Samurai Jack: Season 01 (2001)

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Opening with three back-to-back half-hour episodes, the first season of Samurai Jack wastes no time in setting up its premise: an ancient, Samurai-trained Japanese prince, nicknamed "Jack" by accident, hopscotches through time and space in hopes of toppling the centuries-old reign of terror of villainous shape-shifting sorcerer Aku. These and all subsequent episodes are designated by Roman numerals (I, II, III, and so on) and an alternate title, in the manner of a venerable folk legend. Endowed with his father's magic sword, Samurai Jack pursues Aku into the distant future, where our hero meets a group of archeologist dogs (who look and sound like Rocky and His Friends' Mister Peabody) who agree to help him in his efforts to thwart Aku. In subsequent episodes (set in a variety of time frames), Jack gets mixed up in the long-standing rivalry between the "Woolies" and the "Chritchellites," is blasted to a space colony with a group of pilgrims hoping to escape Apu's tyranny, heads below the waves to a sunken city and a race of amphibians, and comes up against Warrior Women, Lava Monsters, Gangster, and at least one Scotsman -- not to mention his own evil clone. In keeping with the series' efforts to throw the viewer off balance from time to time, episode "XIII" (aka "Aku's Fairy Tale") goes so far off the beaten path that Samurai Jack isn't even in it! Season one concludes with episode "XX" (aka "Jack and the Monks"), wherein Jack's search for the gateway to the past takes him to the sacred Mountain of Fatoom, where the truth will set him free -- if indeed, it is the truth! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi