Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 4: "A Pressing Engagement"

When Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers first aired, there was no precedence.  Yes, there were the Japanese monster movies that got dubbed into English and had footage reshot and spliced in.. but television is a different beast.  Creating character arcs, story arcs, coherency... it takes a lot of creativity and even great shows can have inconsistencies due to the different people working on any given episode, actor availability, and budget restraints.  So as simple as Power Rangers' final product is as a narrative, it does take a tremendous amount of creativity to look at fight scenes and write a story around them. Unfortunately, A Pressing Engagement lacks such creativity.

The episode finds the tens at the Juice Bar, where Jason is trying to beat the bench-pressing record currently held (inexplicably) by Bulk.  Wackiness interferes, and Jason doesn't break the record, and proceeds to feel bad about it while Zack and Kim console him.  This gives Rita the idea to separate Jason from the others while he's still feeling down using King Sphinx's mighty wings.  She sends him down to the park to "take it over," and Zordon promptly alerts Jason, Zack, and Kim.  They fight him for a bit, along with some putties, but are blown back to the Juice Bar (because heaven forbid they were sent to some other location unmorphed).  The Sphinx teleports himself and Jason to the desert, and the two duke it out for a bit.  Trini and Billy, who are just chilling in Billy's garage during all of this, are informed of the situation and the group teleports to the Command Center.  Zordon tells them to use the Power Crystals activated from their coins to help locate Jason.  They teleport the crystals to him and then that let's them... teleport to him?  It's actually a bit confusing.  Cue zord battle!

More than anything, A Pressing Engagement just feels... lazy.  Everything feels half-assed, with element like the Power Crystals being wholly underdeveloped as a concept.  Jason trying to break a bench-pressing record is totally in-character for him, but the previous record being held by Bulk?  I don't know.  I can't picture Bulk being committed to anything that exhausting (unless he cheated, which is totally likely).  The shenanigans at the start of the episode with Zack crashing into Kimberly's bubble gum... balloon... thing were really awkward and painfully unfunny.  Why not have Bulk sabotage Jason or something?  Especially since he enters the scene a bit later and does fuck all.  At least I did get a chuckle out of Ernie eating a sandwich and being easily distracted while counting Jason's presses.

The morphed fights are nice, and I like King Sphinx's design, but he's about as memorable in this episode as he was in the toy commercials.   When I would watch those ads as a kid I thought he and Goldar were brothers or something, given their similar designs.  But it turns out he's just another disposable villain.  The Megazord fight drags on longer than it should, and while normally I like longer fights, it feels like most of the battle features the Megazord in tank mode, which is pretty limiting.  Fun fact: after viewing Zyuranger I found that this episode is actually supposed to be the introduction of the Megazord, so it makes much more sense in that show's context.  But we've already seen the Megazord in action in the first episode (as well as the Power Crystals), so building up its introduction here just feels like filler.  The cinematography in the later half of the ground battle is wonderful, especially the shot of Jason calling to the Tyrannosaurus with the water brightly glistening behind him... I think I need a poster of that.  It's about as beautiful as early Power Rangers gets.

I don't expect Power Rangers to deliver thought-provoking character drama, but this episode left a lot to be desired.  Jason doubts himself, but it all rings false.  Picture this: after the first time he can't break the record, he tries again and fails because he gets tired.  His own body fails him. That would have been more interesting than Kim's gum popping onto Zack or whatever the hell happened.  Then he could start to doubt himself to Zack about being a leader in battle.  It's resolved when he realizes that his strength as a leader is dependent on his team, and that's what unlocks the Power Crystals. Also, having Kim and Zack get blown back to the Juice Bar was pretty silly, and really shows that the production crew and writers were wearing their tiny budget on their sleeve.

So it's not the greatest episode due mostly to its lack of coherency.  I don't even understand the title; is it a bench-pressing pun? Groan.  But there's also not enough going on to get angry about it either.  The cast tries, but they're let down heavily by the direction, and it's clear now- only four episodes in - that Rita's scenes are mostly composed of recycled footage.  It's just a showboat of mediocrity all around.

Mighty Morphin' Scale: 4/10

Power Rangers Scale: 2/10

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 3: "Teamwork"

"Why don't we show a little teamwork and get this place cleaned up?"

