YOPR: 54. Trick or Treat
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: It’s rappin’ time.
Why it matters: In hindsight, it’s kind of crazy that Pumpkin Rapper didn’t have an action figure of any kind until a Pop! Vinyl release in 2017. No monster of the day has benefited more from society’s full-on embrace of spooky things than the bipedal Jack-O-Lantern. The atrocious “rapping” doesn’t quite jibe with his aesthetic; the creature design is one of the scarier in the MMPR, and that effect is enhanced by the fogginess of his footage. He and his squash-headed Putty Patrollers are unforgettable, immortalized as digital memes well before getting officially molded in plastic.
Episode MVP: World-building. Outside of the rhyme-spitting vegetable, this story’s lasting contribution to the “lore” is a game show that, unfortunately, has never been revisited in any form (I’m guessing because it was canceled). Trick or Treat has unknown reach – Is it a traveling national program? A cable-access show sponsored by a car dealership? A fever dream? – and some weird rules, but it’s neat to see what a television show within this universe looks like. Timothy Guest gives a delightful performance as the vampiric host, Monty Conte, too; he’s basically Pat Sajak with a cape.
A good quote: “Man, what a whopper!” — Zack
Rating: 3/5 Tommy cutaways