Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Season 1 Overeview

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Season 1
Episode Count: 60
Air Date: August 28, 1993-May 23, 1994

Like I said back in my original pilot review, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers was a whole new animal for Haim Saban to take on. His Saban Entertainment company were dealing with unknown territory with the difficult task of adapting a Japanese's series footage with all new American made footage. It was troublesome but not impossible as the show, once again became one of the biggest pop phenomenons of the 1990s. "Day of the Dumpster" was a pretty good premiere heavy on the exposition (but then again, the whole season is heavy on exposition all together lol.) But the season from there took a while to truly establish itself. From "High Five" to "Switching Places", we got a run of episodes dealing with either some daily lesson that the teens were trying to teach or some cause they were fighting for, seeming like a bunch of goody two shoes. Rita would usually spy on them, come up with some plan and monster that had to do what the teens were dealing with, have Finster make the monster then put her plan to motion.  Once Tommy arrived, for a few episodes, we got a new formula of him saving the rangers in the end when they needed help fighting a monster aka "the get out of jail free" ranger. But then by "The Green Candle, Part 1 and 2", Tommy's powers as well as himself were in danger and had to be saved by the rangers this time.

Then from there we had another run of episodes of Jason using Tommy's powers and his zord to help the rangers save the day. Speaking of the Zords, I love the original line up of machines that the rangers would wield. We had the Original megazord, the Dragonzord and Titanus; each zord making up it's own configurations like Mega Dragonzord, Dragonzord Battle/Fighting Mode and finally, the Ultrazord. But once again the show would keep falling back into the same formula, even after Tommy came back in "Return of An Old Friend, Part 1 and 2". Tommy would come in last minute to help save the rangers and it just got too repetitive. That's why episodes like "Doomsday, Part 1 and 2" stuck out because it established the rangers are true heroes for the first time; willing to sacrifice their lives to save the citizens of Angel Grove. Now let me talk about our heroes now that I've mentioned them. Jason, is the stoic leader/Red Ranger who gets his first bit of character development in "A Pressing Engagement" when he feels he doesn't need the help of the rangers but can things on his own sometimes. It's during his fight with King Sphinx that he realizes he does need his teammates despite being the leader.  He also learns that lesson again in "Gung Ho!" when Tommy and him need to learn how to work together as well as "On Fins and Needles" he needs to break the spell on him and Tommy by learning to work together. Next is Trini, the disciplined, mature member of the teens who has to face her fear of heights in the second episode as well as when she learns she has true honor when she faces the Mantis monster in "Plague of A Mantis".  Trini just always seemed like the most reasonable one of the team, not easily stressed or diverted from her personality which was good to see since she, like I said, ends up having the least development of the original 5 rangers.

Then you have Zack, our fun loving, dancing Black Ranger who has to come to terms with his fear of spiders in 'Itsy Bitsy Spider" as well as deal with his growing love for Angela. For a side character, I gave Angela a hard time for being a b!tch.com but it's because Zack always seemed to genuinely like her and want to impress her but she would just blow him off. I mean I guess it was in her character and the writers were trying to show that the teens weren't perfect after all and make mistakes but Angela just seemed mean and snobbish to me. Luckily, they softened her up after "Lions & Blizzards" and their relationship became nice to watch until their first kiss during the end of the last episode,  "An Oyster Stew".  Speaking of mistakes, I love Billy's episodes!!! Not just because he was favorite as a kid but because they all seemed to center around theme that despite Billy's remarkable intelligence, he can be either incompetent in other areas like dating ("Peace, Love and Woe") or actually making a mistake on a test ("Grumble Bee") But also we see Billy using his position as a ranger to continue to get smarter and work on certain devices to help the team like the Radbug (as useless as it would become after this season). Lastly we have Kimberly but here development isn't as good as the other this season surprisingly as she would go on to be the second of the original rangers to get the most after 3 seasons. "Calamity Kimberly" did her no favors, "The Spit Flower"??? Nope! Maybe "Return of An Old Friend" when we see her worried about her parents' divorce affecting Parent Day. It was a nice little moment well acted by Amy Jo and shows that there was more depth to Kimberly's personality than shopping, her hair, etc. As for the 6th ranger, Tommy gets the most development....or rather, the most story devoted to him. It seems every time the plot moved forward it involved Tommy or his powers. I think "The Green Candle, Part 1 and 2" was the highlight for his character; showing Tommy's willingness to fight despite the risk of losing his powers. It's a character trait that continues after his powers are temporarily restored in "Return of An Old Friend, Part 2". Even after people keep warning him about his powers giving out, he still risks it to fight along his friend and that is awesome character development. Tommy is just a badass and a hero that was meant to fight along side the forces of good.

