Reboot is kind of a weird one. I only ever saw a handful of episodes, when it was on, but I’ve always been aware of it & have some degree of nostalgia for it even though I was never really into it. Mostly, I just remember Gigabyte shredding on a guitar for Enzo’s birthday & the horror spoof episode, where Enzo dressed like Michael Jackson in Thriller & Dot was Elvira. But considering it was made by the same guys that did Beast Wars and (presumably) had a lot of the same people working on it, it should be in my wheelhouse, right? My curiosity & the glowing reviews of this show over the years finally got me. I’m going to watch 1 ep a night until it’s done. Shouldn’t take more than 2 months. Here goes: Episode 1: The Tearing - There’s a lot going on in this episode. They have to introduce all the main characters, the main villain, establish the setting right away, set up some rules, introduce the concept of incoming games & how those affect their world and what happens when the user wins, then show the characters all getting trapped inside a game & fighting their way out, and on top of that there’s a plot to infect the system’s core that feels almost like it’s season finale material. I’d say it’s too much for a first episode, but it handles it well enough. It’s not a great start, but it does the job. By the end, we have a pretty firm grasp of who all our characters are & a decent understanding about the way their world works. Except for one thing- the idea that playing a game on your computer would destroy portions of your mainframe makes for good tv, but doesn’t make sense otherwise. I’m sure there’s a better explanation for what’s actually happening, but as of the 1st ep, it just looks like the user is blowing up parts of his computer’s software every time he runs a game. Overall- decent start.
The show doesn't have much of a plot during the original season, when it was first broadcast on ABC. A few hints at the background mythology crop up here and there, but mostly episodic silliness with the esoteric games the User installs. Once the show moved to other networks is when it gained a more serialized plot and a darker tone.
That’s ok. Beast Wars was much the same for its first season. Serialized silliness can also be good for developing characters. Episode 2: Race Against the Clock - Enzo starts a delivery business & Gigabyte hires him to (unknowingly) deliver a bomb to Hexadecimal. This ep is basically her big introduction. I like how Hex’ masks show off her mood. Strikes me as a clever way to cut down on facial animation costs too. She’s got a neat design. Getting the frenemy vibe from Gigs & Hex. Everyone’s chummy despite trying to kill each other. Kinda cute. And like how everyone’s so casual about it. I don’t recall seeing any flirting between Dot & Bob last episode, but he’s definitely looking her over in this one. Bob screams real good. I must’ve watched the bit where he’s flung through the air & ripping the bomb mask off his face a half dozen times just to hear that great scream of his. The racing bit was generic & forgettable & man, some of those engine revving sound effects drowned out everything else, to the point that it became noticeable & kind of annoying. Overall still decent though.
Just a heads up, it’s actually Megabyte. There is a Gigabyte, but I won’t say anything else because spoilers.
I recently did a rewatch of this show on Tubi. I can't wait to read about your opinions on some of the latter seasons of the show.
Love this show. It was indeed the same guys who did bw, but they were heavily censored by the network ABC in the first one and a half seasons. They even poke fun at this numerous times (like naming Megabyte's goon vehicles the ABC's). But when they got set free and could tell the stories the way they want... Ohhh boy, it gets insanely good. But the early stuff is still great for characters, setting, world building and just general good fun. And Tony Jay made Megabyte. Such a classic villain. Mind you, Hexadecimal also has plenty of shining moments. Enjoy the show!
When my wife heard Megabyte, she tripped out! “It’s Sheer Kahn!!” You can’t go wrong with that voice.
Aka Lex Luthor's Butler in 'Lois and Clark'. I was thinking of doing the same sort of thing with War Planets which I have never seen and possibly new Max Steel too.
I’ll be honest, I think Reboot was the weaker of the three series these guys worked on. Which still puts it - by and large - above most other stuff on TV at the time.
I found it pretty comparable to Beast Wars. It just didn't have the nostalgia factor to piggyback on, which is where I think a lot of the goodwill towards BW comes from (I mean, aside from good character development, which both series did well in).
I was a bigger fan of War Planets: Shadow Raiders, that one felt like Mainframe’s magnum opus. Which is ironic since it didn’t finish properly.
