POWER RANGERS RPM Really Got Into Gear as the Best Vehicle-Themed Season Yet
I finally got to see Power Rangers RPM! After waiting patiently, Hasbro finally uploaded the 17th season of Power Rangers to YouTube. This series seems to be a little divisive, but many fans seem to really love this season. RPM was the final season of the Disney era, is based on Engine Sentai Go-Onger, and ran for 32 episodes. The main cast includes Eka Darville as RPM Red Scott Truman, Ari Boyland as RPM Blue Flynn McAllistair, Rose McIver as RPM Yellow Summer Landsdown, Milo Cawthorne as RPM Green Ziggy Grover, Daniel Ewing as RPM Black Dillon, Mike Ginn as RPM Gold Gem, Li Ming Hu as RPM Silver Gemma, Olivia Tennet as Doctor K, James Gaylyn as Colonel Mason Truman, Adelaide Kane as Tenaya 7/15, and Andrew Laing as the voice of Venjix.
RPM takes place in a different dimension in the not-too-distant future than other seasons. The virus Venjix has basically made the world unsafe except inside the domed city of Corinth. There, Earth’s last hope for humanity is the Power Rangers who push back against Venjix and his army of Grinders and Attack Bots. The season is often seen as one of Power Rangers’ darkest and most mature, which is one reason why fans tend to love it.
I must admit, I went into RPM with pretty high hopes and expectations because of all the hype I’ve heard. In my opinion, it lives up to that hype. My understanding is that RPM was meant to be the final season of Power Rangers, and I think we can see a pattern emerging. A season is supposed to be the last one, the team creates an amazing season because they’re typically able to take more liberties and write more of what they want, and fans love it. In Space was supposed to be the end and it’s one of the best seasons out there. Wild Force was also supposed to be the end and while I personally don’t have it in my top 10, many fans love it. Also, I’ll admit that all three of these had some darker and more serious tones in them. Maybe Power Rangers should learn something from this.
We start off the season basically following Dillon trying to find Corinth and then he meets Ziggy who shows him back to the city and there, we’re first introduced to Scott, Flynn, and Summer who are already Power Rangers. Episode two has Dillon becoming RPM Black and then by episode four, we have our core team of five with Ziggy becoming RPM Green. As the season went on, I realized that Go-Onger must be a Sentai that starts with three core Rangers like Abaranger that eventually grows into five and then seven. The morphers are different, some details on the suits are different, etc. However, I really like that RPM really didn’t spend time with only three Rangers and they quickly gave us a core five without it feeling rushed like other seasons.
Dillon’s story is that he doesn’t remember anything about his past, not even his name, and he’s trying to figure it out. Eventually, he learns that he’s a cyborg (human/robot hybrid) with part of the Venjix virus inside of him. He also learns he has a sister and it’s revealed to be Tenaya 7 which creates an interesting dynamic that seems to be borrowed from In Space. Ranger discovers their long lost sister is one of the bad guys, convinces the sister of this, she starts to turn good, bad guys kidnap her and make her more evil, towards the end of the season the sister comes back to the good side. It worked really well for In Space and even works well (although not quite as well in my opinion) here in RPM. My main hang up is that I felt like Ewing’s performance was one of the weakest throughout and so I didn’t care too much about his character.
One thing I really enjoyed is that over the course of the first 11 episodes, we get an episode (or two if you’re Summer) that highlights that Ranger’s (and Doctor K’s) backstory. The one exception is Dillon because a lot of the season is about his backstory and the mystery there. We learn that Scott was a fighter pilot whose brother died while trying to fend off Venjix. This helps illustrate tension with his father, Col. Truman. Summer was a spoiled rich girl with a saint of a butler who helped her realize that she could be so much more and she could become someone who helps others. Flynn has always been one to help others even to his detriment sometimes like when he loses countless jobs for doing the right thing. Ziggy has a heart of gold and went behind a crime boss’ back to help an orphanage. Finally, Doctor K grew up in a bunker because she was a genius and she created Venjix. I really liked having these episodes at the start of the season to help us get invested in them early on and doesn’t detract from the larger story later on when that’s going strong. In fact, there are times where it helps service those larger stories like the constant return of the aforementioned crime boss Fresno Bob trying to get even with Ziggy. That last one is especially helpful and useful as it creates a second antagonist to create trouble for the Rangers without it always being Venjix and Tenaya.