As for our mentor and bubbling sidekick, I like Zordon and Alpha 5. Sure their characterization at first was weird with Zordon calling on Alpha to get "5 overbearing and overemotional humans"??? Yeah.......anyway, Zordon was a good mentor for the first season but my goodness, his usual exposition to the rangers got so. TIRED!! o_O Sometimes it would have been nice to have let the rangers figure things out on their own and he does do that in some episodes but for the most part, he always hands them a new weapon, device or out right tells them how to defeat the monster. Alpha is just a goofy yet genuinely nice character. I like how he took over as mentor for a bit during the times Zordon wasn't there like for the majority of the "Green With Evil" saga. Alpha always shows he is resourceful when needed and can loosen up more than Zordon when the time was right for it. What I would have liked was some more back story of Zordon and Rita's feud and how she was trapped 10,000 years ago, the Green power coins' origin, how he got stuck in a time warp etc. Oh and lastly, I should talk about the villains.

Rita was okay, some of her plans were awesome, some of them were alright and some of them plain sucked. One week she's hold the rangers' parents hostage and the next she wants to steal a time capsule to just put a picture of herself in it....huh??? She was sorceress and often used her magic against the rangers, which seemed like her best plans, putting spells on them or people around them. Goldar was an awesome general as well as Scorpina, always able to handle themselves in battle with them. Of course, they weren't so smart on their own ("A Star Is Born") but visually they looked cool and menacing. Squatt and Baboo...pass!!! Finster was the monster maker and used clay to form the monsters, put them into his monster matic and formed them from there. As for the recurring characters and location, Bulk and Skull are the worst. Irritating, obnoxious, stupid comic relief that has never genuinely made me laugh. Ernie was decent and was used better during the story lines when needed instead of shoved down our throats each episode from start to finish!! Anything more I should add....nope, now let's get down to the rating shall we!! :)

Pros:

• A very likable main cast
• Great Sentai footage action!!!
• Some decent moral lessons of the day
• An interesting, if not slightly bizarre mythology established
• The introduction and reintroduction of the Green Ranger episodes.

Cons:

• Bad acting
• Bad Editing
• Repetitive formula for nearly 60. Episodes!!!
• Rehashing of old plots and Bulk and Skull's idiocy
• NO plot movement outside multi-parters

Best Episodes:

1. "Green With Evil, Part 1-5"-The best episodes are without a doubt the "Green With Evil" Saga!!! With introduction of Tommy as the Green Ranger, the season, series and franchise finally found itself. While it could have been shortened to 3 pars with Part 3 being the weakest, it still was a fantastical and memorable moment from the show. From the Green Ranger kicking out the rangers out of their zords to Jason being kidnapped to the rangers dealing with their biggest lost yet by losing their zords after a brutal battle facing Goldar, Scorpina AND the Green Ranger??? Damn, this was cheesy, epic and badass all at the same time!!! :)

2. "Food Fight"-"Food Fight" is probably the only pre-Tommy that has the funniest plot and situation for the rangers. Pudgy Pig is my favorite of Rita's original monsters and the rangers actually manage to save the day without needing n exposition hand out from Zordon.

3. "The Green Candle, Part 1 and 2"-It was nice to finally see Tommy the one in jeopardy and not the other rangers for a change. The Green Candle two parters puts Tommy's powers in danger and leads to another one of the best two parters this season!!! :)

4. "Doomsday, Part 1 and 2"-A season finale-ish pair of episodes, the first part is the near perfect set up for the battle and part 2 easily establishes the toughest battle the rangers would suffer after Tommy's first departure. It was action-packed, intense and just a fun ride. :)

5. "Return of An Old Friend, Part 1 and 2"-Once again, when Tommy's at the center of the plot, the series' main plot as a whole moves forward in these early seasons. Rita's plan was actually great as she held the rangers' parents for ransom in exchange for their power coins. Then Tommy comes back to save the day again and it was just awesome seeing him back after a while of not.

Worst Episodes:

1. "A Star Is Born"-Literally stuff just happens this episode with Tommy auditioning for a karate commercial but having to thrust Bulk and Skull into the storyline does the episode no favors!! Goldar's plan pretty much sucked outside throwing the rangers off a cliff and it was just action for the sake of action!!!

2. "Calamity Kimberly"-I'm sorry, I could do it with Kimberly trapped in that other dimension and screaming for Tommy for nearly half an episode. My goodness, this was one of the most annoying episodes. EVER!!! -_-

3. "Reign of the Jellyfish"-So Rita wants to steal a time capsule and put a picture of herself so the future could know of her evil....yeah...and there was a Jellyfish monster....nothing else to see here folks!!

4. "Wheel of Misfortune"-It's the rangers against a freakin' WHEEL.....like before nothing to see here!!!

5. "Trick Or Treat"-God, this episode was just annoying with Bulk and Skull apart of the main plot and the whole Pumpkin Rapper stuff was just awful. I just couldn't deal with it! O_O

"As the first season of this iconic and nostalgic live action kids series, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers is pretty enjoyable for it's moments of nice character interaction, highly choreographed Sentai action and wacky monsters. But for a season that is the longest, with 60 episodes, there are A LOT of filler episodes with only more serious, story heavy multi-parters that seem to want to move the plot along."

 Season Score: B-