I strongly dislike this episode. It's horrible. It's a struggle to get through it. This episode contains some of the worst dubbing EVER. The plot is... um... well I'm sure it's there somewhere and I might be able to find it if only I could dig deep enough. Alas, I haven't the fortitude. As it is, TSB required a glass of wine and I downed an entire beer before we could watch this episode in it's entirety. We needed the alcohol to numb us.
We start the episode with Kim and Trini, atrociously dressed, looking frantically around the Youth Center for a little girl in pigtails. We learn she's twelve, named Maria, and part of a Big Sisters program for which Kim and Trini volunteered their time. Thankfully we get to be distracted from the blindingly bad clothing by Jason and Zack sparring. Jason's arms are dazzling and Zack is shirtless. It's so pretty we've decided Zack should have spent the rest of the series shirtless. That is one good looking young man.
We're then treated to the apparently hilarious sight of a group of teenage boys running out of the shower, soap in their hair and towels around their waists. Maria is laughing by the valve for the hot water, having shut it off to get Kim and Trini's attention. Why she needed to pull a prank (and way to be supportive and understanding, Rangers, laughing at the poor mostly naked boys) to get the attention of two teenagers who spent the past half hour looking for her, I'm not sure.
Rita has found the Power Eggs, some sort of weapon she's been looking for for all of ten seconds. She can't open the box, however, and needs a child. She commands Finster to make her a monster to kidnap a diabolic and mean child, and requests the Chunky Chicken. He does not even remotely resemble a tin of questionable meat, though that's all I can think of when he's on screen. Chunky Chicken. Bad name for a monster. Bad name for a food product at that.
Kim and Trini have taken the Not-A-Twelve-Year-Old to the park for a picnic. Kim has asked her about boys, apparently assuming all twelve year olds are interested in them (surprise surprise, they're not), when, oh no, they're attacked by putties! The Not-A-Twelve-Year-Old is not even the slightest bit scared and instead manages to get herself kidnapped. The girls race back to the Youth Center (why didn't they just use their communicators?) only to find Jason daring Zack to eat an enormous ice cream sundae. It was surprisingly typical behaviour for teenage boys and I'm amazed it made it into the episode. They hardly get a word in before the communicators start making an odd sound and we find out they're not working! We don't know why they're not working, and we never find out, but how very convenient for the plot.
I can forgive that, however, as we're introduced to the most awesome vehicle ever, the Radbug! Billy has been working on it in his garage for awhile as a surprise. We can only assume Trini, despite all the time spent at Billy's, did not know about it because Billy wanted to surprise her... in a very uncomfortable place. I also must mention that Trini, Jason, and Kim all fit in the back. Of a Volkswagon. In a very uncomfortable place, if you know what I mean. The Radbug gets our heroes to the Command Center in record time where we discover Zordon knows absolutely nothing about what's been going on. Zordon's observing skills really need some work. Zordon has been fearing Rita would find the Power Eggs for ten millennium, yet he didn't set up some kind of watch to see if she'd go after them? It took her all of ten seconds to find them... Zordon!fail.
The Rangers take the Radbug to the location of the Power Eggs and meet up with Goldar, Squat, Baboo, and the Tinned Meat Product. They morph, they fight, and then we see Rita flying on her bicycle! This whole episode could be worth it just because we get to see Rita on her bicycle. That's one classy villain. The Rangers call the Zords in the Longest. Summoning. Sequence. EVER. I think it took a quarter of the episode just to summon the Zords. The MegaZord catches Maria just as the Tinned Meat Product cuts the ropes that are dangling her over... somewhere. We can't help but cheer on the Tinned Meat Product. We don't particularly care what happens to Maria and the Bad Dubbing of Doom, despite Jason's creepy obsession with saving "the little girl". Billy summons the Radbug and it, like the true hero it is, saves the day by getting Bad-Dubbing-of-Doom Maria off our screen.
I must note that the Rangers talk to Maria while they are holding her in the MegaZords hands and she can clearly hear them. While doing so, they call each other BY NAME. Way to be discreet and protect your secret identities there, guys.
