RID has its ups and downs.

In my opinion Season 1 and 2.5 are the best.

Season 1 had great filler episodes, great character development, nice overarching plot, great characters and a nice Saturday mornig cartoon (probably because it is one) feel.

Season 2.5 just feels fun with great new characters and a great plot not to mention a nice feel to it. Plus Screamer.

Season 2 isn't bad but some episodes like [email protected] and Impounded felt weak. The overarching plot wasn't as good and Glowstrike was wasted potential. Not to mention the Mini-Cons who are unaligned are all Decepticons.

That's just my opinion. What's yours?

 

I got the impresion the show gets better every 13 episodes.

When the first 13 episodes aired, it was mostly OK but also had two episodes were I considerd to stop watching.

The second half of season 1 was more interesting for the most part and only had one bad episode.

And starting with season 2 the worst episodes were just kinde meh.

I´m not sure about 2,5 it doesn´t really feel like a season to me more like a long movie.

 

First season was the show at its best and most unique, i loved the comedy and the easy going mood of the thing.
Loved the original Decepticons. Loved Strongarm and Fixit. Loved the Clays, long time since there where such awesome human characters in TF fiction. Loved that for once there was no OP, no Megs, no Starscream, offcourse there is a Grimlock and a Sideswipe and offcourse a Bumblebee but the characters deviated enough from the usual depictions to make them interesting.
The finale was a bit underwhelming though, i had hoped Megatronus would become a constant threat in season 2 and for him and Steeljaw to be in constant competition with each other and the Autobots.
Season 2 saw OP come back for good and something changed in the writing, there where still episodes with some of the comedy of season one and the dynamic between OP and the other Autobots altough questionable was interesting but it was clear the writers where starting to give in to the people who just wanted yet another season of Prime. This resulted in a few very boring Prime like humourless episodes. We even got a cameo by Ratchet and Soundwave... If only Soundwave had been succesfull in his escape, he would have made a far better foe than what we got.
Because 2.5 was even worse: some people claim the writing was better, and there where an episode or two that where on par with season 1, but that is offcourse not what was meant. What was meant is that Starscream had returned and that made all the difference in spite of the fact that the writing had slumped to about the level of an Energon episode.

So in short: While season one was great and season two still had fun episodes the writing is consistently getting worse with each season.
I hope for season 3 the writers go back to what made season one great: bravely being its own thing without resorting to Prime cameos and putting the comedy back into the show.

 

Season 1 had some really good episodes, but then there were a few I found a bit questionable, mostly due to the show's own formulaic nature. The second season had a rough start, but found its footing with some surprisingly good episodes as time went on. By the TV event, I feel the show has found its footing, with Mini-Cons acting on their own without being stuck to a larger robot, a cast of entirely evil villains, and some clever humor, particularly in Starscream's backstory on how he escaped the Predacons, and of course, the episode Pretzel Logic.

 

Season 2, 2,5 and lastly 1.

 

I said season 2 for a very simple reason. It brought back Ratchet with Jeffery Combs voicing him again even if it was just for 2 episodes.

 

2.5 feels like a more concentrated effort, even if the main plot only incrementally increases through quick scenes with the villains each episode like the rest of the series (and many cartoons these days for that matter). Starscream was fun to have back, and his crew was cool too. I liked Aerobolt and Tricerashot.

 

Yup, having Ratchet back was just awesome.

 

It was a tough choice for me, but in the end I went for season 2.5.

Season 1 was an easy pass for me. While I was glad, right from the start, to get a more light hearted show than Prime, it was a bit too light hearted. It was all childishness, occasionally to the point of tedium, with no depth to it. I really didn't care for most of the jokes, especially the running gags. Fixit's glitching, Bee's lame battle cries, Strongarm's pedantic attitude, Grimlock's stupidity, it all got on my nerves, especially Strongarm. She was insufferable. There were some stand out episodes, and some of the 'Cons were great, though underused, so it was far from all bad. The whole season was just meh.

Season 2 and 2.5 both take the overall lighter tone, but add in a bit more of the good stuff, and tone down the annoying factor. Bee has a set battle cry that's decent, Strongarm isn't as nagging, and Fixit's glitches either aren't as prominent, or I've simply gotten used to them by now. The cast has grown to the point where the team dynamic is diluted, with it almost feeling like you never see an episode focusing on interactions of the same two characters twice. However, as I never felt the season 1 dynamic was that great in the first place, I don't care. As long as I enjoy the interactions each episode focuses on, which I mostly do. The show got a lot more atmospheric, with dense fires, and snow blizzards and night time settings. They also both try to have more of an ongoing story, although neither are handled particularly well. Both Steeljaw and Screamer kinda just start winning towards the end, with no effort, only to lose in a couple of episodes. In the end, I decided that season 2.5 was better, simply because the battle with Powersurge Starscream was 100x better than the poorly animated powered up Steeljaw battle. It's always good to end on a high note.