I sometimes struggle with what to talk about week-to-week with my little corner of the Internet, but I rarely ever struggle with whether or not I should do a particular subject. This week was a week where I did just that. Don't get me wrong, out of the gate I can confidently say that I really like MMPR, but I do recognize that its heyday was extremely narrow, and that it's definitely... an acquired taste. Also, there is a ton that could be covered when it comes to MMPR. The show proper ran for three seasons and there are 145 episodes of just the one series. And then there are 24 other series that have come after. To say the least, that's a huge beast to tackle unless you keep things pretty focused. Now, the cultural impact of the show and its resurgence in popularity as of late are both undeniable... And since it's what I want to discuss this week, and since you're a wonderful part of my loyal audience, we're going to take a look at this blast from the past. We're going to see where it shined, and where it made us wince, and maybe talk about how its aged just a little. Let's go.
The formula for MMPR is pretty simple. Using footage from its Japanese counterparts, the Toei produced Super Sentai shows, American episodes were cobbled together to tell whimsical stories that involved a moral dilemma, a monster-of-the-week from Rita Ripulsa, or Lord Zedd depending on the season, and Zords. That's actually about it. It's a fairly simple formula, and it's worked so well that there have been concurrent seasonal spin offs every year ever since the show started in 1993. To add direction to this article, I'll look at things season by season, and to be clear, I'm only looking at MMPR because that's only one that I've watched through so far.
Season 1
I'll admit that I was daunted by the number of episodes season one presented. It all starts when Rita Ripulsa is freed from her prison jar on the moon. She's been locked away for 10.000 years, but now that she's free, Zordon, leader of the Power Rangers, must assemble a new team of Rangers to stave off her campaign of evil. Our original team of rangers consists of Jason, the red ranger, Trini, the yellow ranger, Kimberly, the pink ranger, Zach, the black ranger, and Billy, the blue ranger. They're brought to ranger HQ where Zordon shares with them his history with Rita, and the importance of a ranger team existing that can combat her evil overtures. He explains that they represent the best that Angel Grove, the main setting of the show, has to offer. He bestows upon them coins imbued with power that ties to prehistoric creatures, and that give them great power by allowing them to morph. The coins also tie to zords that the characters can use to battle Rita's monsters when she overclocks them and makes them gigantic. About one-third of the way through the first season, we're introduced to Tommy, who would become the green ranger. This is where the show really started to get interesting, in my opinion. Tommy's power was given to him by Rita, and initially, he was intended to be a thwart to the regular rangers. However, he's able to overcome the evil influence of Rita, and joins the team to fight against her.
Besides the adventures of the heroes, there are a few notable things going on with the first season that are worth noting. First, Zach has a crush on a classmate named Angela. He goes to some pretty ridiculous lengths to try and woo her, and when he's giving her gifts, she responds pretty well, but he always ends up bumbling the effort, usually due to ranger related antics, and so he never does get the girl. I bring this up because it's one of the rare aspects of the show where a main character demonstrates inadequacies that they aren't able to overcome. There are several other instances where a character has a minor imperfection, and Rita exploits that, and the character is then able to overcome that minor imperfection. A perfect example is Trini and her fear of heights. She's faced with that fear as Rita tries to exploit it, but she digs deep, realizes the potential within herself, and overcomes it by the end of the episode. This never did happen with Zach, and with the characters being portrayed as such paragons, it was humanizing in a necessary way. I only wish they would have done a bit more of that to add to the complexity and the depth of the characters.
Speaking of, let's take a second to talk about Bulk and Skull. These two characters were originally introduced to be the slapstick comic foils of the show. They start out as bullies who spend all of their free time in detention. They start out as some of the more basic characters on the show, but we'll talk a bit as we delve into the other two seasons about how they actually get the most character development of any of the characters in the original show. Just remember that they started out as bullying rejects who spent a lot of time putting down the rangers alter ego characters and serving in detention.
The inter-character dynamics of the show really hit its stride once the green ranger was introduced, and the bulk of the most interesting story arcs centered on the green ranger. Most of the time, the show was business as usual with a moral dilemma, and a monster, and zords, but when the usual started to get a bit tired, a green ranger story arc would be employed. These mini-arcs would build upon what had been established to that point and usually lead to some sort of appreciable growth on behalf of Tommy, the other rangers, or all of the rangers collectively. Eventually, Rita hatches a plan to steal Tommy's powers back from him using an evil candle. Jason is sent to retrieve the candle and fails, and Tommy loses his power. However, Zordon is able to infuse the green power coin with a slight reserve, but this introduction of Tommy's ever-weakening powers served to one, make the character more interesting, and two, conserve the amount of screen time that the green ranger actually got. This helped to maintain a balance between the characters, and give the show a little boost whenever the green ranger appeared. At any rate, Rita would hit the rangers with ever more powerful monsters, and every time Tommy would assist with the Dragon Zord, his power would dwindle ever further. It actually became really tense, and I found myself wondering how long it would be before his power dwindled away completely. Over the course of the first season, I was also impressed by how much actual character development went on in the show. Although the episodes were mostly self-contained, there were plenty of episodes that included milestone experiences for some of the characters, and that impacted the characters, and the story from that point forward.