We are treated to the shortest fight scene ever and then back to the Youth Center. Mr. Reporter Guy is reporting on some environmentally conscious youths in the area when he interrupts the story to tell us the Power Rangers saved the day and rescued a little girl. Good job, Mr. Reporter Guy! Ernie then asks Kim to get his bowl of freshly made vegetarian chili, declares it on the house, and then a crowd convenes around Kim causing her to throw the chili. It lands, rather predictably, on Bulk in his only appearance in this episode.
And that's the end of that one, thank goodness. List time!
Billy speak: None really.
Covered with food: Bulk gets covered in vegetarian chili and the poor guy doesn't even get a line.
Rating: 4 fish. Were it not for the Radbug and Rita's bicycle, this would have been a 4.5 at the very least.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Episode 6 - Food Fight
Okay, confession time. This is one of our favorite episodes, and Pudgy Pig is QueenRiley's favorite monster-of-the-week. TSB owns the novelization of this episode, and well... we are biased. It shows.
This episode is relatively low on fight, high on plot. If by plot we mean food. The only people who escape being covered with food are the Rangers. Everyone else ends up with lots of it all over them. Even the city! We are not sure why Bulk thought throwing food at the principal was a good idea (although we must compliment him on his aim - knocking off the toupee takes effort!) or why everyone would immediately participate in a food fight when they are supposed to be selling the food shortly after, but... well, logic has never been anyone in Angel Grove's strong point.
This is supposed to be a cultural food fair so that Angel Grove High can raise money to buy the pre-school playground equipment. Billy and Trini work at the Asian booth, Kimberly (doing a very bad impression of a cowgirl) and Jason (apparently Uncle Sam) work at the USA booth, and Zack works at a booth that we can't see the full title of, but we *think* is Mexican-American. Billy seems to want to charge everyone $20 for everything, even during the food fight itself. This is adorable, but not going to happen. (The only real thing to happen of note during the food fight is that Jason attempts to use hot dogs as nunchucks.) As usual, the Rangers get blamed for things and told to clean up, but they run off, since it isn't like they ever actually pay for anything anyway.
Of course, the reason the Rangers are running off is because Rita has released one of her best monsters EVER the Pudgy Pig. It is SO CUTE. And its TAIL. And it swallows the Rangers' weapons because the Rangers were clearly distracted by the PURE AWESOME that is this monster. But anyway, they lose their weapons and get demorphed and end up hanging around in the park while the Pudgy Pig goes to the Food Fair and eats... the food that wasn't destroyed during the food fight? When the team heads back to the food fair they realize that the Pudgy Pig doesn't like spicy food, showing them how to defeat it.
After feeding the poor pig a spicy... some sort of radish or albino carrot (google tells us it is a Chinese Daikon Radish), the Pudgy Pig gets a horrible case of indigestion and vomits up their weapons, allowing the Rangers to summon the power blaster with the correct calls this time, at which point they return to the food fair without cleaning anything up. Apparently, they are only $20 short to buy new playground equipment! We aren't really sure how this happened, since the food fair was destroyed twice (once before it had even officially opened) but they managed! Billy sells a very spicy sandwich (supplied by Alpha to fight Pudgy Pig) to the principal for $20, which is absolutely outrageous, by the way, and all is right with the world.
Lists!
Covered with food: The city, the principal, Ernie, Bulk and Skull, all of the extras. This was a very high food episode.
Quotes: Zack on Principal Caplan's likely reaction to the fair being trashed a second time: "He'll flip his wig... again!"
Rating: 2 fish. Pudgy Pig RULES.
This episode is relatively low on fight, high on plot. If by plot we mean food. The only people who escape being covered with food are the Rangers. Everyone else ends up with lots of it all over them. Even the city! We are not sure why Bulk thought throwing food at the principal was a good idea (although we must compliment him on his aim - knocking off the toupee takes effort!) or why everyone would immediately participate in a food fight when they are supposed to be selling the food shortly after, but... well, logic has never been anyone in Angel Grove's strong point.
