Power Rangers Zeo

Super Sentai Equivalent: Choriki Sentai Ohranger (Powerful Team O Ranger)

Having finally found the scattered fragments of the Zeo Crystal, the Power Rangers are restored to their proper ages, granted new powers, and can begin to repair their destroyed Command Center. However they also face a new threat... the evil Machine Empire has come and driven away Lord Zedd and Rita from the moon in order to take over the Earth themselves!

Zeo was a sort of return to form for Power Rangers... which is mostly just to say that it didn't suck like Alien Rangers. Power Rangers was never exactly high art and neither was Zeo.

Granted, there were a few interesting ideas, but most of them were squandered. One notable example is when Machine King Mondo falls in battle, allowing the generic Monster of the Week - an evil robot called Louie Kaboom - to usurp his throne. Seeing the disposable henchman actually get something for himself was a neat concept and could have shown a deeper side to the usually one-note monsters. Unfortunately Louie WAS just a boring, one-note monster and was quickly killed off anyway.

Still, it's not like the original series was ever above that. The major flaw this has over the original is the villains. The Machine Empire just aren't that interesting. The don't have any of the sense of humor that made Rita Repulsa and Lord Zedd fun. In fact that only have one actual joke - Machine King Mondo dotes on his incompetent son Prince Sprocket and blames his actually competent underlings Klank and Orbus whenever Sprocket's schemes inevitably blow up in his face. Yawn.

On the other hand, they also don't have any of the seriousness or threatening intensity of later villains. Despite being built up as terrifying enemies who could make Rita and Zedd flee the moon in fear for their lives, the Machine Empire still fail instantly at everything they try to do and never come across as legitimately frightening.

In all, they're just sort of there. They're written just well enough to get the job done but not well enough to actually stand out... sort of like this season as a whole, really.

KR Rating: [3] MEDIOCRE