G1 continuity. However the show never really does anything interesting or unexpected with these things. Every episode sort of trots out some G1 inspired thing and goes "hey remember this?" This could be contrasted with Beast Wars, which we knew was set in a far flung G1 future, but then pulled a genius twist that fully cemented in Transformers lore beyond what was expected.
The show is paced similarly to Beast Wars which started off very slowly, with a plodding first season mostly devoted to introducing new characters, then ramps up the stakes in the second season. Also, while set in the G1 universe, like Beast Wars, Prime does not feature a very expansive cast. Prime also has a mouth again, which is still one of my huge pet peeves. That thing is creepy.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the show is that for a show called Prime, Optimus Prime feels like a background character. Maybe it's because the idea of who Prime is has been so cemented that it leaves little room for character development, but his character in this show comes off a bit like a walking cliché. He simply exists to say Prime's greatest hits, and then walk off screen.
Bulkhead is probably the show's most engaging character, and is a former Wrecker. His status as a Wrecker again is a callout to past G1 era stories, and yet it's of absolutely no consequence as the Wreckers in their classic incarnation never appear, nor is any classic Wrecker storyline referenced.
This is where I feel it resembles Armada. Armada was great at showing G1 characters in the background or occasionally referencing past mythology, but it was just fan service. This makes both show(s) feel like a soulless exercise at times. The show isn't really trying to be it's own thing, because it's so fixed in lore, yet it's not trying to be the same either. At times I feel like I'm watching the first season of the original Transformers, but with characters I care less about. Peter Cullen and Welker also sound bored at times, like they are going through the motions. The excitement of trotting out the same tired version or the same tired characters doesn't have the appeal it did in 1984.
With X-Men (TAS, Evolution, Wolverine), Avengers (EMH) and Batman/DCU (Timmverse - and also Young Justice) we've seen television adapt successfully translate classic comic storylines to screen. It really baffles me how Transformers has not done the same when IDW, Dreamwave and Marvel (US/UK) have shown literally how epic Transformers can be. It's rather funny to me that after all this time the two best Transformers cartoons are still Transformers The Movie and the Agenda in Beast Wars - both of which are decades old. It's hard to argue with their commercial success of rebooting and rebranding for the sake of hooking younger audiences to their brand, but Prime makes me wistful for a show that finally took the property seriously.
Let's start off with the good: the show is paced well, the action is very fluid, the animation is fantastic and the voice acting is excellent. Not only do you have the return of series regulars Peter Cullen and Frank Welker reprising their roles as Optimus and Megatron respectively, but many of the new comers prove to be great additions to the cast. It's a very, very tidy, clean show. To use an analogy fitting for Transformers: the show is like a Toyota Camry fresh off the assembly line, perfectly engineered down to the last part.
However it's perfection makes it a tad sterile. To best sum up the show it's a bit like a love child of Beast Wars (animation and close knit cast) and Generation One tropes, and the children are somewhat akin to what we got in Armada. The lore and mythology in the show draws from the 'Aligned continuity' which connects directly to the War for Cybertron games, and if you squint really hard, no, that still doesn't make any sense. As a result the universe it's in is G1 adjacent, so it possesses the artifacts and storylines of G1 (scraplets, the matrix, vector sigma, T-cogs, cosmic rust, energon, etc.) without actually following any pre-established G1 continuity. However the show never really does anything interesting or unexpected with these things. Every episode sort of trots out some G1 inspired thing and goes "hey remember this?" This could be contrasted with Beast Wars, which we knew was set in a far flung G1 future, but then pulled a genius twist that fully cemented in Transformers lore beyond what was expected.
The show is paced similarly to Beast Wars which started off very slowly, with a plodding first season mostly devoted to introducing new characters, then ramps up the stakes in the second season. Also, while set in the G1 universe, like Beast Wars, Prime does not feature a very expansive cast. Prime also has a mouth again, which is still one of my huge pet peeves. That thing is creepy.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the show is that for a show called Prime, Optimus Prime feels like a background character. Maybe it's because the idea of who Prime is has been so cemented that it leaves little room for character development, but his character in this show comes off a bit like a walking cliché. He simply exists to say Prime's greatest hits, and then walk off screen.
Bulkhead is probably the show's most engaging character, and is a former Wrecker. His status as a Wrecker again is a callout to past G1 era stories, and yet it's of absolutely no consequence as the Wreckers in their classic incarnation never appear, nor is any classic Wrecker storyline referenced.
This is where I feel it resembles Armada. Armada was great at showing G1 characters in the background or occasionally referencing past mythology, but it was just fan service. This makes both show(s) feel like a soulless exercise at times. The show isn't really trying to be it's own thing, because it's so fixed in lore, yet it's not trying to be the same either. At times I feel like I'm watching the first season of the original Transformers, but with characters I care less about. Peter Cullen and Welker also sound bored at times, like they are going through the motions. The excitement of trotting out the same tired version or the same tired characters doesn't have the appeal it did in 1984.
With X-Men (TAS, Evolution, Wolverine), Avengers (EMH) and Batman/DCU (Timmverse - and also Young Justice) we've seen television adapt successfully translate classic comic storylines to screen. It really baffles me how Transformers has not done the same when IDW, Dreamwave and Marvel (US/UK) have shown literally how epic Transformers can be. It's rather funny to me that after all this time the two best Transformers cartoons are still Transformers The Movie and the Agenda in Beast Wars - both of which are decades old. It's hard to argue with their commercial success of rebooting and rebranding for the sake of hooking younger audiences to their brand, but Prime makes me wistful for a show that finally took the property seriously.