WesternAnimation A masterpiece.
(This review is labelled as "season" out of hopes that the show will get a second one. PLEASE DISNEY.)
It was decided that Tron should have a midquel. BOY, did it work.
Tron uprising not only serves to fill the gaps, it expands the universe in unique ways, showing tech the franchise hasn't dreamed about (Tesler's arms, upgrade disc, disguise serum), it answers questions people haven't thought of ("What if a program loses his disk?" is the theme of one episode) and explores the less-known parts of The Grid (How common programs go on their lives and what problems they face, such as Clu's dictatorship, crime, The Games). Just for that, it's a great piece of EU.
But that takes a backseat on the story and characters. Beck starts as a fairly bland protagonist, but the show develops his personality and we see him as a interesting brand of "idealistic-not-stupid-determinator.", he is clever but not a chessmaster, determined but not unstoppable. Well-crafted hero.
Tron himself gets some amazing character development in a single season, more than in both movies combined. Here he is a grim Knight In Sour Armor who has been broken by what he had to endure, but still has a glimpse of faith. He struggles with the "grim" aspect and the "faith" aspect, which is interesting. A fallen hero fighting against his demons, Beck's opposite.
The villains: Tesler is tyrant with a flair for sarcasm, he is unstoppable and clever. He gets the least character development (we still don't know why he's such an asshole: Greed? Arrogance? Loyalty? Freudian Excuse ?), which is one of the few complaints I have. That said, he is a great villain because he's so Badass and sometimes hilarious. A worthy foe.
Pavel, whose main attractive is being Butt Monkey Large Ham.
Paige mixes Noble Demon and Well Intentioned Extremist. The show teases Heel Face Turn often, but it also leaves her fate ambiguos. I look forward to her ending.
The plot's complex. It treats mature themes (like death, redemption, hope, faith, revenge, uprisings, racism, dystopias, among others) with more maturity than some live-action series. They explore those themes masterfully with the time at hand.
It's a brillant show that DEFINETELY deserves more viewings. As says the review's title: A masterpiece.
WesternAnimation Worth Watching
I originally considered titling my review "a lot like the movies." By this I mean that the visuals were a lot more compelling than the story (sorry, movie!Tron fans). The last couple of episodes won me over. Anyway, here's my two cents:
The good:
The bad:
Favorite episode: "Welcome Home" did a good job exploring Paige's motivations, and the flirting between Paige and Beck was surprisingly well done. As I said before, the last few episodes are all pretty good.
Least favorite: "Identity" has a cool-sounding concept, but in practice it's a mishmash of contrived events that are eventually solved by a poorly motivated heroic sacrifice.