5 out of 5

Collecting the back half of season 3 on two discs, ‘Revenge!’ – stripping away the ungodly delays between airdates of episodes – shows off the showwriters’ increasing leaning toward continuity.  When I watched this stuff live, I felt like we were jumping around as usual, with the general setting dictated by plot, but episodes otherwise split clearly between monster-of-the-week and eps that moved the storyline forward.  The beginning of season 3, while containing some of my favorite moments, is especially guilty of this.  And ‘Revenge!’ certainly doesn’t lack for one-off intros, with Muckman, and Mondo Gecko popping up, but so many moments have very clear callbacks to previous episodes, or pay off excellent emotional dividends, such as the ‘Tale of the Yokai’ episode, which was probably one of the heaviest, and best-written “serious” entries to date.

There’s also the season ender, which upped the ante in ways I can’t properly explain without dragging you through years of Turtley obsession.  But TMNT aside, the two-parter did things that kick the pants off of the majority of TV / cartoon cliffhangers.  Skewed to a children’s show, sure, but on par with the Shredder reveal of the 4K series.

All that is to say: this is an excellent collection of episodes.  Usual comments of fidelity (non-HD) apply, but the transfers are great all the same, and you get a free keyring / backpack pull with the DVD, so who can argue with that.  But the mighty five stars is secured by giving us a legitimate extra: a preview of season 4, which actually has interviews and behind the scenes footage.  A wonderful 7 minutes that makes me love the show and the people involved with the show all the more.