Let me start this review off by saying I never watched any of the previous Voltron cartoons. I was only vaguely aware of their existence, and when the first season of Voltron: Legendary Defender premiered on Netflix, I didn't give it much thought. But when my friend Fenoxo and I were looking for something to watch, we figured we'd give it a shot. Like me, he had never seen the original or any other iteration, so we went in with precisely zero expectations. I think it says something that we often say to each other, "This show has no right being so good."

Voltron: Legendary Defender is a sci-fi action, adventure, comedy featuring the typical cast of plucky kids, who seemingly have been chosen to save the universe against the forces of evil. The premise sounds cheesy, and I would certainly forgive anyone for rolling their eyes upon hearing it, but it's the execution that takes this show above and beyond.

The first thing is the cast. Everyone on the main cast is an absolute delight. While the character of Lance was sort of annoying in the first few seasons as the comedic jokester, he really matured and became a truly enjoyable and three dimensional character towards the end of the series. Keith's character, often jumped the line between interesting and annoying, as he was the stoic loner who didn't need anyone, but again as the series progressed he began to shed that rather overplayed trope and became a living breathing character. The other characters (Allura, Coran, Pidge, Hunk, and Shiro) I took a shine to almost immediately, though I'm a little disappointed that two of my favorite characters (Hunk and Coran), didn't seem to get a good character-defining arc that all the others seemed to get. The side characters are also great, although seldom used. When introduced to what Fenoxo and I called the "B-Team" on Earth, four fighter pilots and a few others, I desperately wished they would get their own spin-off show, or a few more episodes to call their own, but alas it was not meant to be.

The second thing the show has going for it is the visual design: everything from the animation itself to the design of the aliens, ships and planets. Planets are especially visually striking, completely impossible in reality, but that fit right in in this universe. The ships are all incredibly well designed too, especially the Galra ships, and the Human-built Atlas cruiser, which might become one of my favorite ships in all science fiction. Likewise the aliens are especially alien, in ways that would only work in animation. Speaking of, the animation is absolutely phenomenal throughout the series. Whether it's a gun/sword fight in the hallways of a Galra cruiser, or a massive space battle between multiple ships, the Lions, or Voltron itself, everything looks fantastic.

Third is the writing, which is witty and smart. Good for kids, but not too watered down for adults. This seems to be a growing trend in cartoons in general, especially what I've seen coming out of Netflix, and it's a welcome change as an ever-aging cartoon-watching dinosaur.

That's not to say the show isn't without its faults. There are a few mediocre "filler" episodes, though thankfully they are few and far between. As mentioned some really interesting characters get introduced, but then don't show up until the end of the series (if they show up again at all), and then there's the villain problem. The three main villains in Voltron are basically one family: Zarkon, his wife Honerva (aka Haggar), and their son Lotor. Zarkon, the first villain, is the typical power-hungry universe-dominator. He cackles, he plots, and all he wants to do is take over the entire universe. Honerva is the final villain, and she's basically batshit crazy.

Lotor is the middle villain and kind of the odd one out. It felt like the writers didn't quite know what they wanted to do with Lotor, or at least that they didn't have enough time to do it. He jumped from possible good-guy to maniacal overlord quick enough to give me whiplash. Lotor's allies (a trio of female soldiers from various alien races) also jumped around a lot from "we're just plucky mercenaries who could totally become good guys" to "yeah we love torture and stuff, Hail Evil Overlord Lotor" to "yeah nevermind all that we're going to help you Voltron people out", in such a way that wasn't particularly satisfying at the end. My theory is that the writing team thought they'd have more seasons to flesh out Lotor's descent into madness before jumping into Honerva's plotline, but were forced to speed up the timeline out of the blue. I could be totally wrong about that, but that's just the impression I got from watching.

All in all, however, the bad doesn't outweigh the good, and Voltron is a fantastic cartoon and is the reason I look forward to any animation project coming out of Netflix. I'm giving Voltron: Legendary defender an 8.5 out of 10. It has its problems, but when you get down to it, it's just an enjoyable ride from start to finish. Who can ask for much more?

Well, I can. The Voltron universe laid out here would be fantastic for a Mass Effect-like RPG. Please, any AAA Developer out there, make it happen!