Because Power Rangers 1-18 is out on Netflix Instant... REPOST!
SPOILERS FOR ALL POWER RANGERS SERIES AND SOME SENTAI IN THE POSTS AHEAD
#26. Power Rangers (1993-____)
FOX/DisXD/Nick, Nostalgia
Choice Fight:
Choice Scene:
- This is the biggest nostalgia bump any show gets in this ranking. No question. The show is cheeseball, most of the actors can't act, it's for kids, and it's not even original material most of the time, but dammit, I love this show. I have absolutely no idea why I do. There are plenty of shows I get into kicks with, growing nostalgic then watching as much as I can fit in to the span of a week before finding something new. Power Rangers is the only one that is constantly reoccurring. A few I've gone back to several times, but it feels like twice a year I'll just fall deep into Power Rangers hype and nostalgia. When I first started watching in 1994, when I came back to Turbo after Zeo was meh, when I came back to In Space when the new Turbo Rangers sucked, when I watched the classics while Lightspeed or Time Force was airing, when I tuned in for reruns and Dino Thunder, when I caught a few weeks of Operation Overdrive not long before the big team-up, when I went heavy on Power Morphicon videos and season 2 last winter, when I watched all of Time Force and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger this summer, and now as I regularly check out Goukaiger. I nominate songs from Power Rangers for music ranking topics, I watch music videos featuring fighting montages, I dressed up as the Green Ranger for Halloween when I was really young and used to draw them all the time. I own about eight Power Rangers comics (Hamilton > Marvel), I've seen the movie at least seven times (Turbo 2 or 3 for evil Kimberly), and I went to McDonald's two or three times a week to get the movie toys with my happy meal (think I got all six, though maybe not the Crane). The only reason I remember the Nostalgia Critic site exists anymore is to regularly check to see if Linkara's posted a new history of Power Rangers episode. I'm a long time fan. Not big enough to own the actual zord toys or any big merchandise or go to Power Morphicon or anything, but I definitely love it.
Now, I brought up how terrible Power Rangers Samurai was in the Shinkenger write-up (and glancing over it, I heavily edited out my vitriol to a few lines at the bottom), and I will use the current series to compare the original flavor rangers with the newest incarnation. There's a huge gap in quality, in my opinion, between then and now. There are still great seasons like RPM, Dino Thunder, and Time Force, but Samurai is just plain awful. Actually, I could use Time Force more accurately first.
Time Force and Samurai are both rips of the Sentai equivalent. Time Force's characters and plot points are nearly all the same aside from different villain line-ups, a much lighter ending, and Yellow is a girl with a brighter personality. Blue and Yellow are a bit more vanilla since their characters boil down to narcissistic racecar driver and strongwoman with bubbly personality, but they're balanced out by Green, a psychic with green hair, cool inventions, and so much optimism that it plays a key role in the final episodes. Red and Pink are not only the key players, but easily the highlight of the season and one of the best romances on the show. Erin Cahill kicks ass in the role, not only leading the team half the time, but delivering some amazing scenes and kicking so much ass in a later team-up and the movie magic episode. No wonder Barney Stinson wants to bang her so bad (she's Ted's sister!). And Ransik is probably the best villain since Lord Zedd (maybe after Astronema).