Something one must know about Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is that it was made at a time when educational children's programming was becoming mandatory for networks to show.  To meet that requirement, they often had to shoehorn in PSA-style messages to their otherwise action-heavy, Saturday morning children's shows or tack on an actual PSA at the end.  So how was Power Rangers, a show so action-heavy that it caused widespread controversy, to handle this dilemma?  Thank God they didn't go the "special announcement the end of the episode" route, but what we got was also pretty cringe-inducing.  The Power Rangers became very involved with volunteer park clean-ups. That's great and everything for people who assume that kids copy everything they see on TV, but when I was a kid, I only wanted to copy stuff on TV that I thought was cool.  Did anyone ever use their Power Ranger toys to reenact the numerous park clean-up episodes?  I highly doubt it.

Teamwork is sort of a lousy episode for multiple reasons, but it's also an interesting one.  With the show still finding its footing, several things happen that would rarely if ever occur again.  Kimberly and Trini are sponsoring a petition to clean up a local waste dump, and while they're getting plenty of signatures, they can't seem to get any volunteers; not even Jason, Billy, or Zack.  Meanwhile, Rita reveals that she's the one who set up the waste dump (um, what?) and plans to pollute the Earth.   Kim and Trini get attacked by putties, but the others can't help them because Rita has sent down the Mighty Minotaur.  Zordon declares that it's time to bestow upon the rangers their new Power Weapons, and so for the first time, they call upon the Power Axe, Power Bow, Power Daggers, Power Lance, and Power Sword.  The weapons combine to form the Power Blaster and the rangers take the Minotaur down with ease.

I'm gonna harp on the biggest problem with the episode, which is that Rita's plan doesn't make any sense.  The waste dump that Kim and Trini just happen to be petitioning against is one that Rita set up?  When and why did she set up a waste dump?  It's obvious that the writers just needed an environmental-themed episode and it didn't really matter how it was incorporated.  They could have just as easily had Rita be inspired by the waste dump to pollute the Earth, but even then, the rest of the episode has nothing to do with stopping pollution or even mentioned.  To make this an environment-friendly PSA was ill-advised from the start.

And what a shame too!  This is a really big moment in Power Rangers history: the introduction of the very first set of weapons.  Unfortunately, the rangers are simply handed them without much reason beyond that they were loosing the battle.  It may have made more sense if Billy and Alpha were just finishing them or something and they were ready to be used, but hadn't been tested yet.  I know that's very cliche, but it's better than the non-explanation the episode gives.  In any case, I love the look of the weapons and the Power Blaster is all kinds of awesome.  As with the suits and zords, this might be my favorite set of weapons the show ever produced (okay, maybe Time Force beats them by just a smidgen).

The fast-motion comedy is still employed to add campy fun, but I always wind up grimacing whenever it happens.  I can handle corny when it comes to this show, but this is just too much.  However, the fight footage is lovely as always, and the casts' interactions are pretty solid.  When the other guys are telling Kim and Trini that they can't do the cleanup, there was some surprisingly good acting; the guys feel bad that they can't help, but it's also clear that they don't really wanna do it.  And the girls don't get pissy over it; they have perfectly natural reactions. 

Thus we come to some things about the episode that I don't consider bad or good, just interesting.  First off, this is the first time there's any extensive use of the American suit footage, and that has weird results.  There's a shot of morphed Jason where his helmet and his suit are completely different colors, then in the command center the suits seem to be shiny like the Zyuranger costumes.  I love the look of them, but I don't believe they were used extensively in later episodes.  Also, and this being the only time it happens, the rangers speak to each other while they're teleporting.  That's... just... weird.  This is also the first time we hear the famous morph call, "It's morphin' time!" delivered by Jason without much intensity.  Rita's wand throw isn't the typical stock footage that will be used later on, but it works just fine.  I'd also like to note that using strictly Japanese footage for the villain scenes lends them an otherworldly feel that I've always liked but could never articulate until now.  This is also a rare time that the zords don't combine to form the megazord immediately, instead fighting separately (which I really, really liked).  Kim even gets to decimate some putties with the Pterodactyl!

