POWER RANGERS OPERATION OVERDRIVE Doesn't Even Get to Neutral
I’ve watched Power Rangers Operation Overdrive, and oh boy. I’m not sure where to start. Before I dive into the season, I do want to do a quick preface. Earlier this month, I learned that Netflix is removing most seasons of Power Rangers from their streaming service. My theory is that they’re renegotiating the licenses with Hasbro, but I have decided that I will have to suspend further seasons until after February 1 at the earliest to see what is affected. I know there’s the second season of Beast Morphers which should be safe, but it’s a little unclear for earlier seasons I haven’t touched on. I’d like to proceed in order if I can, but we’ll have to see.
Now onto the main program. Operation Overdrive is the fifteenth season of Power Rangers and was adapted from GoGo Sentai Boukenger. The series features Andrew Hartford (Rod Lousich) who’s a billionaire archaeologist recruiting four individuals including a spy-for-hire Will Aston (Samuell Benta), stuntman Dax Lo (Gareth Yuen), race car driver Ronny Robinson (Caitlin Murphy), and genius Rose Ortiz (Rhoda Montemayor) to create the Power Rangers to find the jewels for a legendary crown know as the Corona Aurora. Some things happen and instead of Andrew becoming the Red Ranger, his son Mack (James MacLurcan) ends up in that spot. The other Rangers become Black, Blue, Yellow, and Pink respectively. Oh, also, before they become Rangers, their DNA is altered and each one is given some enhanced ability that they will almost never use. The one exception is Mack who gets his power after becoming a Ranger. Mack becomes super strong, Will gets super senses, Dax gets super agility, Ronny gets super speed, and Rose gets invisibility. Eventually, Tyzonn (Dwayne Cameron), a Mercurian (aka alien from the planet Mercuria), joins as the Mercury Ranger.
There is one solid thing about Operation Overdrive. The scale of the show is global. It’s a globetrotting series as they hunt down the jewels, and I really like that. It doesn’t make sense that some monsters would only attack one city that was always defended by some Power Rangers. It makes more sense that they would try other areas of the world, right? This is the best thing about Operation Overdrive in my opinion. Plus, it adds a real sense of adventure as they look for the jewels.
One thing that I’m torn on is the two-parter, “Once A Ranger.” This is cool because we get old Rangers to return including Adam Park, Tori Hanson, Kira Ford, Bridge Carson, and Xander Bly. Personally, while Bridge was one of my favorites in S.P.D. I don’t really like his inclusion here. They’re all Rangers from the past except they took one guy from the future. I like the return of some of these Rangers, and the idea is cool, they are brought in to cover for the Overdrive Rangers who have lost their connection to the Morphin Grid. The execution just ends up being lackluster and a little confusing. Why didn’t Sentinel Knight just get a whole team like say the Mystic Force Rangers and continue the tradition of the team-up episodes with the previous season? Instead it’s just a jumbled mess of actors that they could convince to make an appearance. Also, why does Xander try Plan Xander? It literally never works. One huge annoyance though with the episodes is that they play the theme song for each Ranger during fights, except when Adam fights, it’s just generic fight music and not the theme from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers for some reason. Also, the theme for Mystic Force is terrible for fights.
Sadly, that’s roughly all of the positive stuff I have to say about the season. The writing is messy and the implementation of the globetrotting Rangers story feels underwhelming. They can travel at seemingly the speed of light sometimes with how fast they’re able to travel or get their Zords to different parts of the globe, there’s no reason for some of the Rangers to have been chosen in the first place, and there’s no real character growth. The best we get is that by the end of the 32 episodes, Will decides that he wants to create a team of people to work on the whole spy and security thing.
