Season 18, Episode 4: Deal With A Nighlok

 

"Deal With a Nighlok"

Episode 4

Air Date: February 13, 2011

Ok, I get that this could have been an extremely serious yet touching "deal with the the devil" type episode for kids with Ryan's deal with a nighlok (yeah, i said it! :P) being this desperate story of the rangers racing to save him before a tragic fate...but then you realize the Nighlok's so called plan is beyond irrational and nonsensical as if the writers just came up with it in a mere 3 minutes. Also, this whole deal with Kevin and suddenly checking on everyone is forced in there to make sense alongside Ryan's apparent dilemma but it just makes the story obviously more poorly written and clearly no time or care thought into it.  Power Rangers is notorious for its sappy, PSA message episodes where our heroes teach our kids a lesson while in danger, but here lies a message with no meaning or need for it given the erratic behavior of the script that was written here.  It's as if the point of the story was lost in translation by how the Nighlok's desire to steal people's dreams based on Ryan's "situation" doesn't have him actually give up anything??? O_o So he gives up his dreams of baseball to get his father to come home??? How is that exactly going to make him sad if he thinks his father is coming home??? Also, it makes it seem that his father coming home is his actual dream and far more important than his baseball playing since he's more worried about his dad not seeing him than playing baseball himself......-_-.......I just......

Anyway, if that wasn't randomly dumb enough, this episode like I said tries to connect Kevin's own situation with missing swimming and having to give it up to dedicate his life to being a ranger now....but....the difference is, Kevin always grew up knowing and realizing one day he'd have to give it up to save the world and he isn't exactly giving up anything because his duty as a Samurai Ranger is only to defeat the Nighlok! Sure, god know how long that's gonna take but ummmmm, he doesn't have to give up his dreams of swimming and can pursue it once his calling is done so.....huh??? -_- Oh and we get the running gag of Mia's cooking being the absolute worst starting here.  Hahahaha, she can't cook! Hahahaha, she needs to use her spin sword to cut up vegetables to make her meals. Ohhhh boy.....here we go..... Honestly, even Mia and Kevin's forced bonding made things even more insufferable and my god, the acting is some of the worst I have ever seen from this show...which is saying A LOT!!! O_O  At least the MMPR cast improved over the course of three seasons, at least the Wild Force cast had some decent to good actors not played a character named Alyssa! :P That confrontation between Mia and Kevin against the Nighlok was....wow....this was definitely an major indicator this was rushed into production with little to no desire of at least making it somewhat believable that these are characters, NOT actors. -_-

The Bulk and Spike's shtick is already wearing thin but as you know, it always has even when it was Bulk and Skull. But this is gonna become even more unnecessary down the line as you begin to realize something about Bulk and Spike's purpose on this show. O_o "Deal With a Nighlok" is a presentation of carelessness honestly to the writing to the acting, especially when the usual bad child actor is waayyyy  more convincing than the show's cast. Now if that's not a n indicator of how bad this show is already, I don't know what is! Kevin and Mia's bonding holds no weight or depth to it, just the rangers stalking a young boy and trying to get to know each other while we get a humorless sequence of Kevin throwing away Mia's food when he's not looking. O_0 

Final Morph: F