Watched it again now as an adult, thoughts

This was one of my favorite shows as a kid, I saw seasons 1-3 many many times on Fox Kids and loved it. Everything from Peter's character, the storytelling, the villains, even the love stories, all fun stuff.

S4&5 came to my country later, so I've only seen those episodes once or twice, and I didn't remember them as well. I remembered liking most of them still (Black Cat was awesome, and I loved the part where Peter revealed himself to MJ) but what WAS memorable is

1, that I felt like they went way too far into the crossover-y Avengers stuff with scopes that are far removed from Spider-Man. This, I didn't like.
2, the Return of Hydro-Man Part 2 was an exceptionally bad, stupid, *beep* episode which undid a lot of good character development for no good reason

So now watching again, I had a lot of nostalgia, but was also curious if the series really did jump the shark or not (and if so, when), and if I still dislike those parts (and if the good stuff still holds up). Surprisingly, yes to all of them.

So...

Season 1: Classic Spider-Man stuff, love it to death. I read a lot of people criticize the narration, but I think it works really well, allows fast paced storytelling and we get to know Peter's character well. The symbionte storyline stands out as my favorite.

Season 2: This is where it got one continuous story arc with genetic mutations. Some crossovers are introduced, most work really well, feel like an organic part of the world. As a kid back then, I didn't even know that many of them were their own comic book series (like The Punisher, Daredevil, etc.), it all felt natural and still does. Either way, really strong story arc, quite dark compared to S1, but worked fine with Spider-Man facing bigger challenges like his own mutation.

Season 3: With Dr. Strange as a ridiculous (but funny as hell, I couldn't stop laughing) opening, this is definitely where the weird magical and interdimensional stuff was introduced, but most of it felt grounded in the Spider-Man universe. Got a lot of individual very strong episodes like the Daredevil, Venom / Carnage and Green Goblin ones. Maybe my favorite season of all, to be honest.

Season 4: Okay, so as far as I know, this is less popular than the previous ones, but I felt it was mostly great, actually better than I remembered. Black Cat is fantastic, both sexy and a really likable character (nice to see Felisha grow so much). A few times the writing felt a little rushed (especially in Return of Kraven), but overall solid. The Mary Jane episodes near the end were fantastic, too. I think it was a great change of status quo for Peter to have a long term relationship and someone who knows his identity.

Season 5: Sadly, just as I remembered. Pretty much all of my least favorite storylines as a kid are in here. The first and last episodes were pretty good, but anything in between... Six Forgotten Warriors, I felt tries too hard to be complex and espionage-y and big, but for all the buildup and length, it was just OK. Secret Wars sucks imo. It had horrendous dialogue, the setup was full of holes and illogical things, a lof of it went nowhere, and felt very out of place. Maybe if it was better set up and writte, it could have worked, but... dislike.

And oh boy, the The Return of Hydro-Man, Part 2. I realize it sounds petty that I hate this episode because I liked the Peter x Mary Jane stuff, and this episode erased that. And yes, this is a huge part of it, but I would be much more forgiving if it had a point. But it doesn't. It's not like they used it for any interesting shake up to the status quo by Peter losing MJ, in fact that was done once already (and well) with S4 a the Black Cat arc. No more character growth, nothing it leads to, just a stupid, forced, plot-hole ridden retcon (and the episode itself is pretty weak on its own, too).

Overall, I really think this a very good series, and one of the strongest Spider-Man adaptations. This Peter Parket might be my favorite of all, and the world is huge, sprawling and alive, but still feels natural and consistent (except the Secret Wars thing). The writing is not always the best, but usually it's fine, and there's a lot of strong moments.

If it were only the first 4 seasons, I'd give it an A-, 9/10, no kidding. The last one definitely represents a serious drop in quality, and has more bad stuff than S1-4 combined. It's not all horrible, I mean as I said about half the episodes were decent to good, and even the bad storylines have some nice scenes and ideas, but I cannot give it anything more than a 5/10. So that's an 8/10 overall, I guess.

Feel free to agree or disagree, I wonder what others might think.

Next up, the X-Men animated series!