Summary: Tensou gets the spotlight nobody asked for in a trite but harmless comedy episode.
If you have not seen this episode yet and don’t wish to be spoiled, don’t continue reading. It’s not like we’re MEGAFORCEing you to, or anything.
Recap
As Prince Vekar plots to bring an asteroid down to Earth, a freak lightning storm hits Tensou and causes him to lose his memory. Meanwhile Ernie’s Froyo machine is down, and the teens venture out in search of Tensou. After Jake misses him on the street, Tensou is accidentally picked up by an intimidating man, who think Tensou is his steel suitcase. The team tracks him down to the mall while Orion and Noah fight off the latest monster. After some sneaky distractions, they’re able to switch the suitcase and get Tensou back, who subsequently reboots himself and remembers who he is. The Rangers go to Zord battle, but the asteroid begins to fall to Earth. Orion is able to use his Q-Rex drill to break it into pieces and save the world. Tensou is back at the Command Center with a new mirror, after having discovered how cool he looks while out in the world. And the froyo machine gets repaired–by the man with the suitcase, who was the repairman all along!
Review
The fun of attempting to crank out critical analyses of something like Power Rangers is the understanding that, more often than not, it’s probably all a bunch of bologna. There are certainly seasons that heavily focus on character exploration, larger themes, or world building. For the most part, the Megaforce seasons haven’t been any of those thing; the most interesting thing it does as a whole is experimenting with how its footage could be adapted to something totally different. But frankly, that has made it more fun to try so hard to pull overarching themes and insight from something devoid of much.
What helps is always framing the show in how the network executives and the general public see it: an extensive toy commercial for children. That’s the way Power Rangers was conceived for an American audience, and it’s perpetually there at its core. But that makes every other aspect of the show (and really, any kids show for that matter) that much more interesting, because it means there had to be some actual writers’ intent there other than selling the toys. Someone behind the scenes did want to tell some kind of story or have the slightest bit of artfulness, even if it was the bare minimum, and it’s fun to dig in and hone in on that. The Megaforce iteration doesn’t try nearly as hard to burst out of its shell as other seasons have, obviously, but any time there’s the slightest bit of character work, as with last week, or something completely unrelated to the source material, it’s worth peering into the why, and what it all means of the show.
That all makes “The Perfect Storm” a bit of an oddity, as it’s hard to hone in exactly what the point of all this was. It’s certainly unrelated to the source material, for the most part. Nothing happens to advance anything at all–there aren’t even any new powers or Zords (aka new toys) to unlock, so even in a season with about the loosest plot possible, it looks like we’ve got a 100% filler episode on our hands. I usually hate that term because of its negative connotation, and that even the slightest advancements in character or plot should count towards a series. It’d be hypocritical to not acknowledge that this is meant to be an exploration of Tensou, but what we “learn” doesn’t exactly warrant an entire episode. So “The Perfect Storm” is pretty much exactly what it is: a goofy little romp with no bearing on the show.
Like last week threw in a random Risky Business parody, this week seems to be reminiscent, in the most superficial ways, of Short Circuit. Not only is Tensou’s design clearly modeled after Number 5, but the plot is strikingly similar–a lightning-induced power surge causing a robots’ programming to change and discover its own self-awareness, at least in broad strokes. Because this is Power Rangers, the show that can literally do anything, so why not, right? That someone on staff really liked that movie is probably the only explanation for why this episode exists, considering I doubt many kids are clamoring for a Tensou action figure. Or perhaps there was just a need to do an (almost) pure comedy episode after the darker themes of the last two episodes. They really weren’t dark enough to justify a breather episode, but that’s definitely what we get.
Tensou is neither as charming as his Short Circuit counterpart nor his Mighty Morphin counterpart, Alpha 5, but that has more to do with how underused and generally pointless Gosei and Tensou have been throughout this series. Luckily, an episode devoting so much screentime to him is much less annoying than was expected. That’s thanks to the power surge significantly toning down his whining, and instead honing in on latent narcissism. Silly as it may be, it’s pretty funny seeing the neurotic robot spend his little adventure enamored with himself and everything like him. The implication is that Tensou’s persistent state of fretting is because he was only programmed to think about other people’s well being, without much care for his own…which is an interesting tidbit, if not a complex lesson to be throwing out there about the importance of self-worth. One could even expand on this as a justification of the selfie generation, showing that the slightest bit of narcissism is healthy and useful to keep one’s self happy. Or you could go the philosophical sci-fi route, and measure the implications of an artificial being being sentient yet without self-awareness, and how mission programming impeded his ability to be “happy” because he was never able to see himself for who he is. Or it’s just a reverse Short Circuit story and gave the cast a reason to run around the mall a little bit.
