A Show I remember from back in the day is Godzilla: The Series. Even as a teen, I didn't love the American version of the Japanese Monster. As an Adult, I learned why.
That said, the Show is way more in line with the premise of the Series than that big-budget Film. It was also part of a slew of '90s Films with mostly-forgotten Shows- Men in Black, The Mask, Jumanji, Wing Commander, Ace Ventura, etc.
Now that I own the Complete Series Set (which has 2 Unaired Episodes), I can cover it better.
The HEAT Team chases a Monster out into the Ocean alongside Godzilla, but a strange storm strikes the ship!
They return back to NYC and find their home all smashed up. Insert 'Guns & Roses smashing Hotel Rooms' joke to be properly-'90s here.
What is the Story?
They find NYC wrecked as well- thankfully, the Disc has no Subtitle Track, so you're spared a line about someone 'playing Ping Pong with the World Trade Center' visible here- and something else is strange.
What's up with this Marquee?
They are in the dark Future of 2022, where their normally-asthmatic/hypochondriac Scientist buddy is now a buff John Connor-esque resistance fighter.
The source of this peril- DARMAs, a group of hard to kill (except when it is dramatic) monsters that in the last 23 years killed Godzilla and most of the world's population.
In a rare Plot Device, their absence had *no* effect on this timeline happening, so they go back into the Storm (that waited politely all day for them) and return to 1999.
Aside from a DARMA chasing them, there's no issue.
Back in the Present, they track down the guy who is working on said creatures now and stop him.
Thankfully, they have 2022's laser weapons (good thing we don't have those now!) and Godzilla (absent since the first few minutes) to set things right. The End.
A fun, if obviously silly premise for an Episode.
As a Cartoon Show, you'd better believe that they checked all of the boxes for Story ideas in 40 Episodes. They go to every climate, every Continent, travel inside of Godzilla to cure him from the inside and, as you just read, went to the Future.
The future stuff is fun- a relative statement given that it is supposed to be bleak, of course. They give you a good reason for it and really revel in all of the 'Future has gone bad' Tropes/Visuals. One gripe though- they don't show Godzilla battling the DARMAs at all. Nope, they just say he saved a bunch of people and died.
Was it too dramatic for a Kid's Show? You can just describe it?
The Pacing of this was not what I expected as usually the 'come back to fix things' part is pretty short. It's not quite half the Episode, but it is longer than a few minutes.
They do make the most of that time, of course, paying off a setup earlier and continuing to tease a long-term story of romance. I'm not sure if those ever properly paid off, of course.
Future Shock is a fun Episode that breaks the normal setup of 'Go here, find Monster and defeat Monster.' It plays with that a bit in a nice way.
As for the dark Future, at least they got Cyborgs in THEIR 2022!
Godzilla: The Series is not exactly the most complex Show of its time, but it sure is fun. I've got more highlights in the near future (also of 2022).
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