This is supposed to be a cultural food fair so that Angel Grove High can raise money to buy the pre-school playground equipment. Billy and Trini work at the Asian booth, Kimberly (doing a very bad impression of a cowgirl) and Jason (apparently Uncle Sam) work at the USA booth, and Zack works at a booth that we can't see the full title of, but we *think* is Mexican-American. Billy seems to want to charge everyone $20 for everything, even during the food fight itself. This is adorable, but not going to happen. (The only real thing to happen of note during the food fight is that Jason attempts to use hot dogs as nunchucks.) As usual, the Rangers get blamed for things and told to clean up, but they run off, since it isn't like they ever actually pay for anything anyway.
Of course, the reason the Rangers are running off is because Rita has released one of her best monsters EVER the Pudgy Pig. It is SO CUTE. And its TAIL. And it swallows the Rangers' weapons because the Rangers were clearly distracted by the PURE AWESOME that is this monster. But anyway, they lose their weapons and get demorphed and end up hanging around in the park while the Pudgy Pig goes to the Food Fair and eats... the food that wasn't destroyed during the food fight? When the team heads back to the food fair they realize that the Pudgy Pig doesn't like spicy food, showing them how to defeat it.
After feeding the poor pig a spicy... some sort of radish or albino carrot (google tells us it is a Chinese Daikon Radish), the Pudgy Pig gets a horrible case of indigestion and vomits up their weapons, allowing the Rangers to summon the power blaster with the correct calls this time, at which point they return to the food fair without cleaning anything up. Apparently, they are only $20 short to buy new playground equipment! We aren't really sure how this happened, since the food fair was destroyed twice (once before it had even officially opened) but they managed! Billy sells a very spicy sandwich (supplied by Alpha to fight Pudgy Pig) to the principal for $20, which is absolutely outrageous, by the way, and all is right with the world.
Lists!
Covered with food: The city, the principal, Ernie, Bulk and Skull, all of the extras. This was a very high food episode.
Quotes: Zack on Principal Caplan's likely reaction to the fair being trashed a second time: "He'll flip his wig... again!"
Rating: 2 fish. Pudgy Pig RULES.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Episode 5- Different Drum
First, QueenRiley would like to take a minute to apologize for the delay in posting. This should have been up last night, however QueenRiley has small people. Two of them, in fact. These small people are overall good small people, but last night was not a good night and required more Mommy-intervention than usual. So alas, this post had to wait until morning. Now, that out of the way...
We start this episode with a shot of Kim instructing a step aerobics class. She is surrounded by poorly dressed teenage girls while she has immaculate hair and a snazzy (for the early 90's) leotard workout outfit. It seems a bit unfair, really. Kim seems unaware or doesn't care about a particular unfair advantage as only some of her students actually have a step board in which to participate in the step aerobics class.
Jason is shown arm wrestling Trini. We have to wonder why he's doing so since he's obviously physically stronger than she is, what with having bench pressed over 2000 in one day just last episode. It does showcase Jason's arms, however, so we can't complain too much. Upon closer inspection, however, Jason is losing to Trini. Either he severely injured himself during that 2000 in one day bench press event or he's letting her win. His arm is as big as her head.
It took a second viewing to discover Trini winning, however, as the first go-round I was distracted by Zack's hat. It's oddly fascinating.
Ernie brings in some towels for the girls, how helpful of him, on a rolling cart. We can see Billy in the background attempting to keep up with Kim in her step aerobics class. He appears to be the only boy. Good for you, Billy!
But alas, being Billy, he trips over his step board and falls right into the cart of towels. Since it's a rolling cart, it takes off on a wild careening adventure around the room. Kim doesn't notice until Billy almost crashes into her. The other Rangers look away though we're not sure why. Moaning, Billy drags himself to the steps, while Kimberly insults him by telling him that's not the way to get girls. Gee, Kim, thanks for helping your injured friend. Just kick him while he's down. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Billy is obviously injured since he can't stand up until Trini comes over to help him to his feet and minister her loving affection by... fixing his hair. Well, it's about as close as we'll get to a real relationship, so I'll just sigh contentedly and bask in the glow of my OTP. Yes, I'm highly Billy/Trini biased and no, I don't plan on attempting to keep that out of my reviews.
Meanwhile, in Kim's aerobics class, one girl twirls the wrong direction and bumps into another girl. There appears to be the start of a cat fight before the misdirected girl runs off without saying a word. Kim gives her students a break and goes to see what's wrong. It is here we find out the girl who mis-stepped is deaf. We give Kim major props for knowing sign, but then she makes her deaf (and thus far nameless) friend feel better by insulting Billy's lack of ability to dance. That's great, Kim. Point and laugh at your friend. Good job.
