Season 8, Episode 28: Ocean Blue

"Ocean Blue"
Episode 28
Air Date: November 4th, 2000

Okay, let's just up the silliness as Power Rangers often times does!  I mean I have to remember this is a show where almost ANYTHING goofy and absurd can happen.  Petty space pirates, powerful spirits taking on the form of a child, not to mention, giant ovens that cook colossal ranger pizzas, etc.  The show at this point has told far childish tales in it's 7 year run up to this point, so why not introduce mermaids into the mythology of the show!!!  I don't even mind the forced romance between Chad and Marina as cheesy as it maybe because often times their scenes come off kind of cute if not a forced rip-off of the "Little Mermaid".  I mean the acting is pretty poor as usual but I enjoy the writers at least trying to give Chad more depth by introducing something as a random relationship between him and a mythological creature. That being said, what I absolutely DON'T get is Vipra's plan!!! -_-  So she freed some random mermaid from captivity because she want to use her as a pone to trick Chad into a trap and destroy him??? Huh??? So she expected them to fall in love and for Marina to want to win Chad's heart with some dumb dolphin toy??? O_o  I am so confused!!!  This plan makes absolutely NO sense and was horrible considering how needlessly elaborate it was! -_-

It would have made sense if Vipra has been studying the rangers by finding out each of their individual weakness but even in the end, it seems she didn't even know Chad's weakness was love so huh??? I just don't get her plan man and for the love of god, watching Jennifer Yen try to act for a good portion of an episode is NOT entertaining at all!!! Seriously, she is terribly unconvincing at EVERY emotional spectrum known to man.  My favorite part was when she ordered the Batlings to destroy him....I just...I've never seen such horrendous acting in my life that wasn't a straight to VHS/DVD release before!!! My goodness lady, just shut. UP!!! o_o  Also, Loki comes in to help her capture Marina after setting up Chad and he's useless as always.  Also, how is drowning a MERMAID considered killing her!!!?  She's a freakin' mermaid, she can breath underwater you idiots!!! Omg, this script was terrible if I think about it.  Chad saving Marina made no sense as well as Vipra saying they've been done there too long and Loki assuming they died....HUH!? o_O God, these villains are stupid!!! -_-

Anyway, the only thing that saves this episode for me is the romance between Chad and Marina.  As cheesy and moronic as it is, it's kind of sweet.  I especially like the underwater scenes in this episode!  This must have been an expensive episode with the production team doing a lot of underwater sequences with Marina swimming but they were worth it because they came off really stunning and natural surprisingly.  Also, I love Chad swing kicking a large pillar of a pier to knock some jack asses down for littering in the ocean. Makes absolutely NO sense like much of this episode since that could NEVER happen but it was an enjoyable moment of absurdity for me despite it!  Anyway, despite the horrifying bad performances from Jennifer Yen, the stupid scheme Vipra planned with Loki, etc.  The beautiful underwater swimming and silly yet sweet romance between Chad and Marina made it more enjoyable than it should have it been.  So I'll be nice and give this a "B-" because the next set of episodes......Ewwwwww!!! -_-

Final Morph: B-