My first experience with this series was catching the occasional episode on free-to-air TV, and it honestly struck me as kind of stupid. But tempted by the art design, I sat and watched the series consistently and got hooked.
Off in the Frontier Zone, someone is killing Green Lanterns. Hal Jordan, Earth's Green Lantern, and his colleague Kilowog discover the Red Lantern threat and are tasked by the Guardians of Oa with gathering intelligence. On their ship the Interceptor, run by an AI (dubbed "Aya" by Hal), they start their return to Oa, meetings friends and foes along the way. But the Guardians have not told them everything ...
I love the art design and music for this series, but it's the characters that kept me watching. Hal, the maverick pilot who is always ready to accept people and give them a chance; Kilowog, gruff and by-the-book, but noble at heart; Aya, a genuine personality who develops a mind of her own; and Razer, a Red Lantern who makes the journey from despair to hope. The voice actors are well cast and genuinely good, able to make moments of drama or comic relief equally believable.
The story arc for each half of the series is broken up by some standalone stories, but many elements that seemed to be over and done with are brought together in later episodes. While the overarching plot is gripping, some of the episodes along the way are less strong as you might expect in a series. There are quite a few clichés and plot holes, it's true, but for me they are well and truly outweighed by the strengths of this series. One thing that particularly struck me with the scriptwriting was the adult approach taken. Strong emotions are in play here, sometimes justified, sometimes not; and while there are times when the characters make good decisions, at others times they don't. It's refreshing, and realistic, too, to see characters struggling with situations where there are no easy answers. You don't have to be a Green Lantern fan to enjoy this, as the scriptwriters did a good job of making the core concepts of the Guardians-Green Lanterns easy to pick up.
If there is a message from this series, it is that hope is never wasted; anger has its value; and love and friendship matter most of all. I'm not a Green Lantern follower, so I can't say whether this is a good addition to the history/concept or not. What I can say is that I love this particular version and I am genuinely gutted that no more episodes will be made.
