YMMV / RoboCop: The Series

• Audience-Alienating Era: This series (in tandem with RoboCop 3, which was released a year earlier) began an era of marketing live-action Robocop projects to younger audiences, via sanitizing the violence (by necessity, for TV audiences) and making the subject matter lighter, as befitting the PG rating for CTV Television, which aired the series. The resulting series was canceled at the end of its first (and only) season, while the following project, RoboCop: Prime Directives, would attempt to hew closer to the original's heightened violence and brutal subject matter.
• Complete Monster: Felix Weber, from "The Human Factor", was an employee at Omni Consumer Products who was trying to create a hair growth serum using spider venom that could cure baldness. When he was fired for his unauthorized research, he held Detroit hostage with his bombs before being arrested by Alex Murphy's father. Escaping from prison, Felix attempts to bomb various O.C.P buildings, before eventually trying to destroy the entire city, all over being fired and having his research shut down. Even when he is offered money and he is made to believe that the chairman who fired him is being arrested, he refuses to stop.
• Fridge Brilliance: Diana is weirdly calm about being told that her body has been disposed of and she's effectively a Brain in a Jar now, only being annoyed because it means all her effort at dieting was wasted. But then, the fact that she no longer has adrenaline glands probably makes it easier to stay calm.
• Funny Moments:
  Diana: "This service has been brought to you by... RoboCop! Sucker!"
  • The thing that sells the scene? When Diana said "RoboCop! Sucker!", the display on the dashboard of the car shows a smiley face wearing Robo's helmet.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In one episode, the cops watch incriminating footage from someone's Video Phone, secretly recorded by Robocop's "friend" (Diana). They note that it was illegally gathered, so they can't use it as official evidence. These days, people - especially the government - spying on the public through webcams and other devices is a widespread concern, especially after the PRISM leaks.
• Spoiled by the Format: Frequently, the Mysterious Culprit (the real killer in "Prime Suspect," or the organ thief in "What Money Can't Buy") turns out to be the only remaining guest character who hasn't been either killed already or shown to be guilty of something else.
• Tear Jerker: Despite the Lighter and Softer tone, the show never shies away from the sheer misery Murphy feels over becoming an outsider to his own family and being unable to embrace them whenever seeing them. Despite his stoic talk, Madigan and Diana can tell it just eats away at him. Sarge losing custody of Gadget in "Mother's Day" (itself a sad moment) features this exchange.
  Charlie: Imagine losing your whole family overnight. Must be tough.
  [Murphy flashes back to Nancy and Jimmy waving goodbye to him on his way to work]
  Murphy: Yes... it is.
• Vindicated by History: Nowadays, even fans who dislike the more comic-book-like plots can at least admit that the satire is relatively sharp and the writing at least above-average.

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