Now, many talk about how RPM is darker and more serious, but it isn’t without brevity and fun. In fact, it’s a pretty funny season. Ziggy is meant to be a comic relief character and he fulfills that role fantastically. In the episode “Ranger Blue” we have the Rangers asking Doctor K some questions (clip below) about their suits, morphing, Zords, and more to poke fun at the franchise and break the fourth wall a bit. Then, later in the episode, Tenaya 7 is talking to Flynn during a fight (clip below) and once again pokes fun at the meta of Power Rangers by listing what stereotypical role each of the other Rangers fulfills and asks what his role is to which he responds “I’m Scottish!” This is genuinely funny. There’s also the obligatory clipshow episode, “And…Action!” This episode is very different from previous ones because instead of Rangers reminiscing about previous fights and moments, this is more of a behind-the-scenes extra feature you would find on a DVD. The weird thing is that they do it in character. It’s not Cawthorne, McIver, etc. showing us the crew doing their amazing jobs or how special effects are implemented, etc. It’s Ziggy, Summer, Flynn, etc. showing us all this. It creates a funny and very odd experience because it makes you wonder if RPM is really a reality show or an in-universe TV show or something.
It’s time to talk about the Ranger items and goodies. Overall, I actually like the theme of combining an animal with a vehicle. I think it lends itself well to a few different ideas and works overall. The helmets for the Rangers are pretty cool and distinct. I like them. The main suits are something that I’m not a fan of though. I like the cool stylized numbers, but I think the shoulder straps are what kill it for me. I understand that it’s styled to be like cool racing seatbelts, but I just don’t care for them. I do like the gears and wheels at the ends of the gloves and boots though and how they serve a function. There are times where the Rangers use those in fights or sometimes it helps signal that the Ranger is going to use their special power. I do dig those.The outfits aren’t my favorite because of the seatbelts, but I do like many of the other design choices. The individual weapons are kind of cool, but I feel like we don’t get to see them used very often. I think Scott and Ziggy use theirs the most independently, but most of the time these weapons are brought out, used to form the Road Blaster, Turbo Plasma Launcher, or RPM Enforcer immediately. The Morphers are pretty cool and I definitely prefer the Rev Morpher (Green and Black) to the others, but none of the Morphers feel iconic or noteworthy.
Now let’s talk Zords. Overall, I like the Zords. I don’t mind the eyes. I know that they’re really Optical Field Scanning Sensors, but I agree with the Rangers. Those are eyes! The overall designs are okay although I feel like the Wolf Cruiser doesn’t look like a wolf at all and the Lion Hauler is also pretty lackluster. I think my favorite might be the Eagle Racer. It’s also fun that there are four different (six if you count when 2+ Megazords combine) Megazords in the series though, although none of them replace any of the others like many previous seasons have seen. The only one that isn’t connected to a Ranger’s core Zord is the PaleoMax Megazord, and it feels like a smooth addition instead of a replacement for the other Megazords.None of the Megazords really grab my attention though. They all felt “meh” to me design wise.
One area I haven’t really talked about is Gem and Gemma. Honestly, I don’t really like them that much. They have interesting aspects like being Doctor K’s friends/pseudo-family in her younger days and have solid moments with other Rangers such as in “Heroes Among Us” and “Not So Simple.” However, their overall personality of acting first and asking questions later mixed with conjoined sentences just weren’t my thing.
Overall, RPM is a fantastic season. The story is well crafted and each character is given plenty of room to shine and grow. We see character arcs resolve by the end, there’s plenty of humor, and it does a good job of sprinkling in just enough drama. It feels like a show that doesn’t take itself seriously, but everyone working on it took the project seriously and gave it their all. There are a lot of great moments in the season that subtly tell us about the relationships between characters as well (like when Summer lies about what Doctor K’s password is to the other Rangers) and everyone seemed to have good chemistry. I highly recommend watching RPM. Now I must wait for Power Rangers Samurai to be uploaded.
Current Power Rangers Ranking:
Power Rangers In Space
Power Rangers Zeo
Power Rangers RPM
Power Rangers Time Force
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 1
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 3
Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue
Power Rangers Dino Thunder
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 2
Power Rangers Ninja Storm
Power Rangers Jungle Fury
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Season 1
Power Rangers Wild Force
Power Rangers S.P.D.
Power Rangers Turbo
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy
Power Rangers Beast Morphers Season 2
Power Rangers Mystic Force
Power Rangers Operation Overdrive