POWER RANGERS S.P.D. Is Pretty Decent for a POWER RANGERS Show
I recently decided to start watching Power Rangers again after a break of over a decade. I decided to start with where I left off more or less, Power Rangers S.P.D. I watched most of Dino Thunder and Ninja Storm, so I thought I’d watch a season that didn’t have any nostalgia attached to it. I have to say, while it’s not my favorite, S.P.D. is pretty decent.
The overall character arcs tend to be semi-decent and make sense. The episodes where they actually try to work on characters and story are pretty solid. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of padding in there that really kills things. These padding episodes not only drag certain parts on, but also tend to undo any kind of character growth that the show had previously attempted to give. Another plus about the season was that while the acting still wasn’t amazing, it was pretty good for Power Rangers standards.
One thing I did not appreciate in S.P.D. was the lack of difference between the Rangers when they morphed. Outside of their color and number, there wasn’t anything to set them apart. Heck, with the exception of the Red Ranger having two blasters instead of the Deltamax Strikers, their weapons are the same. One thing I love about Power Rangers is the differences between Rangers, yet this show doesn’t really have any.
Another thing I found annoying was that they have these super powers that are never used to their full extent. I can believe that their abilities don’t work when they’re morphed for some reason (Bridge appears to require nothing on his hands in order to work, but I can’t think of any similar problems for the others), but then when they’re not morphed, they only use the abilities as semi-lazy fight devices. Jack has the ability phase through objects. That’s an incredible ability that could help the Rangers a lot with recon work. Z could create a clone! That’s really cool. Syd could make her hands change materials like stone and metal. These could all prove useful in some way, but are never really used well.
Third, let’s talk about the Shadow Ranger. He’s pretty useless. Yes, he looks cool. Yes, the Shadow Saber looks awesome. However, outside of “Shadow,” he doesn’t do anything. It’s a huge disappointment. The most he does in probably 90% of episodes is morph and turn the base into the Delta Command Megazord.
Meanwhile, there’s the Omega Ranger. He seems more of a plot device than anything. The annoying thing with him is that he doesn’t really get a good story. He gets the ever ambiguous “he’s from the future and now trapped in the past until they can find a way to return him to his time.” There’s never any growth for his character. Yeah, we find out that he’s the Rangers’ kid friend Sam, but there’s no story there to get me excited for him.
I’m not sure what happens in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger and so I’m not sure how well footage was used, but I can say that If S.P.D. had been about 15-20 episodes shorter, it would’ve been a much better show. That being said, it’s still a really decent season of Power Rangers.
Current Power Rangers Ranking:
Power Rangers S.P.D.