POWER RANGERS TURBO Is a Mess
Well guys, I did it. I rewatched Power Rangers Turbo. It was something else. When it comes down to it, I just don’t like it. It’s not well done. It’s just bad. If you like it, good on you. It just felt like a tepid mess to me. Not even a hot mess.
So, Turbo starts with a movie. Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie to be exact. The movie definitely has problems. It is kind of fun to watch though, and it was cool to have Jason and Kimberly return, even if they do literally nothing. The movie also features the swift transition from Rocky DeSantos to Justin Stewart, a twelve year old kid. Justin is not a great addition. Watching the film, I noticed that a lot of the time, the other Rangers don’t even like him. That’s not great. Another weird thing is that there’s no real reason for the Rangers to get the Turbo powers. Up until this point, there has always been a reason for an upgrade. The Rangers still have their Zeo powers though and they work. Zordon just decides they need new powers for this mission. Huh? Also, going back to Justin. Why did Zordon recruit him? Was it simply because he learned the Rangers’ identities? That’s hardly a good reason.
Then, we get to the show. This season just seems to have problem after problem with it. On top of Justin being annoying (albeit I will admit that it is impressive how he’s the only one smart enough to do a lot of stuff like try attacking a villain while they monologue or go straight to his morpher while fighting a monster), there’s Divatox. Now, Hillary Shepard and Carol Hoyt do create a villain that does lean into the goofiness and camp of the series which is fun, but that doesn’t make her any more competent or coherent. In the movie, Divatox wants to marry Maligor to get his power to be the best space pirate out there. In the show, she doesn’t really have a goal? Throughout all 45 episodes, she briefly talked about defeating the Rangers, taking over Earth, etc., but for the first half of the season, she simply has her henchminions plant bombs that I guess are supposed to be strong enough to destroy the world or something, but it always fails.
This creates an episode structure of a Ranger-focused story, a detonator being placed, Bulk and Skull antics, Rangers eventually finding the detonator and dealing with it, real quick megazord battle, resolution of aforementioned Ranger story. They cram a lot into each episode, but instead of feeling satisfying, it just feels rushed. Heck, the majority of monster fights in the season feel rushed, and I swear take no more than about three minutes per episode. Eventually, Divatox moves from her submarine to a space base, and this leads to her dropping this whole bomb thing. This change of pace just gave more time for us to see what Divatox is doing (usually not very interesting) and more time on the Ranger story. This could’ve been better spent on the monster fights in my opinion.
OK, partway through, Divatox changes locations, but the interior is identical and she still uses a magic periscope that can pop up from literally any liquid. We see it come up from lakes, coolers, cups of smoothie, and more. What!? At least when the villain was on the moon, it made more sense as to why they could see what the Rangers are up to. This is just dumb?
Now, let’s talk about a lot of the transitions that happened in Turbo. In the first three episodes, Zordon and Alpha just leave. Zordon just seems done with everything and is like, “Peace out!” He’s replaced by Dimitria, who is insufferable for the majority of the season as she’ll only speak in questions. This is to help the Rangers learn and grow more, but it’s very annoying. Alpha is replaced by Alpha 6, which is probably the worst thing to ever happen to the show. Alpha 6 has a very annoying voice and talks like a 10-year old white kid trying to speak ebonics from the mid-90s. It’s not funny. Ernie also leaves for a random reason leaving Lt. Stone in charge of the Juice Bar (I’ll touch a bit more on this later). Then, 19 episodes in, all of the Rangers except Justin pass the torch. This is the worst change of the guards yet. For whatever reason, there’s a sand hourglass and time limit for this whole thing to happen, but that’s never explained at all. The reason we’re given is basically, “you guys are adults now that you graduated a couple of months ago and so you shouldn’t be Power Rangers anymore.” That’s a dumb reason. So, who do we get? Well, the Rangers choose people they know to be good and pure. Psych! They choose three strangers and a kid Adam coaches in soccer who has problems with teamwork.
Adam coaches Carlos, and when we meet Carlos, it’s because he struggles with teamwork. We also meet Ashley once as she and Carlos keep hitting on each other for a couple episodes. Tanya never interacts with her. Did Adam just go, “Hey Ashley and Carlos once helped me fight Piranhatrons, that’s a good enough reason to make them Rangers,” and everyone else said, “Sure?” Cassie and TJ are both new to Angel Grove, so we know that no one knows them. Katherine sees them fight alongside her and they do rescue Tommy, but really? That’s all it takes? They know nothing about these characters! Heck, Cassie kept wanting to not help! This change makes no sense. Granted, it is after this change that the episodes start to feel better and flow a little smoother, but it’s still bad.
There are a lot of other problems I had with the show, like them trying to do more with the Millennium Message that is kept very much in the dark and in this season is never touched on after the initial episode. The last problem I want to talk about is Bulk and Skull. I truly feel bad for these guys in this season. In previous seasons, they’re goofy comic relief and it’s fun. In this season, they’re turned into laughingstocks with no dignity.
In Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, we find out that for some reason, Bulk and Skull (B&S) aren’t going to France to be detectives (no reason ever given), and they were reinstated as police officers (no reason given). They then get abducted by Elgar and their brains turn to mush where they for some reason develop weird accents. Then, in episode one, they get turned into chimpanzees with no one knowing what happened to them and no one seems to care. Lt. Stone sometimes hints at missing them, but no one looks for them or anything. The chimps are eventually turned back into humans, but invisible. This lasts for a couple of episodes and is just stupid and pointless. They just do some basic invisible hijinks. Finally, they become visible. So, what happens? Well, every episode they have a new job and then get fired from it. In one of these episodes, they’re driving a tow truck and end up having problems. They tell the Rangers that if they can’t get to their next appointment in 10 minutes they’ll be fired. Ashley helps (very kind of her), but then it’s revealed they were given that order an hour ago and therefore will lose their jobs. So, what do they do? The Rangers laugh. WHAT!? Not cool.
Now that I’ve dumped on Turbo, I do want to talk about a couple of things I enjoyed. First, Shepard’s portrayal of Divatox is fun to watch even if Divatox isn’t written great. Second, the concept of Divatox creating evil zords to combat the Rangers is actually pretty cool and is executed semi-decently. Third, the music is actually really fun and enjoyable. The fight music, the theme song, it’s mostly a lot of fun. Finally, the last two episodes are good.
Now, I do have problems with the last episode like the fact that the space scientists know what Eltar is and are willing to take the word of a 13-year old boy that he has a message for them, etc. However, overall, the last two episodes are pretty great. The Rangers really have to go all out. They sacrifice both megazords and then have to deal with a large invasion force that leads to the destruction of the Power Chamber. This was actually really well written and feels very heavy. It’s a great way to push forward into the next season. The Rangers have reasons for leaving the planet, getting new powers, etc. Fantastic! If only the rest of the season had been given so much care.
Current Power Rangers Ranking:
Power Rangers Zeo
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Turbo