So despite there being plenty to like in this episode, I have to say it's not a very good one.  The pollution message being shoehorned-in, the unceremonious way the rangers get their new weapons, and the lame fast-motion bring the episode down too many pegs to count.  Let's not forget that this was shot after the producers found out that the teens couldn't be seen punching putties in the face, so some awkward fight-scene editing hurts the episode even further.  There are too many "firsts" for the episode to be skip-able though (including the first introduction of Mr. Kaplan), so thank goodness for that Sentai footage and the actors' charm.

Mighty Morphin' scale: 5/10

Power Rangers scale: 4/10

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1, Episode 2: "High Five"

"Hey, dirtbag! Leave him alone."

Due to my Day of the Dumpster review feeling a bit overstuffed, I decided to continue some general thoughts on this one.  How do you talk about the first season of Power Rangers and not talk about the kick-ass theme song?!  80s and 90s kids shows got many, many things wrong when it came to their stories and characters, at least in terms of holding up to adult standards.  But man, did they get their theme songs right, and for me, Power Rangers is near the top of the list for having the best kid's show theme of all time.  Actually, screw it, it's one of the best theme songs of all time period!  It's simple, catchy, and wonderfully energetic, which is exactly what the show needed to give it an edge that might be missing from the low-budget civilian scenes.  The background music follows suit as well, with Ron Wasserman delivering sold music that always suits the tone of the scenes; the Bulk and Skull theme is priceless, Rita's music has a mischievous flair, and the command center's ambiance is full of Importance. Say what you will about about the dialogue and the jumbled story structure, early Power Rangers sounds great.

Now, onto the episode at hand.  In a nutshell, High Five is a fun episode.  It is in some ways a "part two" to Day of the Dumpster, with the introduction of the communicators and the rangers being able to self-teleport being established for the first time.  Looking back at just how big a part teleporting played in the first six seasons, it's amazing to see its inception.  The story is about Trini and her fear of heights, which is nice to see since Power Rangers was supposed to be marketed to boys.  It's great that the show believes in focusing on the girls as much as the guys despite this being so early on.  There's little in the Sentai footage to suggest that this had to be a Yellow Ranger focus; in fact, it seems like it should have been a Red Ranger focus, judging by the solo Tyrannosaurus battle at the end.

The cast is finding their footing very quickly, especially considering how many episodes they were shooting at once.  They seem comfortable in their character's skins, and it's nice to see them kid around with each other.  Yes, they're dialogue is pretty corny, but they seem earnest enough for me to care about what's happening in the story.  The rope climbing stuff with Bulk and Skull was sufficiently stupid, but I did chuckle when it broke and the roof caved in on Bulk's head.  It's the way he puffs out the sheetrock dust, no doubt a suggestion of actor Paul Shrier, given what we know now about Bulk and Skull's gag preparation.

The civilian fight scenes are clearly just not there yet in terms of energy and choreography, made more obvious by the stupid looking "human tank mode" or whatever the hell the teens do to take out the putties.  It looked absolutely ridiculous.  I'm very grateful that this is a one-time thing.  I get that this is one of the first big putty fights, but it's awfully weird.  I didn't mind the rock climbing scene with Billy and Trini, especially when Trini calls one of the putties a "dirtbag." It almost feels like a swear word by Power Rangers standards.

Thankfully, the Sentai footage looks really great.  There's a fun fight with Bones in his weird dimension, with those those skeleton putty things were never used again.  What's up with that? Those things were neat!  Bones is the first in a long line of monsters that fall apart but can reassemble themselves, plus he has a cool voice.  I have a lot of nostalgia for him, given that this is one of the very few episodes that was available on video at the time (and I rented them from my the library so often that I might as well have owned them).  I always found it odd that it's Jason who finishes off the monster (not Bones, just some random Giant) rather than Trini, but it's still nice to see a Zord fight that doesn't resort to using the Megazord immediately.

And of course, we get our first use of the ultra-cheesy fast-motion "for comedic affect" gag that will remain a staple throughout early MMPR.  It happens a few times: Alpha freaks out and runs around the command center, the putties run away with cactuses on their asses, and Trini climbs the rope at the end.  It's another trend that didn't really stick after the first string of episodes, and thank God for that.

I'd go so far as to call this "classic" Power Rangers.  Corny, fun, and stocked with likable character moments, featuring nonsensical desert putty fights and Sentai footage that looks great but doesn't have anything to do with the story at hand.  It's well-paced enough to remain interesting, and never feels overstuffed because the story is simple and clear, which is exactly what one should reasonably expect.