As usual, the likeablility of the cast salvages the generic chase shenanigans. This episode is a decent spotlight on the entire team in civilian form, kind of a rarity in a season that’s rather heavy on the fight footage. Everyone sans Orion and Noah (who are busy doing the fighting) gets some kind of comedic bit, and it all works well even considering it’s the standard “secret chase” business. Azim Rizk and Christine Masterson get to show off some non-fighting physicality on foot and bike, respectively, and Ciara Hanna has fun with the ever-building eye-rolling annoyance Gia has trying to switch that darn suitcase. All the jokes and exchanges involving Jake land, like the bit with Jake asking for the time while wearing a watch, or “Tensou!” / “Bless You!” (which definitely made me laugh out loud.) And, while the final joke-twist of the mysterious man being the Froyo repair guy is predictable, there’s enough time in between all the pieces that it still works as a nice bookend.
That said, the episode goes off the rails as soon as it gets to the action, surprisingly enough. And the problem isn’t with the what’s happening; at least the summoning of a super-strong asteroid is different than anything this season has done. But even with a quick reference to it at the beginning, it’s shoehorned in right at the end, with a solution coalescing less than a minute after the problem is even introduced to the Rangers. It’s a wild whirlwind that doesn’t introduce anything new or do anything creative with the concept–the solution is Orion using his Q-Rex drill, which is just a standard power–so it’s odd that it was included at all. Yes, they’re limited to the Sentai material, but this season is only using about half of its Gokaiger counterpart, so there’s certainly a wealth of battle sequences they could use. There’s nothing wrong with a fun breather with an amnesiac Tensou, or a tense thriller with a asteroid threatening all life on Earth, but hastily shoving both together with all the tonal whiplash doesn’t work.
Other common Megaforce problems plague the episode, as usual. The editing is particularly choppy; the other issue with the asteroid business is how hastily edited it all is, with the copious quick cuts in such a short time making it more disorienting than tense. All the insta-morphing is also strangely edited at times, even after switching to Legendary Mode. Then there’s a bit when the Sentai fight footage that very clearly has Noah-as-Blue Dino Thunder shoving off Orion-as-Green Mighty Morphin argumentatively, even though here in Power Rangers that’s not happening, and the dubbing doesn’t cover it well. Those sorts of things happen from time-to-time just by nature of this being Power Rangers, but after 20-something years of sharpening the editing and dubbing tricks, it’s surprising to see how many times the footage just does not work this particular season. Part of that is because there’s much more personality in the suit actors from Gokaiger than usual, which is noticeable even to those of us who only have casual knowledge of the Sentai counterparts. But even at that, it’s not like the show hasn’t gone above and beyond with its editing before–remember the editing in of Red Operation Overdrive in the premiere?–which makes it more disappointing when it mucks up potentially simple edits.
“The Perfect Storm” is mostly forgettable in the long run, but considering much of Megaforce‘s first season was even more forgettable, this episode succeeds slightly better by at least being different in structure. It’s not a structure that works completely, thanks to the asteroid climax, but the comedy section works about as well as it can. No one really asked for a Tensou spotlight, and there could have been a better Short Circuit homage, but it works as cute and harmless fun. This isn’t masterful comedy here, but it’s about what you’d expect from Super Megaforce so far, and the camaraderie that the cast exudes at least allows it to not feel like a total waste of time.
Odds & Ends
- Two times in a row episodes have been released a week early, first on purpose on Nick.com, but this time presumably by accident on Hulu Plus. Which isn’t really bad or anything, but interesting nevertheless.
- Even though Tensou is still obviously CGI, the effects for him really aren’t half-bad considering this is Power Rangers. I was weary of an entire episode devoted to him because of the effects (among other things) but he actually fits in with the world nicely once you get acclimated. As many qualms as I have about the show’s writing and editing nowadays, effects, cinematography, and overall visuals have never been better.
- Vrak gets mentioned for the first time in forever, which is pretty cool.
- Noah brought an umbrella in a lightning storm. Not a rain storm. A lightning storm. Real genius, there.
- Many episodes this season have featured the Rangers splitting up, running around town, talking into their morphers that they don’t see anything, and then running off again. Last week they did that too, just looking for the monster. I mean, if we have to do pad so much before they can fight, at least have them riding on cool motorcycles or something, you know?.
- I’d like to think no one noticing Tensou as he rolls through busy city streets while screaming at them is because they’re all on their phones, which supports my theory that this episode is a commentary on the selfie generation. (I know it’s not, but just let me dream.)
- It’s cool to see the Megaforce weapons again, just to show that they still exist.
- I’d complain about how Tensou only had to shut down and restart to fix his amnesia, but…well, it’s not like any other solution wouldn’t be a worse deus ex machina, so why not?
