In 1993, the very first episode "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" was broadcast on FOX. Its provision of cheap and accessible superhero action in live action helped to make it an institution of many 90s childhoods, mine included.
A mere 5 days ago from the time of this posting, the "Power Rangers" franchise completed its 20 year anniversary season titled "Power Rangers Megaforce," a series that is in theory, on about the same level of storytelling. Ordinarily, a dumb kids show of the modern day resembling a dumb kids show 2 decades ago would be nothing to take note of, even if one would think 20 years would result in some sort of progress. However, therein lies the problem with everything that "Power Rangers Megaforce" is.
I can only imagine the lynching that I would receive from an army of nostalgic hipsters but quite frankly "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers" sucks.
It's dated, campy and borderline nonsensical. I'll pay all due respect for its time, place and iconography but its celebration infuriates me to no end as a fan of quality storytelling and even a life long fan of the franchise itself.
While the kiddies who don't know any better may rejoice, seeing this season was like getting in a time machine to revisit an era that you've always wanted to go back to but being shackled to the one area that you never wanted to see again in the first place. "Power Rangers" has done something that few children's franchises have done; manage to grow in maturity, quality and complexity without losing its appeal and trappings for the younger crowd.
This franchise's treatment of mature themes ranging from race relations, choosing one's destiny, honor among thieves, redemption, the boundaries of artificial intelligence, and a plethora of others within the confines of a weekday afternoon/Saturday morning children's show over 11 years of its history taught me and numerous others the appreciation of atmosphere, pacing, character development and creative storytelling at a time when my tastes were non-discerning and opened the door for my interest in fantasy, science fiction and Japanese tokusatsu as an adult.
Recognizing the changing times and limitations of their format on all fronts of production, the series' numerous creative teams have made choices to shift the format of the show into something that was ever-changing year by year.
The new format created a stronger resemblance to "Super Sentai," the franchise's counterpart and source material, while still maintaining many definitively western themes and tones that still set it apart.
While I won't begrudge a television show for appealing to its target demographic, I do hold its current showrunners to task for a 4 year run of the series that doesn't so much recycle footage and plot points from their source material as they do copy them wholesale, regardless of whether their Japanese aesop's make sense within a western context, while frequently pandering to that demographic with excessively plentiful and out of place claims regarding the importance of "teamwork" and "friendship" rather than prioritize strong characterization and fun storytelling with creative and unique action making clever use of a low budget.
With that in mind, I'd like to draw focus to 5 seasons of the franchise beyond the cheesy but admittedly iconic "Mighty Morphin'" era that offer a taste of what this franchise can be truly capable of. Entertainment for kids is not an excuse for a lack of effort and curiosity of how this series has evolved has kept me and a great many fans watching it for nearly 2 decades; some of those fans even watch it with their children as a bonding experience over a shared interest spanning generations.
The varying tones, themes and stories means that there tends to be a wide variation in favorites among Ranger fans but I'd like to think that these examples if nothing else will suffice in demonstrating the difference between the show's last 4 years and seasons that actually put forth slight effort.
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