The Red Panda Adventures’ sixth season brings the Red Panda (Gregg Taylor) and the Flying Squirrel (Clarissa Der Nederlanden Taylor) into the World War II properly after several episodes in the previous five seasons laid the groundwork and included several pre-war clashes with the Axis powers and their agents.
As the series opens, the Red Panda is restless and eager to go to war. However, Kit has taken a job as a writer for the Chronicle, a paper August Fenwick owns. She thinks the Red Panda’s work on the homefront is vital and writes glowing pieces highlighting that importance hoping to keep him home. However at the end of the premiere, Fenwick enlists.
To his disappointment, the Red Panda doesn’t go to war. Instead he is assigned to the Home Team, a group of super humans under the command of Colonel Fitzroy who he met in the previous season and doesn’t trust.
There’s a really good dynamic as the Red Panda and Flying Squirrel have to adjust to a new reality. The Red Panda previously ran his own organization and kept all other mystery men out of Toronto. In this season, most of his operatives are gone, and he has to team up with other heroes and even a few villains in his effort to stop the Axis.
I liked how real history was blended with fiction, and as an American I picked up some things I’d never heard about because they occurred before the U.S. entered the war. The season finale is also one of the best so far ending the season on a massive cliffhanger.
The two heroes spend most of the season on the trail of Archangel, a Nazi agent performing sabotage and instructing his underlings to pretend to be him. It got tiresome after a while and the pay off was unimpressive.
Kit’s newspaper career was another issue because nothing in the previous five seasons hinted this was a talent or even an interest in journalism. In addition, the character of editor Pearly comes off as a poor man’s Perry White and can be a bit grating at times.
The episode, “Girls Night Out” featured Kit heading west and encountering and a new female superhero. It was a bit contrived.
Still, despite the flaws, it was an enjoyable season. It does build to a big finale and manages to offer a nice mix of superhero action, science fiction, and war time drama.
Rating: 4.00 out of 5
The Red Panda Adventures Season 6 is available on the Decoder Ring Theatre Website for free download.