I agree. Seasons 3 and 4 were not as good as 1 and 2, and they had a few bad episodes ("A Third Dad Cartoon" is the worst), but they had some good episodes too.
I don't care either way about the style change. It works either way.
I would go as far as to say that Mandark getting a backstory actually fleshed him out more. As for Mandark and Dexter's meeting, Dexter might not have recognized Mandark since he had long hair and called himself "Susan", and Mandark showing up Dexter in "Dexter's Rival" could be interpreted as a revenge plan for the way Dexter mocked him.
And yes, Justice Friends and Dial M for Monkey were gone since early season 2. It's amazing how many people missed that. And the show was just fine without them, anyway.
Well, the first and second seasons also had a few bad episodes, as does every show.
I don't see where the designs fit into the Uncanny Valley. They look fine to me.
You do give a really good explanation as to how it could fit in with continuity. The episode now makes more sense than I thought. It's a wonder that nobody's tried to rationalize this. Instead it's all just whining about retcons.
They weren't really gone - as I said, the backing segments were still there, but not very often. I think only Cow and Chicken kept its backing segments regularly throughout its run; Dexter's Lab and Johnny Bravo gradually got rid of them. Major Glory still made appearances throughout the show, though. And while I could've done without Dial M for Monkey, the Justice Friends were hilarious, and I wish they'd had more segments.
One thing I haven't mentioned in the review is that not only was Genndy Tartakovsky involved with those seasons, for the third season at least he sat in to help with storyboards and make suggestions for the episodes.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
In my opinion, Season 3 and 4 were atrocious. Totally unfunny, horrible art style, character changes ruined them... awful, just awful.
I agree with the last comment. And I disliked that they had to replace Christine Cavanaugh, the original voice of Dexter. And besides, there should have been more than just four seasons, perhaps, with three additional seasons fit in between what was seasons two and three. Then there'd be not four, but seven seasons of Dexter's Laboratory.
It would go like this (obviously):
Season 1 (1996-1997) Season 2 (1997-1998) Season 3 (1998-1999) Season 4 (1999-2000) Season 5 (2000-2001) Season 6 (2001-2002) Season 7 (2002-2003)
There is no question that there would be such a great amount of Dexter's Lab episodes; so then people would find it easier to grasp the idea that Dexter's Lab jumped the shark with season 6 (now known to us as season 3).
Having said all that, did any of you get that I believe in time travel and that it is possible to change the past? And yes, I would also like to change history, too. If you're willing to do so, come aboard with me as I go through The Time Tunnel.
^ They had to replace her because she retired midway through the 3rd season and they couldn't stop production on the episodes they'd been making.
"They say I'm old fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast."
^ Like I did not know that, LOL.
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The later seasons weren't that bad
A lot has been said about the 3rd and 4th seasons, saying that they pale in comparison to the original two - that they're terrible, even.
Personally, I think the hate is overblown. As with many things, fate just decides to make perfectly good/decent/average works into whipping boys for no reason. While the 3rd and 4th seasons weren't as good as the original, they were still decent enough in their own right.
I don't really care much about the art style change; this may be because it's what is used in EVERY piece of Dexter-related merchandise since then. The character designs didn't really look out-of-shape to me either. Stylized, yes, but it didn't matter to me.
And as for one of the biggest complaints about these seasons - Mandark's origin apparently being "retconned"... well, I don't see it like that.
First off, Astronomenoff is his last name. We also never saw his parents in the first two seasons, at all. So I can believe that Mandark's parents were really hippies who named him Susan. Maybe he gets his scientific inclinations from somewhere else in the family. As for retconning how he and Dexter met, well, that I will grant you, but then, there's probably a good explanation for that.
And the complaint about getting rid of the Justice Friends and Dial M for Monkey segments is pretty much ignoring the show's history considering that in the second season, there were only 2 Justice Friends segments and 1 Dial M for Monkey segment. They were pretty much on the chopping block anyway, in other words.
As for terrible pacing, Flanderization, etc. ... Well, again, I don't think these were that bad. Beauty and ugly is in the eye of the beholder.
So, in summation - the hate for these later seasons is overblown. They're not as good as the earlier ones, but they're not terrible either.
(I didn't cover Christine Cavanaugh being replaced by Candi Milo because they did get her back, but unfortunately, she retired and had to be replaced.)