Friday, July 27, 2012

My top five Power Ranger seasons

So on our podcast we did a show about Power Rangers.


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Everyone knows I have a unhealthy love of this show and I have been meaning to make this post for awhile so lets go.


1. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers season 3

One of my favorite things ever. I remember summer of 95 going to see the movie and in the fall looking forward to seeing how the TV show was going to introduce the Ninja Zords.

Well first we got the backdoor pilot of Masked Rider, but lets not count that.

Season premier we get introduced to Rito Revolto, the brother of Rita Repulza. I guess aliens do not share last names since their dad is named Master Vile.

Rito was the main bad guy from the Sentai series Kakuranger. He has a bad ass look, as a camouflage skeleton soldier.

Zedd decides to send Rito and an army of monsters to attack the rangers. Now Zedd has tried this idea at least five times, but this time it works. Rito and his army destroy the Thunder Zords. Which was an awesome moment, only thing that bugged me was Goldar did not get to help.

That is how they started the season and it was an awesome weekday roller coaster ride. The Rangers could never seem to win for long.

They also had fun monster of the day episodes.

The one thing weighing down season 3 is the Alien Rangers mini series. It was really really bad, and unlike parts of seasons 1 and 2, there is no good excuse. But if you can overlook those episodes, season 3 is best with a crazy finale.


2. Power Rangers SPD

SPD was based on the sentai, Dekaranger, which is the first sentai I watched. It is a really good show with cool monsters, rangers and mechs.

So I kinda shit on SPD unfairly back in 05. But rewatching it on Netflix and I loved it. The only problem with the show is they did this stupid premise of setting it in the future. Which fucked up the loose continuity the show had, and they had Omega Ranger come from even further in the future.

The justification was having aliens on Earth in the present day would not be realistic or something. But hell man has colonized space in the Power Rangers universe.

But SPD did everything else right. It really understood the idea Power Rangers is a sugar rush for kids and arrested adults. It also put some good character development in with the rangers like the old days.


3. Power Rangers in Space

I just barely put Space above Lost Galaxy. Space won in the end because it did not have as many weak episodes as Galaxy did. But things like the Magna Defender saga were better than the best stuff Space did.

Astronema was a weak villain. I do not know why the show was obsessed with cackling lady villains, but for three straight years, it was a requirement. I do not quite count Rita since her and Zedd were a package deal.

They also did a separated brother and sister storyline with the Red Ranger and Astronema. Which is a trope I really hate.

But the good with space far outweighs the bad. You had great villains like Darkonda and Ecliptor. Story arcs like the Psycho Rangers saga and the final death of Zordan was an all time great moment.

4. Power Rangers Lost Galaxy

Lost Galaxy is basically an epilogue for the first six seasons. Bulk is around (just barely) and they use the Astro Megaship from Power Rangers In Space. They have an Alpha helping them and they end up doing a big team up with the Space Rangers.

But at the same time the season exist on its own.

This season had a lot of death for a Power Rangers season. Eventually killing off the Pink Ranger, though she got better. Still that is pretty hardcore for this show.

The Magna Defender Saga is the best storyline the show ever did. There is a story arc set in the Lost Galaxy that only used Sentai footage and it kicked ass. Including a sick fight with the Titansaur.

This season also has a fantastic finale. They used all the money they saved from the sentai footage arc and put it into the finale and it kicked ass.

The season would be ranked higher if not  for the low points. The first six or seven episodes are really boring. Then the post Magna Defender arc episodes are another low period.

5. Power Rangers Ninja Storm

Now this is a really good season. This is the first fully produced Disney Season. They hired a show runner from the season 3/Zeo era and he got the show back to basics.

The rangers, zords, monsters and fight scenes are all top notch. I love Lothor (big bad for the season) and most of his underlings.

Now they do tend to make the villains too goofy in places. Lothor's nieces wear thin after awhile.

But I think Lothor himself always carries an air of menace about him. The reveal that he was happy his monsters were being defeated, to further power the Abyss of Evil was great.

The show has some big negatives for me. The focus on extreme sports is unbearable at times. The finale was pretty week. It did not have the epic feeling the finales from Space to Wild Force had.

They just fought at a sports fest.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

V-Spot for July 6th 2012


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