Power Rangers RPM is Something, Alright...

The first episode of Power Rangers RPM couldn't be more removed from the Power Rangers formula. It opens up with a warning about the Venjix invasion: a computer that spread its virus to most of the planet and has since gained sentience. The only human stronghold left is the city of Corinth.

I've watched the first eleven episodes and I'm pretty impressed with the results so far.

The first fifteen minutes of the pilot episode is decidedly as un-Power Rangers as it gets. After the warning, the next scene involves dozens of panicking humans as they run from Venjix's robots (at the moment they're the only indicator that yes, you are watching Power Rangers once you spot their goofy designs) while the central protagonists are doing their damn best to save everyone. A massive sense of urgency and doom is immediately clear.

Afterwards, the episode impressively dedicates about four minutes of silence to future Black Ranger Dillion as he drives a shitty car around a desert landscape. This is the reminder of the world: empty and desolate. Wreckage can be spotted as he drives. He's alone, so he doesn't speak, letting the visuals and music do the talking. It's an extremely well done scene and I'm mad impressed how much they trusted the audience. We don't know what Dillion is looking for at the time, we don't hear any internal thought bubbles, and he doesn't talk to himself in a cheap attempt at exposition. This is a genuinely subtle scene that elaborates the crappy state Earth is in as well as emphasizing his loner characteristic. The only negative in these four minutes is the flower symbolism which is way too on the nose. This isn't Power Rangers, it's some other post-apocalyptic series.

Things are back on course once the Rangers actually do appear (and with it, the colors: whenever they're out of Corinth, they tend to fade to enhance the current state of the world) in the last five minutes and with it, all the cheesy explosions and cartoony megazord vehicles galore. They shout attacks, they pull off impossibly defied moves - hell, their arm and leg guards have wheels that spin-attacks their enemies it's laughably bad guys. But even with that MASSIVE mood swing, you kind of should have expected this if you have any knowledge of how Power Rangers actually works: cheesiness is just kind of a thing they do. There is a very inherent silliness to all this and it's an overall lighthearted show for what fans call the "darkest Power Rangers ever" (a claim that is justified in spite of what I've just said) and frankly, why shouldn't it be? I don't think I could handle a super serious, grimdark Power Rangers because that is NOT what Power Rangers IS. If Power Rangers attempted to take itself too seriously in spite of the multicolored vehicles and cellphone morphers, I honestly would not have been able to take the show seriously. It just doesn't fit. Even the pilot episode's massive tone shift was like a giant slap in the face when it settled into the more familiar Rangers shenanigans later (but what a way to get your attention!) Yet the show constantly emphasizes the ticking time bomb the characters and the city of Corinth is in. They're frequently on alert and Venjix's minions have broke in several times before (although I argue that drops the tension a bit, but Power Rangers), ensuring they're not peeps to mess with.

It's RPM's storytelling that ultimately defines its uniqueness. At least that's what I'm getting at since my only comparison is the first six seasons of the show. I stopped watching Power Rangers after In Space 15+ years ago. In Space was a different take on the Power Rangers formula in that it took a change from the previously stuck formula: Teens with Attitude (not really, they were probably the most goody-good kids ever) does community work or do activities and shit that no real teenagers actually do, Villain sends monster, Teens become Power Rangers, fights monster, Villain makes monster grow, BRING OUT MEGAZORD, and it concludes with a lesson and some such. In Space was an attempt to further the story beyond that specific formula and I remember it being extraordinarily epic as hell with an amazing finale (though I think at the time the show was suppose to be the series finale for the whole franchise before it, well, didn't.)

Likewise, RPM's story is not a compliment to the Zords and Ranger, but the other way around. The creators didn't stick to a given structure and instead chose to go about its own pace. There's fighting and giant monsters galore; there's stupid looking toyetic Zords and fancy martial arts, but they tend to pop up when the story appropriately builds up to it, not because they're forced to. RPM could open up with the Rangers fighting before moving on to a specific narrative or they might already face a giant, rubber-suited menace in the middle of the episode instead of the tail end because the plot works it that way. RPM is character-driven and they go out of their way to broaden these archetypical casts. </p>

I think RPM strikes a very good balance: suitably terrifying that Earth is on its last legs trying to stop a supercomputer that has a tight grip of the entire world, but never, ever deteriorating into pointless edgy, depressing nonsense that wouldn't fit the Power Rangers feel. 

It also has Dr. K, the most wonderful character on the show.

The amount of deadpan "I am so done with you shit" attitude she cops in the show could fuel the damn Megazords she's built. Dr. K is fantastic.

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Discovery (A Transformers Animated Fancomic): Read the entire thing here. Placed there for archival purpose. Recently cancelled.



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