The Zeta Project – 01accomplice

Zeta and Ro meet, and save each other’s lives. Together they set out to find the scientists who created Zeta, in the hopes they can prove Zeta is peaceful.

Media by James Harvey
Review by Bird Boy

Early 21st Century Artifacts
Ro: What is that thing?
Zee: Ah, it’s a early electric device called the lightbulb. It caused a lot of upset.
Ro: Why?
Zee: No one could agree on how many people it took to change them.

Voices:
Diedrich Bader as Zeta / Zee
Julie Nathanson as Ro
Kurtwood Smith as Agent Bennet
Michael Rosenbaum as Agent West
Lauren Tom as Agent Lee
Greg Eagles as Old Man
Marc Worden as Slam
 

While an interesting start, the first episode of The Zeta Project, “The Accomplice,” falls a little short but the potential is clear. The animation was a bit flakey at times and the incessantly bright and cheery color pallet became weirdly distracting, but this episode gives off the impression that this really could be the start of something new, fresh and different.

While the story, pacing and animation is of varying quality, there are perks to be found; we did get nice intros with Zeta and Ro.
Zeta on his never-ending run from the NSA and Ro inside a local police station for shop lifting, the two eventually slam into each other, both running from their troubles and eventually helping each other out along the way. Bennet, West and Lee are also introduced, with West being a bumbling fool from the very start, something that always added a great bit of humor to the show.

As first episodes go, it certainly didn’t get the hooked on the show; it seemed that only ten minutes into it I had already watched thirty and that this show would never end. But it was good enough that I wanted to give it a few more shots. After the first few episodes, this time anomaly eventually disappeared and it became enjoyable (pacing improved, basically); but for fans wanting to check out the show and are undoubtedly coming off of the
Batman Beyond “Zeta” episode, you’ll want to start here just to see it begin.

When it comes to The Zeta Projecty, who knows, you may like it; but knowing that the show gets so much stronger down the road makes these earlier ones look weak in comparison, maybe unfairly so. It’s worth sticking with, and this first episode is actually one of the stronger efforts from season one, but there are some rough episodes ahead.