TV: Transformers Animated Season 3

Transformers Animated Season 3 debuted last week--I'm scrambling to track down the first episode, since my DVR was on the fritz. The show continues to be captivating. I have a bit of a bias, since I'm one of those avid fans. But this show has it all, good animation, good storytelling, well-timed humor and a sense of pace that could ensure two or three more seasons--that is if Hasbro allows a series based on a toyline to have such longevity.

The episode is appropriately titled "Three's a Crowd". I'm not going to do a review that spells out the episode word for word. But I will say that this episode continues to expand the size of the Transformers Animated family, and the ongoing story of the brewing Second Great War that will inevitably come into being.

I will introduce this spoiler, since it is likely to loosely tie into the new Revenge of the Fallen movie...

SPOILER

The new character that comes into being with an Allspark fragment, a forklift and a Headmaster unit is a new third Constructicon by the name of Dirt Boss. Dirt boss is not a character based on a G1 Constructicon, though there is a Revenge of the Fallen figure with the same name, and the same vehicle mode. He adds to the unique flavor of the personalities of the Constructicon group, balancing the goofball, wistling, cackling New York-accented construction worker with the grumbly, slightly sinister, small but hefty Chicago mob boss. He instantly takes control of the group, with a little Three Stooges Moe slapstick. And there's even some potential foreshadowing at the end when Scrapper, Mixmaster, and Dirt Boss find themselves inexplicably entangled with one another...

Do I see a couple more Constructicons joining the entanglement to form the mighty Animated Devestator?