Triple posting to finish out my reviews. I apologize.
Then, somehow, I think that Disney learned their lesson again because Jungle Fury was so much better than Operation Overdrive! The writing and acting were some of the best in the entire franchise! I really felt that each actor really became their character. It's funny, because in Operation Overdrive, Rose was giving Dax a pep talk about acting and she said something to the effect of "the object of acting is to make sure you look like you're not acting." Well, all of the Operation Overdrive cast (except those mentioned earlier) really did look like they were acting. This cast, however, were like Shakespearian trained actors in comparison! One of my favorite male characters was RJ. He is probably the coolest mentor a team has ever had. I also really loved Fran ... and, am not ashamed to say that I had a small crush on both her and Lily. So much about this show was great, but there were bad things, though. Take for example the Spirit Rangers. The show was already toyetic enough as it was without adding in extra rangers that really served no purpose other than just to sell toys. Then, they got rid of the morphers and had the Core 3 use Sunglasses and almost completely changed the motions for the other two. Small things, sure, but they meant something to me. I also kinda wish we could've had a true American adaptation of Ron/Lon. That character in Gekiranger with all his scheming would've been better than Scorch, in my opinion. But they didn't really have the time in 32 episodes, really, to pull that off right. Another bad thing ... only 32 episodes!!! That was a blessing with Operation Overdrive, but it was not acceptable here. I really wish they'd done at least 40 episodes. It's so weird, though. When Disney got it right, they got it RIGHT! Four of my top 6 series came from the Disney era -- Jungle Fury, Ninja Storm, Dino Thunder and one other.
Then ... Disney made the best decision they've ever made in regards to Power Rangers: canning Bruce Kalish and hiring Eddie Guzelian! Even better ... they let him take the franchise in a direction more in keeping with the last few Original Saban-era shows. This show was, by far, the best produced series in franchise history. It was darker, more mature, more realistic and just better in every way. They also noticeably tried to NOT squeeze the original 16:9 Source Footage into 4:3 as much as possible. Sometimes, when they did, it was only just as little as they needed to squeeze it to get what was important. Plus, I think this is probably the only series that completely threw out any part of the original Sentai story and created their own. I think all they kept was starting with the Core 3 and adding Black and Green (in reverse number order) a couple episodes later and then adding in Gold and Silver later ... and having Gold and Silver be siblings. I don't think anything else made it. Also, they were the only one to come up with a creative way to get around seeing the Sentai name in the series. They had to use Ginjiro from Go-Onger ... and the problem is that it has Go-Onger in big letters on the side. So, the production team came up with a way to turn that into an acronym ... and it worked, for me at least. They were just so much more creative with this show than with others. And the acting, all around, was the best in the entire franchise. The only other team that had better acting, all around as a team, would be Time Force. Gem and Gemma ruined it for RPM because they were not all that ... as I will get into later. I also loved the way they approached the relationship with Dr. K and Ziggy. After you've watched it, it's obvious the second time around that Dr. K is crushing on Ziggy really early on and she's just afraid of it because she's never had these feelings before. Like when she's talking to Summer about Scott and Dillon being a 9 and a 10 and Summer asks Dr. K who she thinks is a 10 ... Dr. K freezes up. I also loved the entire story with Dillon and Tenaya. Then, of course, the relationship between Dillon and Summer was also a good choice. I think they were trying to start something between Flynn and Gemma ... but I don't think it ever panned out ... and that's sad. It's funny that it happened this way. Honestly, I HATED most of Go-Onger for the same reasons I hated Operation Overdrive. The only thing that kept me watching Go-Onger were the amazing Go-On Wings! That is probably my only problem with RPM -- their adaptation of Go-On Wings. Gem and Gemma were not terrible ... but they were a little too goofy to fit in with the show and their acting was not always believable and could become "over-the-top" when getting goofier. Ziggy was fantastic ... but we didn't need twins finishing each other's sentences. I just don't think that the characters fit into the show as well as they could have if they had been more serious. I'm not trying to say that humor didn't belong in the show, because I did just say I loved Ziggy, but Ziggy was enough. Plus, Milo Cawthorne knew how to keep his goofiness from going "over-the-top." He knew how to keep it in balance.
Then ... Saban eventually buys the franchise back from Disney and re-releases the first 30 or so episodes of MMPR s1 with "updated effects." I'm sorry ... but this is not 1960's Batman! They took a great show and ruined the episodes with those terrible effects. I refuse to watch the re-version -- ever. To me, that would be like taking the original Star Wars Trilogy and putting in pre 1950's VFX. It would ruin the trilogy! Had they updated the effects with better effects than the original, it might have been okay. I know the updated Star Wars looked good to me -- especially substituting Hayden Christensen in for Anakin at the end of Episode VI. That was very appropriate, in my opinion.
Next ... Saban starts working on an adaptation of Shinkenger with the goal of bringing the fun of MMPR back to Power Rangers. Well -- they're failing. I'm already well on record on another forum of my extreme distaste of Samurai. They try to bring back the comedy by bringing back Bulk with Skull's son, Spike. Well, the problem is that all of the scenes with Bulk and Skull 2.0 seem forced! It's like they just sit down with the script and figure out where to put in a comedy break and just throw something in there. Bulk and Skull 2.0 don't even know the rangers! In the original, their comedy was organic and always had something to do with the plot. It never felt forced! The only things, right now, that are keeping me from NOT watching this show anymore are Deker (because, oddly enough, Rick Medina is actually performing well on this show compared to Wild Force) and the hopes of a Samurai/RPM teamup! I really hope that happens. Perhaps the RPM rangers can show these Samurai fools how it's done!
So, those are mine. I know it's long, but I had to say what was on my mind about each series.
I'm anxious to see how everyone else ranks these series! But, for the sake of discussion, when you put your rankings in, I'd request that you also state your reasoning for placing seasons where you place them in your ranking.
Discuss!