Mighty Morpin' score: 8/10

Power Rangers score: 7/10

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Season 1, Episode 1: "Day of the Dumpster"

I always get fuzzy feelings whenever I watch an early episode of Power Rangers.  It all used to seem so epic and high octane when I was a young kid, but now it looks so cheesy and cheap.  I catch myself somewhere directly in the middle of these two perspectives whenever I watch any Power Rangers episode, and that's truly the best way to enjoy it.  I can't ignore the fact that on a number of levels, the show isn't very good.  However, I also can't ignore how charming it can be on the whole.  For material that exists mostly to sell toys, there is a surprising amount of heart put into the first few Power Rangers seasons.

 "Ahh! After ten thousand years, I'm free! It's time to conquer Earth..." 

 "Alpha, Rita's escaped. Recruit a team of teenagers with attitude!"

I feel like summarizing Day of the Dumpster is like teaching grown adults their ABCs.  You know it already, so can we move on?  I'll make it brief for consistency's sake.  On the moon (which doesn't look like the moon at all), two astronauts discover a giant urn with a glowing red jewel on top of it.  While speaking far too much dialogue, the astronauts accidentally unlock the urn and unleash a hoard of monsters led by the evil Rita Repulsa.  Her minions include Goldar, her right-hand warrior general; Finster, her monster maker; Squat, an oafish troll, and Baboo, a vampire monkey.  Rita makes her intentions clear immediately; she wants to take over Earth.  Don't worry about why.

Meanwhile in Angel Grove, California, at a rather happenin' place called the Juice Bar (and gym, apparently), we meet our future rangers.  Jason, a patient and strong karate teacher; Zack, a cocky but warm-hearted hip-hop dancer; Billy, an awkward, geeky brainiac; Trini, a girl who's quiet and calm, and Kimberly, a peppy gymnast.  Despite how different they are, they're all close friends who stand up for each other against the likes of dimwitted bullies in the form Bulk, the overweight leader, and Skull, Bulk's hopelessly devoted, neo-Nazi sidekick.  When an earthquake hits the city, the teens are teleported to the mysterious command center, where a giant head in a tube named Zordon and a robot named Alpha 5 have called upon them to defend the Earth against the likes of Rita and her henchmen.

 The teens are naturally skeptical, so they leave the command center and proceed to walk through the desert.  Their minds are changed when they are ambushed by Putties, foot soldiers made from clay by Finster and sent by Rita to kill them before they have the chance to use the powers Zordon bestowed upon them.  When they've nearly been beat, Jason leads the team to morph for the very first time into the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.  They use their dinosaur-themed powers against Goldar and nearly take him down with their Mighty Megazord.

So that's a hell of a lot of introduction for only one episode, and I've gotta say, it's pretty well-paced.  Yes, maybe it would have been better if the Megazord had been introduced in the second episode, but maybe the writers weren't afforded the luxury.  This was a brand new concept in so many ways that maybe they had to get all the major stuff introduced as soon as possible.  But still, we have a really clear introduction of the main villain, the mentor, the rangers, the powers... everything works in perfect harmony.  This is one of the few Season 1 episodes where nothing feels like filler; there's a definite story that follows the classic "hero's journey" to an absolute tee, and does it as successfully as it can.

Knowing all I do about the production, I find the process of mixing footage from a Japanese action show with American footage absolutely fascinating.   I'm always on the alert for the footage change, and when it happens, I usually geek out. Look how ridiculously different it looks! I won't get into too much Super Sentai comparisons in this blog because I believe that Power Rangers is a different show and should be judged on its own merits.  Still, I'm always entertained by the very notion of editing together two shows that shouldn't go together at all, but somehow it goes together really well.

