Go Go Power Rangers

My obsession for MMPR restarted recently when I found it on Netflix. I've been watching an episode or two (or four) almost every night since. My goal is to get all the way through Mighty Morphin and also watch their first movie. This is a bigger undertaking than I expected because the first season alone has 60 episodes (I think I'm up to 57 as of this morning). I am loving every second of it though...

The first 16 episodes are exactly the same. It starts off with
Jason, Zack, Trini, Billy, and Kimberly out of costume (but still very much in their respective colors) hanging out at the local teen club- Ernie's Gym and Juice Bar. Or sometimes they're at school. Either way, they are doing something to help the community - teaching martial arts classes to kids, recycling, helping with fund raisers, teaching self-defense classes to women, building floats for a peace parade, putting meaningful items in a time-capsule, planting trees, etc. Bulk and Skull (who start off as bullies, but are quickly shown to not be the least bit menacing) show up and do something goofy and possibly resulting in self-injury. Cut to Rita Repulsa's not very secret moon base where she is spying on the teens and decides she wants to... well, basically ruin their day. This, of course, means having Finster create a monster using his Monster-Matic machine. Goldar yells and waves his sword around saying what a brilliant idea it is. Before Rita sends the monster down, she'll send her Putty Patrol. The teens fight them off (well, Billy originally just runs away, but as the series progresses he'll engage in co-co-co-combat!) just as the monster arrives... somewhere else in Angel Grove. The teens then transport back to their Command Center where they'll watch the monster destroy the city on their Viewing Globe. Zordon gives the Rangers the basic info on the monster while Alpha panics to no one in particular. Jason will then declare IT'S MORPHIN TIME! (Note: there is no "g" on Morphin. Ever) MASTODON! PTERODACTYL! TRICERATOPS! SABRETOOTH TIGER! TYRANNOSAURUS! The Rangers teleport to wherever the monster is - typically the beach, a park, forest, a cave, and occassionally downtown Tokyo. Fighting ensues! Lots of sparks fly off of everyone! Just when it seems like the Rangers have the upper hand, Rita will throw her magic wand down to anywhere on Earth and somehow that makes the monster grow. Now it's time for the Rangers to call upon their zords (they can't escalate the battle unless their opponent does). I really don't know why each ranger has his/her own zord since they almost always immediately combine in to the Megazord. So the giant monster and Megazord then trade blows in a desert regardless of where they were beforehand until the Rangers get pissed enough to bust out the Power Sword. The sword falls down (presumably from Heaven) and usually kills the monster in one slash (causing it to explode, naturally).  Rita then blames all of her minions for the failure. The teens go back to whatever they were doing earlier, having learned some lesson. Bulk ends up splashing someting gooey on his face and everyone laughs. End.

This formula gets shaken up by an awesome five-parter introducing the Green Ranger. Finally, Jason has someone who can match his martial arts abilities! These episodes really do shake things up and help really establish some characters (Jason) while introducing Tommy as the new coolest Ranger. After this really good run of five episodes, a new status quo is started that is pretty much the same except now Tommy is with the others at the juice bar until right before trouble starts. He somehow always manages to separate from everyone and then comes in late to save the day, which also helps add to his being the coolest. Also, his Dragonzord leads to a few new options for combining the zords. Just when this pattern starts to get old, there is another multi-episode event where Tommy loses his powers (thanks to a candle...seriously). I think that really hurt the series some, because the episodes following weren't as good. The team was just lacking. Tommy wasn't even around as a normal teen hanging with the others, he just disappeared until eventually they figured out a way to bring him back. That's where I am in the series now. Tommy is back (with the constant threat that his powers will give out) and the episodes are pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing Lord Zedd in season two.... but dreading the day Jason, Zack and Trini get replaced by Whats-his-face, That-one-guy and The-other-one (Yes, I know their names, but just never liked the new characters). At least Tommy and Kim will still be in it (til Kim leaves in season 3).

I'm sure there will be more Power Rangers updates. I love the 90s!