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What are you watching? Power Rangers Edition
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01-22-2021, 11:16 PM
#
458
DreamSword
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,414
Top 3 now! Very curious to hear how you all feel about this next one...
Hyper Force
Yeah that's right, I'm counting it as an official season. Saban said it counts, a bunch of the Ranger alumni say it counts, the comics say it counts, and I see no reason to disagree with any of them.
In my experience,
Hyper Force
has been one of the most love it or hate it
things
that the
PR
franchise has ever produced. For the few of you who might not know,
PRHF
is not a traditional season of the show, but rather a recorded tabletop campaign taking place within the
Power Rangers
universe, with various ties to different seasons of the show therein.
The very nature of the project itself led to alot of contention as to whether the show should be counted as a "proper" season or not, ontop of some very... interesting, things that the plot of
HF
in general had to say in terms of various other seasons.
The divide made itself very apparent in my binge friend and I: I came out overall loving it, whereas my friend absolutely
hated
it.
And I won't lie, I totally understand why this show just doesn't work for many.
Like, I fully acknowledge the season has alot of flaws. The biggest one being that the plot is full of retcons ontop of being incredibly bonkers(and often not in the good way), but despite those issues, I overall had a really fun time watching this campaign. The biggest highlight being the players, who all did an amazing job at portraying their characters, leading to some of the biggest laughs as well as some of the most powerful character moments the franchise has seen.
The show was created as one of the many ways that Saban was celebrating the franchise's' 25th Anniversary, which I frankly feel was the best Anniversary the franchise has ever seen up to this point. We got so much out of that year, and Saban was determined to bring all of it together, most notably in the biggest crossover event in Rangers history:
Episodes 19+20: Shattered Grid
When Saban said that
Shattered Grid
would be crossing over the entire franchise, they friggen meant it! This two-parter is canon to the event, taking place inbetween issues 25 and 26 of the
MMPR
comics. Kyle Higgens is even a guest player this time around! As such, you probably already know what the set-up is: The Rangers detect a dark energy reading and go to investigate, only to discover that, somehow, everything they knew about the timeline has suddenly changed...
And right off the bat we get a great example where I feel this season really shines. When Zac Eubank(the GM) does his impression of Alpha, everyone just loses it. You can tell everyone is having a great time doing the show, and that positive energy is really infectious! I also get one of my favorite Vesper moments out of the opening exchange: #FindAndObliterateZordon
When the Hyper Rangers land in "New Tech City" the air is immediately different. The GM does a good job at describing the scene: Barren streets, a dead quiet, and the sun seeming to have left the area entirely. After immediately botching a stealth mission, they run into Captain Hicks(Higgens), who then leads them to Colonel Song(Malika Lim).
The majority of the first part is character interaction, and everyone plays off eachother great. From Marv assuring Vesper that they're a family now and they can't afford her running head first into danger, to Chloe sassing the grizzled old soldier, to Eddie freaking out that he doesn't wanna be interrogated again(a callback to the
SPD
episode), it's really entertaining!
My favorite bit though is when Vesper is being, well, herself, and when Song and her crew wonder if she's all there, the rest of the Rangers immediately jump to defend her weirdness. Those are the type of people you want in your life, guys!
Oh, and Song briefly mentions a lieutenant Victor. My personal headcanon is that he's an alternate timeline Victor Vincent from
Ninja Steel
.
Anyway, as it turns out, the defeat of Lord Drakkon didn't just magically fix everything for the world of the Coinless. His death ended up creating a power vacuum, with Scorpina from the main timeline jumping in to try and take his place. She plans to execute a bunch of prisoners the next night. The counterplan? Have the team split into two groups: The Hyper Force Rangers, Song, and Hicks leading a frontal assault on the prison camp, while the rest of the Coinless sneak in from underground to try and sneak the prisoners out.
I love the accidental foreshadowing done here too. When the Rangers theorize about what would've happened had the Zordon Wave never happened, Eddie shudders at the thought of Pumpkin Rapper coming back, and later on when thinking up a plan to free the prisoners, Jack brings up the possibility of planting a mole and creating a false flag operation.
Come the twist at the end of part 1 where it's revealed that Hicks was Pumpkin Rapper in disguise, everyone's' reaction matches my own, and everything only gets even better when Eddie starts actually matching Pumpkin in a rap battle. And I gotta say, Andre, Eddie's' player? He does amazing throughout this entire campaign. I'm not a huge fan of his YouTube content(nothing personal!), but he ended up making Eddie my favorite Blue Ranger, and antics like this are half the reason why. The other half is the really strong character moments he ends up getting during a handful of episodes. Great work Andre!
Part 1 ends with the discovery that Scorpina plans to revive Serpentera, Pumpkin Rapper self-destructing, killing what civilians and sentries hadn't been evacuated, and the arrival of Lord Drakkon himself.
In Part 2, things get really real really fast. And lemme just start by saying that JDF does an amazing job as Lord Drakkon all throughout this episode. He's clearly gotten into the swing of the game this time around, and he absolutely nails all of the dark humor throughout the entire episode too. I love the reaction everyone has when the GM reveals that Drakkon can not only use their power-ups, but receive energy from the crowd as well(which of course viewers donated energy to him).
He also manages to straight away make what I consider the most memorable moment in the entirety of
Hyper Force
with one single line.
"I cut his head off."
Needless to say, everyone, both in character and out, was absolutely floored by this. It certainly was a quick way to get everyone's' attention and get them to agree to a temporary alliance! What proceeds is actually a really interesting scenario where the team is forced to work with Drakkon, all while infiltrating and traveling through Serpentera itself, which is filled with death traps.
This is then followed up by a really involving action sequence featuring Scorpina sending an army to burn all of New Tech City down, Drakkon attempting to rips Marv's' Morpher clean off him, Vesper taking control of Serpentera, Song shooting a rocket through a guy, and my favorite bit, Eddie ricocheting a bomb off the trees into a nearby enemy truck. He won a marble contest when he was 9, afterall!
The final showdown ends with some pretty big shocks too. The ones that would likely stand out to most people being that Vesper gets her arm chopped off, Scorpina still being alive, Drakkon's' forces working on repairing Serpentera, and Alpha 55 getting a mysterious message from the future, prompting a direct hook into the comics proper. But to me, there was one twist that stood above those.
That Red Sentry's' name really was Georgie. Rest in peace.
Overall, yeah,
Hyper Force
certainly has issues, and it's most definitely not the kind of show that's for everyone, but for me, the characters that all of the actors bring to the table, ontop of just the sheer fun factor of the whole thing more than carries it for me. It's a damn shame that the show will likely never get a proper second season, especially given that atrocious ending. You can tell alot of love and care went into this; It was a real passion project! And on a more personal note, if not for this show, I never would've given tabletop gaming a try, nor would the current
Power Rangers
campaign that I run with my friends even exist. So because of that, this show will always have a special place in my heart, and be an important piece of Ranger History.
After-Show Bonus:
Despite the show effectively being cancelled,
Hyper Force
continues to get nods to this day, especially in terms of the comics. And Peter Sudarso has said that he'd have no problem playing Marv should the show ever get a direct reference in the live-action side of things. Personally, if Hasbro really is planning to make an animated
Power Rangers
series like many rumors suggest, I hope it's a direct adaptation of this. It'd almost be a total waste not to do that.
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Last edited by DreamSword; 01-28-2021 at
05:36 PM
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