I saw this as a teenager first. Used to be my favourite animated series. And Spawn used to be my favourite comic book character. I'd read the first 30-or-so issues of the comic + all the spin-off series and one-shots that came out in between them. And in my opinion, this show is better than its source material, which is a rarity in comic book adaptations. This mainly has to do with consistency in tone and characters that isn't present in the books. The first 2 episodes are near-perfect. We find our protagonist lost and confused. And the more he learns about the present, the more his life starts resembling a nightmare. This can't be happening, can it? Backstabbed, betrayed, dead, the only action he did out of love plunges him even deeper into the black abyss that is now the reality. This show perfectly represents damaged psyche. What does a man do in this situation? Mostly nothing. Throughout this first season Spawn is mostly driven to action by outside forces. He repeatedly faces moral dilemmas but is too much of a mess to deal with them rationally. He sees a lot of violence and causes a lot of violence, and none of it is pretty. And nobody really wins. Because what happens after each encounter? Spawn gets to be left alone. The show succeeds at reflecting the complexities of this world and our existence in it. It shows corrupt politicians, paedophile serial killers, crooked cops, blood, dirt and poverty. At the centre of it all is one broken man. This first season shows his rise though. Against the odds, he is able to find purpose, pick himself up and do the right thing, even if it won't solve any of his problems. Cause even though the pain won't go away, whatever good is left in this fucked world just might.