YOPR: 58. Football Season
On April 19, MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS: ONCE AND ALWAYS premieres on Netflix. I’m writing about all 60 episodes of MMPR’s first season in the lead-up to that premiere.
If you’d like to follow along on this rewatch, entirety of MMPR’s first season is available for free (with ads) on YouTube.
One-sentence synopsis: A tribute to America’s real past time.
Why it matters: That the Power Rangers are everyday teenagers with motivations and aspirations beyond their on-going fight with Rita Repulsa is a continuous, perhaps unintended moral lesson: don’t let bad things or people distract you from your goals. In this inaugural season, the Rangers seldom worry about what Rita is up to until it hits them – often literally. You can certainly chalk that up to naivety. Why should the existence of an evil witch preclude them from getting excited about – and worried about – making a football team? They’re teenagers who get to live out a teenager existence, only concerning themselves with life-saving matters when necessary. This’ll become more nuanced over time and across different media, of course, but in the early going it’s impressive how easy-going these characters are in spite of what they constantly face. The ignorance of youth is powerful.
Episode MVP: The Putty Patrollers. This is really a season-long recognition as much as it is confined to this episode, in which they don American football jerseys and orchestrated the Lasso Special decades before Jason Sudekis gave people a reason to watch Apple TV+. So many foot soldiers have come and gone throughout the franchise, but the creepy-but-comical Putties are imbued with so much personality that it’s hard not to fall in love with them. I don’t think the show is remembered as fondly as it is without these gobblers.
A good quote: “Fun? Who wants that stuff.” — Rita Repulsa
Rating: 3/5 Ernie heydays