Finster has an awesome monster idea in a fire breathing hedgehog, but Rita refuses to listen to him and demands a pied-piper like musical monster. She should have listened to Finster. A fire breathing hedgehog would have been awesome!
Instead we see Bulk and Skull insulting Kim's students. What was once a step aerobics class has apparently turned into a dance class... using step aerobics moves. Mmkay.
We are five minutes into a dance episode before we see Zack dance at all. That should be illegal. Zack godes Bulk into copying his dance moves and Bulk does pretty well for awhile.
I feel the need to interrupt this stereotyping-overweight-bully taunting to comment on Jason's shirt. It's incredibly low cut. Like, down to his belly button. He might as well not be wearing a shirt at all. Frankly, we wouldn't complain.
And now back to our regularly scheduling cruel taunting of the "bullies". When Bulk manages to do most of the dance moves Zack challenges him with, Zack does a handstand. On a counter. As if that's somehow a dance move. Bulk, of course, can't do a handstand on a counter and falls over, hurting himself in the process and somehow getting covered in... some sort of food stuff. Everybody laughs. That's just a horrible way to treat people and I'm surprised the Rangers are modeling such bad behaviour. They further taunt him as the five Rangers leave the Juice Bar to go see a movie.
We cut to Rita demanding Finster show her his monster. He's created the Gnarly Gnome which isn't very gnarly and looks very little like a gnome. He more resembles a viking troll with an accordion than anything else. He manages to use his "music" to entrance a group of teenager girls on their way to the mall. The plan seems to be to use them as a trap for the Power Rangers. Luckily, the still-nameless deaf girl was with them. She follows the Gnarly Gnome to a cave where she is locked out by a rope net.
We have a particular fondness for this cave. This is the first episode we see people being trapped in it, but it's certainly not the last. This is the cave used just about every time and we can't help but feel a twinge of nostalgia when it's on screen.
Nameless Deaf Girl runs straight to the Juice Bar and finds Jason. Why he's not at the movie, I'm not sure. Clearly, Nameless Deaf Girl knows Jason is a Power Ranger because she bypasses lots of other people and goes STRAIGHT to Jason. She gets his attention and begins to sign for help but he doesn't understand. Ernie, standing right next to Jason, doesn't understand either. She's still signing directly at Jason, frantic for his help. Oh yeah, she knows he's a Ranger. She finally resorts to pen and paper and Jason gets with the program. She needs help!
The Gnarly Gnome makes the girls dance, saying they'll dance for Rita tomorrow. He's playing an accordion but nothing coming out of it sounds like accordion music. Mmkay. There is an awesome scene dancing with putties though, and we feel that ought to be the title of a Ranger autobiography. Dancing With Putties. I know I'd read it!
Meanwhile, Jason and Nameless Deaf Girl have gathered the rest of the Rangers and they hastily make way to the cave of captivity. Kim tells Nameless Deaf Girl to go hide behind the bushes and wait for them. They then morph and go call out the Gnarly Gnome. The girl may be deaf, but she's certainly not blind! They don't even wait for her to get behind a bush before they morph. If she didn't know they were Rangers before (and all signs point to her knowing), surely she knows now!
For reasons unknown, the Rangers give alternate names to their Power Weapons from what we know for the rest of the time they're in use. Zack says Cosmic Cannon instead of Power Axe. Kim says Battle Bow instead of Power Bow. Trini says either Dino Daggers or the correct Power Daggers, but she slurs it and it's hard to tell. Billy says Mighty Mace instead of Power Lance. Jason seems to be the only one to make sense with his Power Sword. Either way, they all combine to make the Power Blaster, so we'll give the weird names a pass.
Rita makes the Gnome grow and the Rangers call the DinoZords. We love this sequence. Best Zord summoning ever was in first season MMPR. They combine Zords into what they call Tank Mode, which means the Zords are together but not in the MegaZord yet. It seems pretty cool, though we're not sure they ever call this mode Tank Mode again. That doesn't last long, however, before they need the MegaZord and somehow the fight transfers from the valley to downtown Angel Grove. We'll nod and smile as we're not sure where that came from or how. It doesn't take long before they take down the Gnarly Gnome.