They do try to force some “character development” with Mack, but it’s very stupid. It turns out that Mack is really an android created by Andrew to be his son. Mack has existed for about two years and has had his whole life fabricated for him. Despite that, he’s become human and has his own heart. Oh, and at the end of the season, he literally becomes human. That’s right, he’s a freaking Pinocchio. I take umbrage with this whole thing though. First, Andrew says he created him because he always wanted a son, but never had the time to find someone to start a family with. Here’s the deal. You spent time building an android instead of meeting someone. You’re not ugly, you’re smart, and you’re wealthy. Surely someone would’ve been willing. It sounds more like he just doesn’t care about relationships. I say this because he’s often leaving Mack at home while he goes out on these Indiana Jones-like adventures for artifacts. He seemingly doesn’t even really have time for the son he built! If you can’t take time to form relationships with others like a partner, you probably don’t have time for a kid simply because you want one! Clearly, your work is extremely important to you and that’s okay. Does Mack never question where his mother is?
Another problem is that I thought the reveal was lame. They find out because he contracts a computer virus. There are moments that allude to the fact that he’s a robot leading up to the reveal, but they explain it after he contracts a virus and Andrew has to fix him. However, somehow, the other Rangers don’t learn he’s an android until the end of the same episode even though he starts wigging out while they’re there. This whole thing is just done to create unnecessary drama. Over the course of the next few episodes, Mack starts being a little more passive aggressive towards Andrew until the final episode when Andrew is willing to trade the jewels for Mack’s safety. I’m sorry, but as far as Robot Ranger stories go, I’ll take “The Robot Ranger” from Turbo any day. It’s not great, but it’s better than whatever Operation Overdrive is pushing.
None of the heroes really stick out as being cool, sadly. Will is too busy being cool and suave that he comes off as a tool most of the time, Ronny is just boring and competitive, Rose is the stereotypical genius girl, Dax is an idiot, Mack is bland, and Tyzonn can’t act his way out of a paper bag. Sadly, the villains aren’t much better.
This season has not one evil mastermind trying to take over the world, not two, but we get four factions of villains. That’s right, four factions; not four villains. In my humble opinion, what the heck were they thinking? I understand Boukenger did the same thing, and I have no idea how they handled it, but it’s just a mess. We have Flurious who is clearly an American villain and very laughable. He has a hench-yeti that is a complete imbecile but still ends up miraculously being useful at times and the footsoldiers are called Chillers which look pretty dumb (although not as bad as the Tyrannodrones). Meanwhile, his brother Moltor is another faction. He doesn’t have a henchperson, but he does use Lava Lizards which admittedly are pretty cool. The third faction is Kamdor and his general Miratrix. I like their aesthetic a lot actually, but it seems they always make Kamdor so useless that it’s hard to really like them. Finally, we have the Fearcats who are extemely powerful except when they’re not. Unlike the other villains who are really quite useless until they need to be, it’s the exact opposite for the Fearcats. I’m not a big fan of them after their initial few episodes. They started out great, but quickly overstayed their welcome.
If I had to find a central theme to the season it would probably be acceptance. The villains never accept each other or anyone else and it ends up coming back to bite them. Heck, Flurious never accepts Norg and he is able to reunite Tyzonn with his fiancé Vell, which is good? The Rangers on the other hand are able to accept each other as teammates and then eventually accept Tyzonn who’s an alien and Mack after he finds out he’s an android. Mack even accepts that Andrew does care about him in the end and uses that to end Flurious’ onslaught at the end.
This season just has so much that I don’t like, it’s sad. Rose’s weapon is a super soaker, Dax’s is a fan, and Ronny got a bulldozer claw cut in half. Rita and Zedd had a very ugly and evil son which raises a million questions since they seemingly didn’t have any kids before the purifying wave of light in In Space which also turned them both human and yet Thrax is some ugly monster alien thing. Thor and Loki randomly make an appearance which is extremely random. The bad guys can easily enter the Hartford Mansion which serves as the command center and yet they do it all of twice for some reason. At least there was a reason the Command Center was safe. You needed a Power Coin to enter. Combine all of that with suits that I am not a fan of and a mediocre-at-best theme song, and this season is probably my least favorite one yet. Surely, it can only go up. Right? Also, if you enjoy Operation Overdrive, please tell me what you like about it. What did I apparently miss?
Current Power Rangers Ranking:
Power Rangers In Space
Power Rangers Zeo
Power Rangers Time Force
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2
Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Power Rangers Wild Force
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Turbo
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive