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Review Shooter: Power Rangers Samurai: The Team Unites

Power Rangers Samurai is the 19th series of Power Rangers, and something like the first produced in about a decade from the original company. There really isn’t much to say about Power Rangers, as I said when reviewed the movie, you either love it or you don’t. Nothing will change with this series.

With that said, after watching the premiere of Samurai, I have to ask where is the other half of the episode? The premiere felt more like an episode that comes 3-4 episodes into a new season and not the first one especially after a two year layover. The episode begins with our 5 heroes already being Rangers, and as far as I can tell most of them have been Rangers for a while. The villains are already a threat, and even have some form of background I’m sure we’ll get into at some later point.

I don’t take issues with the characters already being Rangers, its not the first series to do it, the problem comes from the structure of the plot in which the Green Ranger feels like he isn’t up to the task of being a Ranger, which would make for an interesting character development episode, but on your first episode we don’t know any of these characters. Hell, I don’t know any of the characters after watching the first episode!

Same goes with the monster/big bads of the season, we’re introduced to them at some point, and really that’s it. We meet their soldiers and I have no idea what they are called. And then during the first fight where it appears the monster has the Rangers on the defensive, he bails because he is getting dehydrated. We later see him swimming in some pool to moisturize himself, but I honestly don’t know what went on, and the episode did a poor job of explaining it.

Then there is the random appearance by Bulk who apparently will be a mainstay on the show as he teaches his nephew the way of the samurai, but his appearance here amounted to a single scene that was just a long set-up for a joke.

All in all, it is hard to recommend checking out this episode, even if it is the first as it does a piss poor job of establishing anything and giving the audience information they need to know.

Earl Rufus

The owner of this little chunk of the internet. Enjoys having a good time and being rather snarky!

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4 Responses

  1. Jay V says:

    Hah thanks for saving me. Will you be reviewing the rest of the series at all, or was this your last episode for the year?

  2. Penguin says:

    That’s actually a fair question, I’ll have to think about it. Not sure if can actually watch Power Rangers on a weekly basis anymore.

  3. MailOrderClone says:

    I agree with the view that this first episode seems like one that takes place further on into the series. In fact, after talking it over with some of my buddies that are familiar with the series, they were quick to comment on how much this episode borrows from one of the early episodes of the Shinkenger sentai. Not the first, but rather the third.

    You can see where a first and perhaps a second episode would fit in though. Something that would link the seemingly unrelated “Bulk wants to teach Skull Jr to be a samurai” segment in with the rangers’ plot. In the first episode, the rangers get together and save the city from these newly-appeared monsters. This includes saving Bulk & Skull Jr. Second episode, while the rangers deal with some internal strife of some sort (and really, that makes up a healthy hunk of their plotlines anyway), Bulk takes it upon himself to teach Skull Jr how to become a samurai (in spite of obviously having no idea what he’s doing). Then we hit episode 3, which was the one we’ve seen. Really straightforward stuff that I wish had made air.

    All told, it seems like an utterly bizarre move, and I’m not sure who to point the finger at. The prime suspect seems to be Nickelodeon, although it does seem a bit strange that they would market this show as hard as they have and then dump the viewers into the story in medias res. But for better or worse, I’ll be dropping in to see what happens in the next debut episode.

    Said episode seems to be airing at noon on Sunday.

    …they’re trying to kill this show, aren’t they?

  4. Kyle says:

    Old post is old but I love how they wait until about Ep. 20 to give you the origin of how the team came together instead of in the first 5 when we’re supposed to be learning about the characters.

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