...In Which I Discuss A Strange Fascination With The Power Rangers

One day back in 1993, I stayed home sick from school. That day just so happened to be the day Mighty Morphin Power Rangers premiered on Fox 5. Having nothing better to do that lay in bed and drink ginger ale, I tuned in, despite having turned my nose up at the show throughout the endless promotions I had to endure while watching my other favorite cartoons. From the beginning, I became infatuated with the show, rarely missing an episode.

The Megazord protects my
TV from would-be thieves

“Infatuation” is probably a good way to describe it. I watched the show endlessly, going so far as to record them and create my own little box sets of story-arcs, complete with box art and all. I played the video games, the SNES game much more fun than one would expect. I had the toys. Hell, I still have the Megazord, standing stalwartly next to my television.

So when I heard that Mighty Morphin Power Rangers were coming to Netflix a few months back, I was stoked. It was quite irritating that the premier season of the Power Rangers was never released on DVD. I would have bought that shit with the quickness. But to have it available instantly streaming on Netflix was an acceptable second prize.

I spent hours upon hours watching the show, powering my way through 3 seasons and over a hundred episodes in the span of two weeks. There were so many episodes that even I thought I’d be fed up with it, hearing all of the corny one-liners and bad dialogue. But no. I needed more. So I moved on to Power Rangers Zeo. By the end of that I moved on to Power Rangers Turbo. This is when my resolve started to falter, especially with the inclusion of a 12 year old kid in the show. (Seriously, what high schoolers would hang out with a 12-year-old? That’s just fucking weird.)

After Turbo, the series is just bad. But for some reason I continue to watch. I think I’ve just gotten to the point where if I make it to the end, I can use it as some sort of bragging right. (Though who would brag about that…)

Without a doubt the most
badass Ranger ever

I’m currently stuck in the middle of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, which is slightly more watchable than Power Rangers Lost Galaxy. Although, based on what I’ve read on Wikipedia, I’m kinda looking forward to Dino Thunder, and the return of Jason David Frank.

Also, with this news coming out of Korea, Mystic Force may be cool. I mean, it was inspirational enough for a video game developer to produce an MMO based on the season, so it must have some intrinsic value.

Eh, who am I kidding? Power Rangers has absolutely no intrinsic value. But I’ve never been someone to apologize for enjoying things. I have fun watching Power Rangers (well, had fun) so I think I’ll continue to do so.

Also, it is interesting to note this peculiar relationship. It would seem that the concept that works in Power Rangers was developed during the Japanese live-action Spider-Man show. I don't know how... I don't care how. But awesome.