Yeah, was gonna say. War Planets found its voice early on and hit the ground running, whereas Reboot and Beast Wars had some issues due to the looseness of their first seasons, and then playing catch-up later in their second halves.
Episode 3: The Quick & The Fed A slow episode, which may be the point as Al’s Diner has the slowest service ever, and they need slow food to cure Dot, but the pacing really was just slow. The medieval game was generic, but the skeleton knight looked cool. Really, the location jumps threw me off. Al’s Diner is located way off in a seedy part of town, the game cube drops down a few blocks away from Al’s but somehow still sucks up Al & his unseen cook into the game, and when the cube disappears, they’re right in front of Dot’s Diner. Just one of those things you can’t think about, I guess. Dot phasing in and out looked freaky but cool. A mild serving of nightmare fuel. And Bob has the most sculpted ass in Mainframe. LOL! Overall this episode was kind of a dud for me. Episode 4: The Medusa Bug Now this is more like it. Some actual tension and high stakes. Hex is easily a scarier villain than Megabyte. He’s a cool, collected mob boss type & she’s a random psycho Liked that even as he was slowly turning to stone, Megabyte was searching for a cure. That’s the epitome of cool & collected. Kinda surprised they actually went ahead and turned the whole city to stone. And more surprised that they showed a baby binome being petrified too (just offscreen). All the frozen looks of terror on everyone’s faces were a bit unsettling too. This ep isn’t pulling any punches! Liked how Bob convinced Hex to reverse the Medusa virus. Pretty clever. I’d say this is the best episode yet. Oh, and also I think Gary Chalk is one of Megabyte’s henchmen. Hack or Slash. I can’t tell which because they’re both always talking at the same time. So that’s cool.
Garry Chalk voices Slash, the blue robot, and Scott McNeil voices Hack, the red robot. Fun fact, Garry Chalk actually follows me on Twitter.
ReBoot was a great show and as the first computer animated series, really looked good for the "primitive" nineties. Season 1 and 2 were really geared for a younger audience but it really hit its stride in season 3, especially being free of ABC's suffocating influence. Season 4 was okay; the ironic thing as the animation got better, the faces started to enter uncanny valley territory. You can argue Beast Wars and War Planets had better story-telling but I think ReBoot paved the way for the more mature themes.
Episode 5: The Tiff Bob & Dot spend most the episode angry at each other. Bob lives on the fly & Dot plans for everything. Enzo tries to get them to patch things up, but it’s not until Bob & Dot get trapped in a game, and they’re forced to take on each others’ roles, that they finally see eye to eye. I kept getting a Moonlighting vibe from this episode (that old Bruce Willis tv show for anyone not in the know- also the inspiration for how Link & Zelda interact in the old Zelda cartoon). Kinda felt like Bob & Dot didn’t really learn their lesson, but at least they’re friends again, so... all’s well that ends well, I guess? He’s trying to get her to live in the moment without so much planning & shoot from the hip, but then it turns out she’s already really good at that. And she’s trying to get him to see the value of planning, and he still kinda just wings it & manages to succeed. Even at the end, when Dot takes a 20-floor jump & he has to “plan” on how to have her land safely, he still does it in the heat of the moment. And his plan was “Glitch, do anything!” So maybe he learned the value of planning by sucking at it? And maybe she learned that some situations require split second decisions when there isn’t time to plan? And they did save each other a couple times, so there’s that. So... I don’t know. I feel like their reconciliation didn’t follow a straight logical path, but it still got them where they needed to be. Episode 6: Belly of the Beast Megabyte continues to be framed as the most evil villain in all of Mainframe. And Enzo kicks his butt with a little help from his sick dog. The scene where Bob pops open Friskit’s snout & we can see an engine in there- man, just kinda creepy imagery! The whole time I was watching this one, I just kept noticing their walk cycles & jerky movements. Enzo’s walk is especially Frankenstein-ian. No wonder they have them fly around on hover boards most the time! The comedic timing felt a bit off in this one with long takes and no payoff. The scene where Hack & Slash are staring down a car coming at them is a good example. The car gets closer & closer... aaaaand... aaaaaaand... then they just step out of the way & then come back into frame for a long reaction shot. Also Enzo’s teeth are perfect. Anyway, not a bad ep, but not great either. Thankfully Megabyte was around to lend his charm to it. He makes everything better.
