My Review of Transformers: Animated season 1 episode 7–The Thrill of the Hunt · 1:50am Feb 16th, 2021
Grading Scale:
A (fantastic episode)
A- (an excellent episode with at least one flaw)
B+ (a great episode with a couple of flaws)
B (a good episode which still could have been better)
B- (a good episode with numerous flaws but still rewatchable)
C+ (a decent episode)
C (eh... it’s not terrible but not good either)
C- (it’s not worth rewatching although it does have good elements)
D+ (a bad episode with a few good things in it)
D (a really bad episode with wasted potential)
D- (a terrible episode with badly written characters and butchered moral)
F (horrible and unwatchable)
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Hello there! Here is my review of episode 7, The Thrill of the Hunt! This was and always has been one of my favorite episodes of season 1 ever since 2008. This was the episode that gave birth to one of the original characters of this whole show and a brand new character of the Transformers universe: Lockdown! This guy is one of my favorite villains in the whole franchise as he is completely badass, cunning, intelligent, ruthless, sassy, smug, and yet deadly. He has only three episodes in this show, and he instantly became a fan favorite amongst the Transformers community and one of the reoccurring characters in the franchise. That goes to show how much an impact he made on the show and on the fandom. He was actually the very first Transformers: Animated toy I got when I was a kid.
Lance Henriksen was the voice actor for Lockdown, and he was such a perfect choice to voice him. He gave that menacing voice and an awesome personality through it all.
He is the main character that made this episode so enjoyable and entertaining to watch. It focused on Ratchet getting war flashbacks of his traumatic encounter with the bounty hunter himself. Those were the same moments he shared with Arcee, a classic G1 Autobot character the show brought back. I loved how they met for the first time and the efforts Ratchet put forth in saving her life especially in trying to help her keep those codes, full of sensitive information, safe from Megatron. And the part where her memory was erased during that EMP blast... that was really sad. On a side note, I’m glad Susan Blu reprised her role as Arcee again.
Oh, and I liked the fight scene between Prowl and Lockdown. Very subtle foreshadowing if you ask me... 😉
I liked how this episode reveals the psychological effects of the pain and hurt during war that can be afflicted in one’s mind. Ratchet had to confront his enemy from the past and overcome him to rescue Optimus and protect his friends. It’s just like how we have to face the pains from the past—like what Rafiki said, either you run from it or learn from it.
Great character development, action, and dialogue in this episode! A straight up A!
Peace!
Time for something interesting. According to the Decepticon character descriptions sent out in the original Cartoon Network press release for Transformers Animated, Lockdown "can go into a Predator-like stealth mode for brief periods". He's never done this at all in fiction, even if it does sound like him. Hell, the Stealth Lockdown toy bio literally says " his active camo shorts out in rain".
Don't take this the wrong way, buddy. But i always thought Lockdown was the most... Dishonorable villain