The Rangers, now demorphed, go and rescue the teenage girls held captive in the cave. They talk about how awesome the Rangers were, beating the monster, and Kim finally gives a name to Nameless Deaf Girl. Melissa. Her name is Melissa. Now why they couldn't have said that at the beginning of the episode, I'm not sure.
They run to the Juice Bar for some ice cream celebration and we discover Jason and Zack have somehow had time to learn some very poor sign language. Melissa asks Billy if he wants to dance and he nervously says no, yet everybody pushes him onto the dance floor anyway. What good friends. Somehow in the less than a minute on the dance floor with Melissa, Billy learns to break dance. Mind, going by later episodes, he forgets completely and can't dance again after this, but we'll just go with it this time since it allows David Yost to show off some of his mad gymnastics skills. And thus ends this episode.
Lists:
Covered in food: Bulk gets covered in... something... after being taunted.
Billy Speak: "I'm intrigued by the rhythmic modulations yet daunted by the coordinating movement of the appendages."
Trini Translation: "He can't dance."
Sightings: First sighting of the cave used for every captive-in-a-cave scene for the rest of the series and first use of Tank Mode with the Zords.
Fish scale: 3.5
We start this episode with a shot of Kim instructing a step aerobics class. She is surrounded by poorly dressed teenage girls while she has immaculate hair and a snazzy (for the early 90's) leotard workout outfit. It seems a bit unfair, really. Kim seems unaware or doesn't care about a particular unfair advantage as only some of her students actually have a step board in which to participate in the step aerobics class.
Jason is shown arm wrestling Trini. We have to wonder why he's doing so since he's obviously physically stronger than she is, what with having bench pressed over 2000 in one day just last episode. It does showcase Jason's arms, however, so we can't complain too much. Upon closer inspection, however, Jason is losing to Trini. Either he severely injured himself during that 2000 in one day bench press event or he's letting her win. His arm is as big as her head.
It took a second viewing to discover Trini winning, however, as the first go-round I was distracted by Zack's hat. It's oddly fascinating.
Ernie brings in some towels for the girls, how helpful of him, on a rolling cart. We can see Billy in the background attempting to keep up with Kim in her step aerobics class. He appears to be the only boy. Good for you, Billy!
But alas, being Billy, he trips over his step board and falls right into the cart of towels. Since it's a rolling cart, it takes off on a wild careening adventure around the room. Kim doesn't notice until Billy almost crashes into her. The other Rangers look away though we're not sure why. Moaning, Billy drags himself to the steps, while Kimberly insults him by telling him that's not the way to get girls. Gee, Kim, thanks for helping your injured friend. Just kick him while he's down. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
Billy is obviously injured since he can't stand up until Trini comes over to help him to his feet and minister her loving affection by... fixing his hair. Well, it's about as close as we'll get to a real relationship, so I'll just sigh contentedly and bask in the glow of my OTP. Yes, I'm highly Billy/Trini biased and no, I don't plan on attempting to keep that out of my reviews.
Meanwhile, in Kim's aerobics class, one girl twirls the wrong direction and bumps into another girl. There appears to be the start of a cat fight before the misdirected girl runs off without saying a word. Kim gives her students a break and goes to see what's wrong. It is here we find out the girl who mis-stepped is deaf. We give Kim major props for knowing sign, but then she makes her deaf (and thus far nameless) friend feel better by insulting Billy's lack of ability to dance. That's great, Kim. Point and laugh at your friend. Good job.
Finster has an awesome monster idea in a fire breathing hedgehog, but Rita refuses to listen to him and demands a pied-piper like musical monster. She should have listened to Finster. A fire breathing hedgehog would have been awesome!
Instead we see Bulk and Skull insulting Kim's students. What was once a step aerobics class has apparently turned into a dance class... using step aerobics moves. Mmkay.
We are five minutes into a dance episode before we see Zack dance at all. That should be illegal. Zack godes Bulk into copying his dance moves and Bulk does pretty well for awhile.