Season 2
Season two brought a few bigger changes to the show. The actors that played Jason, Trini, and Zach had been asking for more money from a production with a shoestring budget, and so they were written off. They were chosen about a third of the way through the second season as to travel abroad with a high school ambassador program. To replace them, the characters Rocky, Adam, and Aisha were brought in as replacements. This began a protracted start to season two. It was an okay start, but in my opinion, this is where the show kind of started to go downhill a little bit. The formula didn't change, but the dynamics between the characters were gradually altered. At the start of the season, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha are just kind of there, having just transferred from a nearby town. They help out when they can, and actually learn the secret identities of the power rangers. This puts them in the unofficial sidekick category, but it's a cool set up because these three are just regular teens without super powers who are still willing to lend a helping hand. Eventually, Jason, Trini, and Zach leave, and the three new characters are brought in as full-time rangers with they powers being transferred from the one group to the other. The relationships between the groups of characters was handled pretty well. At first Tommy, Kim, and Billy kind of do their thing and rely on each other, and Rocky, Aisha, and Adam kind of do the same. They work well enough together as rangers, but outside of that, it takes a bit of time before they two groups finally mesh socially with one another, as it would in real life. Another aspect of the character building that takes place during this time in the show is we see Billy getting more proficient in the martial arts. From the start, the show makes a point to show that Billy is new to martial arts, but learning. Through the first season and into the second, you start to see his skills improving, and that's a pretty cool detail to include.
Now, Tommy eventually did lose his green ranger powers, and as a result, Zordon had to create a new ranger coin for him. At this point, he became the white ranger, and as white ranger, he became the defacto leader of the team. This was mostly because the shows producers were running out of Sentai footage that included the green ranger, and so a change needed to be made that could create continuity that would make sense to American audiences. Season two also introduced Lord Zedd. Rita got locked back up in her jar prison by Zedd when she continually failed to defeat Zordon and the rangers. Lord Zedd was kind of cool to look at, and his vocal shenanigans are way easier on the ears than Rita's. Of course, his plans always fail as well since this is a show about the Power Rangers, and not Lord Zedd, but there was always an underlying menace and ruthlessness to Lord Zedd that I could appreciate.
Back to Bulk and Skull, season two is when their arc starts to take shape in a fairly significant way. They resolve to unmask the Power Rangers, and in so doing, find themselves caught in the middle of quite a few sticky situations throughout the season. However, what I thought was pretty cool is that through their determination to unmask the rangers, they develop quite a bit of admiration towards the rangers, and this manifests itself in a number of ways. In the season premiere, a baby stroller is out of control and rolling down the world's longest and least dangerous hill in Angel Grove park. The stroller knocks into Skull, who reacts exactly like the campy comic relief that you'd expect, but Bulk, seeing a baby in trouble, takes off to assist. There's no promise of glory, no opportunity to find out the secret identities of the rangers, and no other real gain. Bulk just sees another human being in distress, and instinctively rushes off to help. This paradigm shift culminates towards the end of the season with Bulk and Skull facing off with a monster that Lord Zedd sent to steal the memories of the Power Rangers. They knew they were out classed before they even took action, but they also realized that the world was doomed if the monster wasn't stopped. In the end, all ends well, but it is incredibly cool to see two characters change so much and in such a positive way.
Season three was a challenge for me to watch. In my opinion, it's where the show strayed into the 'too much of a good thing' territory. Lord Zedd was a fine villain for the show, and as established in season two, all of the dynamics of the show were fine for the most part. You had some comic relief characters, some characters who were sufficiently menacing, and the heroes with pretty good chemistry. You also had side characters adding dynamic growth to the mix. Then the parents got involved. Apparently, there were some grumblings that Lord Zedd was too frightening for younger children, and so toward the beginning of season three, Rita is freed from her space dumpster prison, and uses a magic spell to woo Zedd and marry him. The two characters combined are just too much camp for me to handle. To further add to my unrest, as we round into season three, the rangers lose the powers they possess as bestowed by Zordon. As a result they have to go to the Desert of Despair, and find Ninjor, the original creator of the power coins. It was through this arc that the rangers got their ninja powers, and the show got yet another semi-regular annoying character, Ninjor. It was also in this season that Rita's brother Rito Revolto was introduced. On the plus side though, the rangers got shiny new zords to command, and they looked pretty sweet. The third season also saw the introduction of a new pink ranger, Kat. We'll get to that.
