YOPR: 43. Something Fishy
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: Diving into something different.
Why it matters: Here marks the start of an incredible development in the history of TV production – to extend its season and produce more footage of the suits adapted from Zyuranger, Toei (Super Sentai’s parent) was commissioned to create additional monster suits and fight footage involving those suits. Though some of the recurring shots of Rita and her goons were filmed specifically for use in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, this was a unique venture. For the foreseeable future, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers would be a show built from: original American footage; existing Japanese source footage; original Japanese footage shot to fill small gaps; and fully original fight footage filmed in Japan but involving characters that never appeared in Zyuranger. That this confluence of elements doesn’t fall apart at the seams is remarkable; that it generally translates to something good is amazing.
Episode MVP: Billy and Kimberly’s friendship. These two are often paired in MMPR’s first season, perhaps due to a fairly simple assessment: Billy’s a geek, Kimberly’s someone who traditionally wouldn’t be caught dead with a geek. For a show that revels in the handing out of moral lessons, one of its best is seen and not heard: everyone has something to give to you. Billy and Kimberly tend to be the two characters whose personalities break through the loudest, and when they’re together on screen it just works far better than it maybe should. There’s an authenticity to their bond that enables potentially awkward conversations, like the one they have at a picnic in this episode, to get presented with less eye-rolling.
A good quote: “Everyone has something they’re afraid of.” – Trini
Rating: 3/5 exploding starfishes