[Locke]

In only a matter of minutes, you're reminded you're watching Megaforce and for all the wrong reasons. Somehow the out of suit drama moments are even worse than they were on the first venture twenty years ago, how do you manage to construct an entire cast of talentless actors? With a cast so big, you think they'd find someone who could act. And if they know their actors are weak, why give them such terrible dialogue to force themselves through in awkward one to one conversations? A good director, and a good writer, could have easily gotten past the weaknesses of the actors, but I guess we didn't get those either as any moment that tries to tell the story or explore the characters is painful.

Still, even with all of that in mind, there is something so utterly charming about this episode. So utterly...Power Rangers. It's so goofy and stupid and throws logic to the wall, and I really think you'd have to be the biggest Scrooge in the world to not be entertained by it. I mean this weeks episode is about a snail with the power to steal people's shadows, how do the Rangers combat this? They stay in the shade.

That isn't the only odd little quirk to resurface and to enjoy. Gia is still licking her lips at Roboknight...for no reason whatsoever in a joke that is as hilarious in its randomness as it is in you asking why they included this in a kids TV show and while the Ranger's aren't battling snails (sorry, serpents) with the power to steal shadows, they are teaching a killer robot about friendship. And what do they get when they do manage to teach him about friendship? A giant frickin' robot. Could you imagine how great the world would be, if it functioned on that logic?

The Goseiger footage, stripped of angels with playing cards, continues to be really entertaining as well. As far as Sentai goes, the production values are big and it makes the Rangers feel suitably powerful for an anniversary season and their confrontations big and epic to fit it as well. Even in your average of the week episode like this.

Speaking of Roboknight, he is really cool, isn't he? Stupid sound effects and bad voice acting aside, there is something really awesome about this sentient machine standing alone on the rooftops, looking out across the world, waiting for evil to surface so it can destroy it. I think the show does a really great job of really capturing who Roboknight is (certainly much better than the other characters) but it also goes into a surprising amount of depth with his internal turmoil of incredible loneliness and deep confusion of the human condition.

So yeah, overall, a pretty damn great return for Megaforce!