Dubbing the original actress for Rita must have been a major hindrance for the writing team, and while they pull it off as well as they can, it does limit what Rita can do in the show.  It can be pretty hilarious to see the lip movement just barely matching, so I give it points for being entertaining. Trini's Japanese counterpart was a Boy named Boi.  That's all that needs to be said, and that's the only time I'll say it.  As an adult, it's very obvious.  The Pink Ranger has a skirt but the Yellow doesn't?  When I was a kid, I assumed it was just because Kim had a more girly personality.  And to enjoy Power Rangers, you do need to employ some kid logic, and that'll just have to be good enough.  Besides that and Rita's odd dubbing, I love the footage from Zyuranger and the designs of just about every entity.  The Command Center is made to feel like a grand place even though it's just a bunch of blinking Christmas lights, Rita's palace looks like a steampunk fortune teller's house, and the Rangers' suits and zords are, to this very day, my very favorite of all time.  The rangers' interactions are corny, but they're playing it straight.  They're not speaking down to their audience, and despite being written as stereotypes, I believe them as friends.

It's so interesting to go back to Power Rangers' roots after all the fandom has been through.  It's been over twenty years, and it's almost shocking to see how simple and without nuance the original show is.  But there's just something about the way all the elements work in harmony with each other that's just too earnest and charming to dismiss.  At this point, there were no plans for the show to last any more than 40 episodes; a time-filler, a toy commercial, a show that would air for a few months and be forgotten just as quickly.  It's crazy to think that nearly 800 episodes later (YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY) the show would still be going strong, and even crazier to think that it all started with this harmless, silly, yet pretty special little episode.

Mighty Morpin' scale:
10/10

Power Rangers scale:
8/10

The Power Rangers Retrospective: Intro

Ah, the Power Rangers.  Ever since I was four years old, Power Rangers has been one of my favorite TV franchises.  It's my Star Wars, my Star Trek, my Lord of the Rings. I'd say it's my Harry Potter, but I'm also a crazy Potterhead, so I'll just leave that one alone.  I can still remember the first time I saw a Power Rangers episode... the costumes were interesting and colorful, and the super-heroic things they could do seemed mind-blowing to me at such a young age.  Teleporting? Morphing? Piloting a giant robot? None of these are particularly original concepts, but to see them altogether in one place was just the absolute coolest thing ever.

As the years went on, I collected the toys and watched the show religiously, even videotaping episodes so I could watch them again later.  When my parents signed me up for karate (ironically because I loved Power Rangers so much), I always had to go to lessons saturday mornings RIGHT when Power Rangers would come on.  I had my brother, who was probably four or five by that point, record the episodes when I was out and I'd be thinking about it all practice.  So you could say I was a bit obsessed.

As time went on, liking Power Rangers became sort of a taboo at my school.  It was too cheesy stupid all of a sudden, and with me still being so obsessed, I felt kind of like an outcast.  And then inevitably, I too started to become disinterested in the show.  By the fifth season (Turbo), all the original cast was gone, which was really disappointing.   I was starting to get into Pokemon and other things, so eventually I stopped watching altogether.  "Power Rangers is for little kids," I thought, "and I'm not a little kid anymore!  Now... where's that Moon Stone? I need to evolve my Jigglypuff!"

Then in 2001, I made a bold choice.  I was curiously flipping through the channels and I found that Power Rangers was still on. I couldn't believe it! How could it still be on?  "Power Rangers Time Force? Gimme a break..." But still, I had to check it out.  I went to Fox Kids, put down the remote, and watched. And watched. And watched some more.  At the end of the episode, I was hooked again.  And I've pretty much remained hooked ever since, despite falling off around high school for a bit (which was during the Kalish era, so... that's understandable, right?).  I had still kept my love of Power Rangers relatively secretive until pretty much last year when I went to Power Morphicon. I was blown away by how not alone I am.  And with people's nostalgia for Power Rangers at an all-time high AND a big-budget movie on the way, being a Power Rangers fan just isn't all that embarrassing anymore.

So why am I telling you my life's Power Rangers story? Because I am embarking on a very dangerous mission.  A mission that could potentially kill me.  A mission so insane and incredible that only a few brave souls have ever attempted it and come out alive. I am going to watch every single Power Rangers episode and then write about it here, possibly even do an audio or video review as well.  EVERY. SINGLE. EPISODE. I don't know how long it will take, especially since I can't guarantee I'll be very consistent.  But dammit, I bought this Shout! Factory red ranger helmet and I'm gonna make the most of it, dammit!

I will mostly be talking about the series chronologically, so I'll be avoiding major spoilers if anyone wants to join me on my insane quest. So sit back, let the nostalgia blind you, put some of your old action figures on display, and enjoy.  This is gonna be one messy ride.