I feel the need to interrupt this stereotyping-overweight-bully taunting to comment on Jason's shirt. It's incredibly low cut. Like, down to his belly button. He might as well not be wearing a shirt at all. Frankly, we wouldn't complain.
And now back to our regularly scheduling cruel taunting of the "bullies". When Bulk manages to do most of the dance moves Zack challenges him with, Zack does a handstand. On a counter. As if that's somehow a dance move. Bulk, of course, can't do a handstand on a counter and falls over, hurting himself in the process and somehow getting covered in... some sort of food stuff. Everybody laughs. That's just a horrible way to treat people and I'm surprised the Rangers are modeling such bad behaviour. They further taunt him as the five Rangers leave the Juice Bar to go see a movie.
We cut to Rita demanding Finster show her his monster. He's created the Gnarly Gnome which isn't very gnarly and looks very little like a gnome. He more resembles a viking troll with an accordion than anything else. He manages to use his "music" to entrance a group of teenager girls on their way to the mall. The plan seems to be to use them as a trap for the Power Rangers. Luckily, the still-nameless deaf girl was with them. She follows the Gnarly Gnome to a cave where she is locked out by a rope net.
We have a particular fondness for this cave. This is the first episode we see people being trapped in it, but it's certainly not the last. This is the cave used just about every time and we can't help but feel a twinge of nostalgia when it's on screen.
Nameless Deaf Girl runs straight to the Juice Bar and finds Jason. Why he's not at the movie, I'm not sure. Clearly, Nameless Deaf Girl knows Jason is a Power Ranger because she bypasses lots of other people and goes STRAIGHT to Jason. She gets his attention and begins to sign for help but he doesn't understand. Ernie, standing right next to Jason, doesn't understand either. She's still signing directly at Jason, frantic for his help. Oh yeah, she knows he's a Ranger. She finally resorts to pen and paper and Jason gets with the program. She needs help!
The Gnarly Gnome makes the girls dance, saying they'll dance for Rita tomorrow. He's playing an accordion but nothing coming out of it sounds like accordion music. Mmkay. There is an awesome scene dancing with putties though, and we feel that ought to be the title of a Ranger autobiography. Dancing With Putties. I know I'd read it!
Meanwhile, Jason and Nameless Deaf Girl have gathered the rest of the Rangers and they hastily make way to the cave of captivity. Kim tells Nameless Deaf Girl to go hide behind the bushes and wait for them. They then morph and go call out the Gnarly Gnome. The girl may be deaf, but she's certainly not blind! They don't even wait for her to get behind a bush before they morph. If she didn't know they were Rangers before (and all signs point to her knowing), surely she knows now!
For reasons unknown, the Rangers give alternate names to their Power Weapons from what we know for the rest of the time they're in use. Zack says Cosmic Cannon instead of Power Axe. Kim says Battle Bow instead of Power Bow. Trini says either Dino Daggers or the correct Power Daggers, but she slurs it and it's hard to tell. Billy says Mighty Mace instead of Power Lance. Jason seems to be the only one to make sense with his Power Sword. Either way, they all combine to make the Power Blaster, so we'll give the weird names a pass.
Rita makes the Gnome grow and the Rangers call the DinoZords. We love this sequence. Best Zord summoning ever was in first season MMPR. They combine Zords into what they call Tank Mode, which means the Zords are together but not in the MegaZord yet. It seems pretty cool, though we're not sure they ever call this mode Tank Mode again. That doesn't last long, however, before they need the MegaZord and somehow the fight transfers from the valley to downtown Angel Grove. We'll nod and smile as we're not sure where that came from or how. It doesn't take long before they take down the Gnarly Gnome.
The Rangers, now demorphed, go and rescue the teenage girls held captive in the cave. They talk about how awesome the Rangers were, beating the monster, and Kim finally gives a name to Nameless Deaf Girl. Melissa. Her name is Melissa. Now why they couldn't have said that at the beginning of the episode, I'm not sure.
They run to the Juice Bar for some ice cream celebration and we discover Jason and Zack have somehow had time to learn some very poor sign language. Melissa asks Billy if he wants to dance and he nervously says no, yet everybody pushes him onto the dance floor anyway. What good friends. Somehow in the less than a minute on the dance floor with Melissa, Billy learns to break dance. Mind, going by later episodes, he forgets completely and can't dance again after this, but we'll just go with it this time since it allows David Yost to show off some of his mad gymnastics skills. And thus ends this episode.
