The First Season of MIGHY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS Is Fun but Too Long
As you may know, I recently started watching all the seasons of Power Rangers. A while ago, I finished Power Rangers S.P.D. and shared my thoughts on it. I then went to Mystic Force and only got through a few episodes before I couldn’t handle it anymore (I will try again someday). With that little setback, I decided to go back to the beginning, and I just finished watching the first season of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It has been a trip.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has a lot of problems. There’s next to nothing that resembles an overarching story or any character development. We do have Billy, who starts out not being able to throw a punch to being decent at fighting Putties because he gets Jason to teach him, but that’s about the extent of character growth. It’s also annoying that for certain episodes they have to get special weapons or powers, and they aren’t used again. For example, Jason and Tommy retrieve powerful new blasters to defeat the Super Putties, but then we never see those weapons again. In addition, the season is ridiculously long at 60 episodes. That’s about twice the length of what this should’ve been as a monster-of-the-week show with after-school special messages thrown in.
Oh, there are also two very minor things that I found odd. First, why is the Pterodactyl Zord not pink? It’s more of a red. The other thing is that the Dragon Shield looks awesome in the Sentai footage, but then it looks really cheap in the Power Rangers footage. Could they not get that prop?
So, what’s still great about MMPR’s first season? Well, for starters the Rangers themselves. They’re unique beyond the color of their suit. Each has a distinct weapon, Zord, and helmet to really highlight each one. The characters may be a little one-dimensional, but the splash of personality they each have makes their interactions outside of the Sentai footage fun. Also, while most episodes were just monster-of-the-week specials, they do have some stories that take more than one episode like the “Green with Evil” story, and those are pretty good. Speaking of monster-of-the-week, the monsters can be fun. There are a lot of duds, but there are also a lot of memorable monsters that the Rangers fight like Knasty Knight, King Sphinx, Pudgy Pig, and many, many more. I feel like in other seasons the monsters aren’t nearly as memorable.
Finally, can we talk about how Rita treats the Rangers’ lives as a soap opera? She watches them and then occasionally sends a monster to stir up trouble. It’s pretty hilarious when you think about it.
Overall, I love the first season of MMPR, but it is too long for what we get. Without nostalgia, I would say that it’s tied with S.P.D., but with the nostalgia, I’d rather watch MMPR.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Power Rangers S.P.D.