The formula obviously stays the same, but the show relied a bit more on mini-arcs throughout this season. This makes sense since the show ran every week day during its season run, and doing week long arcs would have been an easy, yet effective way to pull in viewers. But there were a lot of changes taking place throughout. Most of this was due to having to use footage from different Sentai shows, I'm sure, but the rangers get their Ninja Zords, and use those for about two episodes, and then Rita activates the ancient Shogun Zords, which are obviously more powerful that the crummy old Ninja ones, and so the Rangers have to learn to control these new Shogun Zords, which makes the Ninja Zords obsolete, but hey, that's the way life is when you're trying to build a narrative around pre-existing Japanese television footage. Thankfully, Ninjor is phased out. But between Rita's terrible screeching voice, Rito's bumbling humor, and Aisha's sometimes annoying line delivery, it gets pretty rough. The one shining beacon of the season is, surprisingly, Bulk and Skull. The two mature beyond wanting to unmask the Rangers, and join the junior police squad. This is where we see them transition from simply admiring the Power Rangers to actually trying emulate them. There's some camp involved in some aspects of this subplot, but you have to bear in mind that comedy was the original intended purpose behind the characters.
Towards the end of season three, Rita employs a new character name Kat to act as a spy and a thwart to the Power Rangers. Kat came to Angel Grove by way of Australia. She has the ability to transform from a human to a, wait for it, CAT! Isn't that creative? Seriously, though, joking aside, her character served a much more significant purpose. Throughout the season, the show started to hint that Kim would be leaving, and Kat was brought on to eventually replace Kim as the Pink Ranger. I bring this up because had the show been lazier than it was, the writers could have just done the change, and I don't think that many people would have made a fuss, but I found myself impressed time and again as I watched by how plot devices were never just tossed out for convenience's sake. Every major change that was made to the show was preambled with some sort of set up so that the changes wouldn't feel forced. The show really upped the ante on the peril at the end of it all as we're introduced to Lord Zedd's boss, Master Vile, who turns the Rangers into children. With the Rangers out of the way, Vile is able to run amok on Earth, and so, in a desperate move, Zordon contacts five Rangers from an alien planet to help defend Earth until the Earth Rangers can be restored. This segues into the next show Power Rangers Zeo, which as I said before, I'll not be covering here today, but maybe later on.
Back to Bulk and Skull, season two is when their arc starts to take shape in a fairly significant way. They resolve to unmask the Power Rangers, and in so doing, find themselves caught in the middle of quite a few sticky situations throughout the season. However, what I thought was pretty cool is that through their determination to unmask the rangers, they develop quite a bit of admiration towards the rangers, and this manifests itself in a number of ways. In the season premiere, a baby stroller is out of control and rolling down the world's longest and least dangerous hill in Angel Grove park. The stroller knocks into Skull, who reacts exactly like the campy comic relief that you'd expect, but Bulk, seeing a baby in trouble, takes off to assist. There's no promise of glory, no opportunity to find out the secret identities of the rangers, and no other real gain. Bulk just sees another human being in distress, and instinctively rushes off to help. This paradigm shift culminates towards the end of the season with Bulk and Skull facing off with a monster that Lord Zedd sent to steal the memories of the Power Rangers. They knew they were out classed before they even took action, but they also realized that the world was doomed if the monster wasn't stopped. In the end, all ends well, but it is incredibly cool to see two characters change so much and in such a positive way.
Season 3
Season three was a challenge for me to watch. In my opinion, it's where the show strayed into the 'too much of a good thing' territory. Lord Zedd was a fine villain for the show, and as established in season two, all of the dynamics of the show were fine for the most part. You had some comic relief characters, some characters who were sufficiently menacing, and the heroes with pretty good chemistry. You also had side characters adding dynamic growth to the mix. Then the parents got involved. Apparently, there were some grumblings that Lord Zedd was too frightening for younger children, and so toward the beginning of season three, Rita is freed from her space dumpster prison, and uses a magic spell to woo Zedd and marry him. The two characters combined are just too much camp for me to handle. To further add to my unrest, as we round into season three, the rangers lose the powers they possess as bestowed by Zordon. As a result they have to go to the Desert of Despair, and find Ninjor, the original creator of the power coins. It was through this arc that the rangers got their ninja powers, and the show got yet another semi-regular annoying character, Ninjor. It was also in this season that Rita's brother Rito Revolto was introduced. On the plus side though, the rangers got shiny new zords to command, and they looked pretty sweet. The third season also saw the introduction of a new pink ranger, Kat. We'll get to that.