Lists:
Covered in food: Bulk gets covered in... something... after being taunted.
Billy Speak: "I'm intrigued by the rhythmic modulations yet daunted by the coordinating movement of the appendages."
Trini Translation: "He can't dance."
Sightings: First sighting of the cave used for every captive-in-a-cave scene for the rest of the series and first use of Tank Mode with the Zords.
Fish scale: 3.5
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Episode 4 - A Pressing Engagement
Before we get into the so-called 'plot' of this episode, we need to get one thing straight. This episode has exactly one redeeming quality, and that is that Jason has really nice arms.
The actual plot (and we use that term loosely) is this - Jason is trying to break the pench pressing record of Angel Grove. The record is currently held by Bulk, and Jason needs to do 1,010 bench presses (with what looks like a significant amount of weight) to beat it. There are many things wrong with this - first, would Jason and Bulk even be in the same weight class? Second, 1,010 reps? What were the writers thinking? Third, we refuse to believe that Bulk would be able to hold the record. We could keep going, but we might might just start chanting FISH really loudly, and we don't need that.
Anyway, Jason does not manage to achieve his goal at the beginning of the episode, because a) it would be a very short episode and b) supposedly wacky hijinks involving Ernie not being able to count, Zack on a skateboard, and Kimberly chewing gum. It does not end well for anyone, and amazingly people besides Bulk and Skull end up covered in food.
All Power Ranger seasons need an episode where the Red Ranger learns to trust his team and the value of teamwork and all that, and this is apparently that episode for Jason. The problem with this episode is that Jason failing to achieve the bench pressing record has nothing to do with learning to rely on his friends, and everything to do with knowing that your friends shouldn't ride a skateboard into someone who is chewing gum while you're trying to set a bench pressing record. If anything, it should show that you shouldn't trust them. But this is Power Rangers, so we really don't expect any internal consistency, so we'll just ignore it.
The rangers continue to be horrible to Bulk and Skull, there continues to be fat jokes (Bulk's pants split. That was totally unnecessary) and outside of Jason tickling Bulk it just continued to be another moment showing that the Rangers are jerks.
Rita, of course, has nothing better to do, and decides that what she will do is send down a monster with a capability to isolate Jason from his friends. Jason's communicator goes off, and in a first (and possibly a last, we're not sure) for Power Rangers, someone actually notices the communicator beeps. Zack responds to this by grabbing Jason's wrist (in a particularly slashy moment. Or at least TSB says so) and Jason, Zack and Kimberly run out of the youth center without paying for their food, and unenthusiastically morph.
King Sphinx, who at least manages to look awesome, has the ability to blow people away from the battle, so both Kimberly and Zack end up magically appearing in the middle of the Youth Center, and the entire town fails to notice. We're beginning to suspect that Zordon is drugging the water. So poor Jason is left to battle two now giant monsters on his own (without calling his zord. Why? We don't know) while Kimberly and Zack go to look for Trini and Billy instead of just morphing and going back to the battle. They find Billy and Trini at Billy's house, not answering their communicators. We'll let you wonder what they were up to. We certainly have thoughts on the subject.
Then there's a long section that makes no sense and they never flat out explain why the Rangers just don't teleport back to the battle, but instead there is something complicated to do with their power crystals, and we basically spent the entire time IMing each other FISH repeatedly, because honestly, it made no sense. We would say that maybe they just hadn't figured out exactly how the grid works, but since they will never actually figure out how the grid works, we're just going to call fish on that one (again). This plan apparently involves sending their essence to Jason through his sword so that they could teleport back. Jason yells something about relying on his friends, which is an ok moral, but still has nothing to do with the main plot of this episode. They finally summon their Zords and beat King Sphinx, and Goldar runs away.
Back at the Youth Center, on what is apparently the same day since they are wearing the same clothes (and we have tried so hard not to comment on whatever that thing is that Kimberly is wearing) Jason is making a second attempt at the bench press record. Which means he's done over 2,000 that day. That has to take a long time. He succeeds this time, and says something about not being able to succeed without his friends, which still makes no sense. Ernie provides Jason with a cake that says "Happy birthday, Mom!" and then Bulk ends up wearing the cake.
