canadianramen

[canadianramen]

30. Power Rangers Samurai (Season 18)

Power Rangers Samurai bottoms this list and it's not even close. Right away something about this season feels really off. The acting is just flat and lethargic and the dialogue is terrible. You can tell it's the writing and direction because Jayden shows up in later seasons (we will get to that later on) and he sounds and acts like a normal human being which makes me question what the hell happened. It makes this season extremely painful to get through and that coupled with poor writing and characterization is what pushes it all the way down here. It's so SO hard to watch and was an absolute slog to get through.

The New Saban era is pretty rough overall and is probably the worst in regards to consistency and quality out of the 4 Ranger eras (of which I will get into more detail in later entries).

Antonio is an absolute delight and Power Rangers deserves props for portraying a homoerotic and queer character in a serious light, he's hands down the best character in this season. There's no actual confirmation of his sexual orientation in the show but there doesn't need to be. This seasons demographic is clearly a younger audience, the nuances of sexual identity is a complicated subject matter and it doesn't need to be explored thoroughly in this show in order to have good representation. He's a very flamboyant and at times androgenous character but he's taken seriously, the other characters aren't laughing at him and the rest of the team accepts him because he's a damn good Power Ranger and good person, even though he's "different". And this is all the way back in 2011, 4 whole years before Caitlyn Jenners influence would change society as a whole to be more accepting of the LGBT+ community, I got to give the writers props. Antonio has some of the best character moments in the show "Unexpected Arrival", "Room for One More", "The Blue and Gold", and "Boxed In" come to mind. This is queer representation done relatively well (in spite of the poor writing of this season).

You'll notice throughout the rest of these posts that I am generally not a fan of comic relief side characters that contribute next to nothing to the plot. There's one or two in every season. Sometimes they're genuinely charming, and other times they make me want to put my forehead through a window. Bulk and Spike are the former. They are both equally hilarious and charming and seeing Bulk again is both nostalgic as hell and a nice reminder that this season exists in the same world and continuity as the other seasons.

(It's already timestamped if you're on pc so you can just click play but if you're on mobile the theme starts at 16:59. For some reason if you're on mobile the embedded link doesn't care that I added a start time.)

The suits and overall aesthetic of this season are absolutely fantastic. I think the production teams absolutely nailed it in regards to the overall presentation of the show. It hits with just the right amount of nostalgia. The opening theme is also fantastic and hits nicely with some good nostalgia sprinkled throughout.

Jayden is a perfectly fine red ranger and over the course of the season gets the most development out of the Samurai rangers aside from Antonio. He goes from a closed off arrogant asshole and over time softens and learns to trust his team but never has any standout moments after the first couple of episodes. He's not the gold standard for Red Rangers by any means but he's just fine.

The team as characters overall are forgettable in this season. Each of them aside from Jayden gets maybe one episode if we're lucky of actual development, other than that they are the exact same person from the start up until, and including the end.

Where this seasons gets complicated is the villains. I don't understand why Cole Ev- I mean Deker, isn't the main baddie. He's a far more interesting villain than Master Xandred. The relationship between Deker and Xandred wasn't explored enough in either Samurai or Super Samurai even though it was very compelling. Props to the concept artists who came up with Dekers design. He is hands down one of the best looking villains in the franchise and I want a Death Battle between him and Yoshimitsu from Tekken so badly. But that's the problem, Deker isn't the bad guy. He's in 21 episodes across 2 seasons (12 in Samurai, 9 in Super Samurai). He's got a compelling look, ironically stands out because he has okay acting in a show where all of them feel like they have AI generated actors and lines. Xandred on the other hand is a one dimensional psychopath who just doesn't do anything. Samurai is a season that suffers from having goons be far more interesting than the main villain, given that this is the first season of the Saban Era, and the 18th season overall, it really should have learned from previous mistakes.

In closing, aside from the production quality, Deker, and Antonio, it wasn't hard picking Samurai as the bottom of the list. No team-up, a confusing and one dimensional main villain and a plot that feels like it's never moving forward, all work together to bog this show down. However it's the acting and writing that truly cement it at the bottom because it genuinely makes it unbearable to watch. If those two things were a lot better, Samurai's other mistakes would be a lot more forgivable and you would probably see this season shoot up a few places.

[canadianramen]

Purpose of this blog and an Introduction!

Hey everyone. My name is CanadianRamen, or Canadian, or just Sean if you prefer. I'm a 25 year old lifelong nerd, published author, and content creator. I needed a place to collect my random nerd thoughts and put them out there for both myself and others to enjoy. Whether that be tier lists, random rants, or just straight up posts about nothing, I needed an outlet for my mind to ramble and I settled on Tumblr as the perfect location for it. All I ask is that you (if you are indeed reading this blog) to just sit back and enjoy, and feel free to chime in whenever. The first thing I will be doing is ranking all 30 seasons of the Power Rangers. It's been on my list of stuff to talk about for a long time and I'm finally pulling the trigger. Enjoy!

Before I make the first post for the list, I want to talk about the actual criteria I used for making the list and deciding the rankings. In my opinion there's a few key factors that make a good Power Rangers season:

Team-ups. These are what remind you that all these seasons for (aside from a couple exceptions) belong to the same continuity, they're the bridge that attaches these seasons together. A good or bad team-up can genuinely make or break a season (I'm looking at you Wild Force and Super Megaforce). Plus they're just tons of fun.

2. The Red Ranger and Sixth Rangers. The Red Ranger and 6th Rangers make or break a Ranger team and can set the tone for what to expect from an entire season.

3. The Ranger team members. Kind of an extension of the previous one, The Red Ranger and Sixth Rangers just tend to be more important than the others but the team as a whole does need development and good chemistry if you want to have an enjoyable season.

4. Main Villain. A good villain is a necessary backbone for a season. The Rangers can't be running in place and knock down goon after goon with a main villain that just chills in the background saying one cheesy line after another and doesn't get involved in the plot until the last episode of a season.

5. Evil Rangers. Having an evil ranger as the primary or secondary antagonist has historically always been a good thing for the plot of Power Rangers season.

6. Ranger suits and the Opening Theme. Yes I promise this matters. If the Rangers look terrible in there suits and the opening theme sounds terrible and doesn't fit the overall motif of the season then it genuinely affects how it's remembered as it ages and time goes on. "Go Go Power Rangers" is possibly the most recognizable, iconic, and greatest television show opening of all-time and for good reason.

7. My personal enjoyment. These are after all just my opinions and you may feel very differently regarding the rankings of these seasons. And that's genuinely okay, great even! I welcome any and all good discussion regarding these posts and this blog. Just a couple side notes regarding the seasons, I am well aware of some of the legal troubles that the Rangers actors have gotten into, I am going to try to avoid that when discussing the seasons as I don't want their personal lives and how they are or how they're perceived as people to reflect on my critique and enjoyment of the show. Also no holiday specials, they aren't canon and aren't very good. Also I will try not to let the Super Sentai series that these seasons are adapting from have any sway or influence over my critiques and opinions. Most of the Power Rangers seasons only share action and stunt footage anyways aside from a few exceptions. For the purposes of my list, the Super Sentai series might as well not exist.

With all that out of the way, I sincerely hope you enjoy my blog. Take care and I look forward to reading your comments!