The formula obviously stays the same, but the show relied a bit more on mini-arcs throughout this season. This makes sense since the show ran every week day during its season run, and doing week long arcs would have been an easy, yet effective way to pull in viewers. But there were a lot of changes taking place throughout. Most of this was due to having to use footage from different Sentai shows, I'm sure, but the rangers get their Ninja Zords, and use those for about two episodes, and then Rita activates the ancient Shogun Zords, which are obviously more powerful that the crummy old Ninja ones, and so the Rangers have to learn to control these new Shogun Zords, which makes the Ninja Zords obsolete, but hey, that's the way life is when you're trying to build a narrative around pre-existing Japanese television footage. Thankfully, Ninjor is phased out. But between Rita's terrible screeching voice, Rito's bumbling humor, and Aisha's sometimes annoying line delivery, it gets pretty rough. The one shining beacon of the season is, surprisingly, Bulk and Skull. The two mature beyond wanting to unmask the Rangers, and join the junior police squad. This is where we see them transition from simply admiring the Power Rangers to actually trying emulate them. There's some camp involved in some aspects of this subplot, but you have to bear in mind that comedy was the original intended purpose behind the characters.
Towards the end of season three, Rita employs a new character name Kat to act as a spy and a thwart to the Power Rangers. Kat came to Angel Grove by way of Australia. She has the ability to transform from a human to a, wait for it, CAT! Isn't that creative? Seriously, though, joking aside, her character served a much more significant purpose. Throughout the season, the show started to hint that Kim would be leaving, and Kat was brought on to eventually replace Kim as the Pink Ranger. I bring this up because had the show been lazier than it was, the writers could have just done the change, and I don't think that many people would have made a fuss, but I found myself impressed time and again as I watched by how plot devices were never just tossed out for convenience's sake. Every major change that was made to the show was preambled with some sort of set up so that the changes wouldn't feel forced. The show really upped the ante on the peril at the end of it all as we're introduced to Lord Zedd's boss, Master Vile, who turns the Rangers into children. With the Rangers out of the way, Vile is able to run amok on Earth, and so, in a desperate move, Zordon contacts five Rangers from an alien planet to help defend Earth until the Earth Rangers can be restored. This segues into the next show Power Rangers Zeo, which as I said before, I'll not be covering here today, but maybe later on.
On the whole, I enjoyed most aspects of MMPR. The stories got a bit repetitive over time, but not to a point where episodes were unwatchable. I can appreciate the morality tales that the show offered. Often, they were pretty topical, but they always boiled down to the viewer trying to be their best self everyday, and always doing their best at whatever they undertake. I was actually stricken by the depth of the lessons taught at times, and by the continued character development that the show undertook. However, by season three, the show really feels like its surpassed its freshness date, and it starts to threaten to become a parody of itself. There were just too many blatantly annoying characters introduced, and it becomes pretty tough to watch at times. However, I have to give credit where credit is due. MMPR has become a cultural icon. Its beloved by millions, and the shows that are released these days are met with the same enthusiastic welcome by children as MMPR was met with back in its day. Plus, I have to admit that when I was younger, I loved this show.
Besides some of the obvious, the show actually does quite a bit right. One notable thing is the theme song. It's one of the best TV theme songs ever composed! Ever. And the music that was written for the show was, in general, really cool. Ron Wasserman did most of the music for MMPR, and he did a phenomenal job! The fight choreography, as I mentioned before, was really well done. I realize that most of it was done in Japan, but even when the characters are not morphed, and fighting lesser monsters, you can see that the actors and their stunt doubles really put their all into the fight sequences. The characters may have been a bit unbelievable in their abilities to just do all of the things, but they were generally entertaining to watch, and as I said, the lessons that the viewer could learn through the characters' adventures were surprisingly well thought out. I really have to praise the way everyone was treated on this show, character-wise. People, no matter their circumstances, were always seen as equals to one another, and always valued for who they are and what they could offer. It's not unlike a certain Star Trek show that was wrapping up around the same time. I also enjoy that the show is so colorful. I know that might seem odd, but there are so many shows on TV these days that are washed out, and boring to look at, mostly that's a result of my change in demographic, but when did dark and brooding suddenly become an automatic equivalent to cool? It might seem corny, but I enjoy the color and the vibrancy of the show. Even in its 90s lameness, it adds to the ambiance of the show.
On the whole, MMPR is a pretty enjoyable bag of mostly awesomeness. It's a really fun trip down memory lane, assuming it was your jam back in the day. It's a show that can be enjoyed on several levels, and I think, much like me, anyone who takes a look at it now will be pleasantly surprised by how much was actually going on with the show. It's campy, and hamfisted. It can be over-the-top at times, but it delivers clean, fun viewing that can be really entertaining in small doses. If you're interested, all of the shows are currently available on Netflix, and it's a pretty fun watch.
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