In conclusion, Jason has nice arms.
Lists:
Covered in food: Kimberly and Zack end up covered in gum, Bulk is covered with cake
Billy speak: NONE. What is WRONG with these episodes?
Fish: 4.5
The actual plot (and we use that term loosely) is this - Jason is trying to break the pench pressing record of Angel Grove. The record is currently held by Bulk, and Jason needs to do 1,010 bench presses (with what looks like a significant amount of weight) to beat it. There are many things wrong with this - first, would Jason and Bulk even be in the same weight class? Second, 1,010 reps? What were the writers thinking? Third, we refuse to believe that Bulk would be able to hold the record. We could keep going, but we might might just start chanting FISH really loudly, and we don't need that.
Anyway, Jason does not manage to achieve his goal at the beginning of the episode, because a) it would be a very short episode and b) supposedly wacky hijinks involving Ernie not being able to count, Zack on a skateboard, and Kimberly chewing gum. It does not end well for anyone, and amazingly people besides Bulk and Skull end up covered in food.
All Power Ranger seasons need an episode where the Red Ranger learns to trust his team and the value of teamwork and all that, and this is apparently that episode for Jason. The problem with this episode is that Jason failing to achieve the bench pressing record has nothing to do with learning to rely on his friends, and everything to do with knowing that your friends shouldn't ride a skateboard into someone who is chewing gum while you're trying to set a bench pressing record. If anything, it should show that you shouldn't trust them. But this is Power Rangers, so we really don't expect any internal consistency, so we'll just ignore it.
The rangers continue to be horrible to Bulk and Skull, there continues to be fat jokes (Bulk's pants split. That was totally unnecessary) and outside of Jason tickling Bulk it just continued to be another moment showing that the Rangers are jerks.
Rita, of course, has nothing better to do, and decides that what she will do is send down a monster with a capability to isolate Jason from his friends. Jason's communicator goes off, and in a first (and possibly a last, we're not sure) for Power Rangers, someone actually notices the communicator beeps. Zack responds to this by grabbing Jason's wrist (in a particularly slashy moment. Or at least TSB says so) and Jason, Zack and Kimberly run out of the youth center without paying for their food, and unenthusiastically morph.
King Sphinx, who at least manages to look awesome, has the ability to blow people away from the battle, so both Kimberly and Zack end up magically appearing in the middle of the Youth Center, and the entire town fails to notice. We're beginning to suspect that Zordon is drugging the water. So poor Jason is left to battle two now giant monsters on his own (without calling his zord. Why? We don't know) while Kimberly and Zack go to look for Trini and Billy instead of just morphing and going back to the battle. They find Billy and Trini at Billy's house, not answering their communicators. We'll let you wonder what they were up to. We certainly have thoughts on the subject.
Then there's a long section that makes no sense and they never flat out explain why the Rangers just don't teleport back to the battle, but instead there is something complicated to do with their power crystals, and we basically spent the entire time IMing each other FISH repeatedly, because honestly, it made no sense. We would say that maybe they just hadn't figured out exactly how the grid works, but since they will never actually figure out how the grid works, we're just going to call fish on that one (again). This plan apparently involves sending their essence to Jason through his sword so that they could teleport back. Jason yells something about relying on his friends, which is an ok moral, but still has nothing to do with the main plot of this episode. They finally summon their Zords and beat King Sphinx, and Goldar runs away.
Back at the Youth Center, on what is apparently the same day since they are wearing the same clothes (and we have tried so hard not to comment on whatever that thing is that Kimberly is wearing) Jason is making a second attempt at the bench press record. Which means he's done over 2,000 that day. That has to take a long time. He succeeds this time, and says something about not being able to succeed without his friends, which still makes no sense. Ernie provides Jason with a cake that says "Happy birthday, Mom!" and then Bulk ends up wearing the cake.
In conclusion, Jason has nice arms.
Lists:
Covered in food: Kimberly and Zack end up covered in gum, Bulk is covered with cake
Billy speak: NONE. What is WRONG with these episodes?
Fish: 4.5
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