"Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel" Season Two Talkback (Spoilers)

[veemonjosh]

The heroic Ninja Steel Rangers find themselves face-to-face with an old enemy when they discover Madame Odius is still alive and more determined than ever to steal the Ninja Nexus Prism and revive its powers for her nefarious purposes. Now it’s up to the Rangers, and some unexpected help from new friends, to use the power of teamwork to protect the Prism, defeat Odius and save the world!

An adaptation of Super Sentai 39, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger, Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel is exclusive to Nickelodeon and NickToons.

---Season Two (2018)--
1. "Echoes of Evil" - 1/27
2. "Moment of Truth" 2/3
3. "Tough Love" - 2/10
4. "Making Waves" - 2/17
5. "Game Plan" - 2/24
6. "Attack of the Galactic Ninjas" - 3/3
7. "The Need for Speed" - 3/10
8. "Caught Red Handed" - 3/17
9. "Outfoxed" - 8/25
10. "Dimensions in Danger" - 8/28 (25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL)
11. "Love Stings" - 9/1
12. "Fan Frenzy" - 9/8
13. "Prepare to Fail" - 9/15
14. "Sheriff Skyfire" - 9/22
15. "Tech Support" - 9/29
16. "Car Trouble" - 10/6
17. "Happy to Be Me" - 10/13
18. "Magic Misfire" - 10/27
19. "Doom Signal" - 11/3
20. "Reaching the Nexus" - 11/10

HOLIDAY SPECIALS
Halloween 2018 - "Monster Mix-Up" - 10/20
Christmas 2018 - "The Poisy Show" - 12/1

Previous Power Rangers Premiere Talkbacks:
Jungle Fury
RPM - Part 1 / Part 2
Samurai - Season 1 Part 1/Season 1 Part 2/Season 2
Megaforce - Season 1/Season 2
Dino Charge - Season 1/Season 2
Ninja Steel - Season 1
Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Reversioned)
Lost Galaxy (Vortexx)

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 1 (23) - "Echoes of Evil"
Air Date: January 27th, 2018
Madame Odius returns to Earth to track down the Ninja Nexus Prism.

 

[Mandouga]

It premiered already? I thought it wasn't going to premiere until February...

 

[Fone Bone]

It premiered already? I thought it wasn't going to premiere until February...

Checked tv.com. They are going to have the replay at the usual time: tomorrow at 8:00 AM if you missed it.

 

[Fone Bone]

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel "Echos Of Evil"

Sigh. Let's get through this. I don't why I still watch this crap. Maybe it's because I shouldn't which is why I do. Who knows?

It was interesting seeing Sledge and Poissandra again (along with the show saying that Dino Charge takes place in an alternate universe, which makes sense because on that world dinosaurs never went extinct). Frankly, I never thought Poissandra deserved death for her crimes, but that can be also said of most of the monsters on this show. Maybe it's because she's dressed like Hello Kitty and actually cute. Like I said, who knows? The Sledge stuff didn't go anywhere, but it WAS open-ended, which leads me to believe it might go somewhere in the future. Which is something I'm okay with.

I hate Victor and Monty. And I hate this show because it does stuff like Victor and Monty. For some reason, all of the supposedly funny characters on Power Rangers are all bullies, cowards, and knobs, and the humor is in seeing them humiliated. They aren't funny. They're annoying. You don't need to repeatedly humiliate someone to make kids laugh. If you do EVERY single time you create characters like this, there is something wrong with your franchise.

Mick saying him without the Rangers was like peanut butter without jelly, or pancakes without syrup, shows why this show's writers are so bad at their jobs. They couldn't come up with better or funnier similes than those cliches? And then the entire team laughs at Redbot repeating whatever nonsense proceeded "You can say that again", and the characters laugh hysterically, as if this is literally the first time they've heard that joke. I doubt it is the six year olds in the audience's first time of hearing that joke, if you ask me. It is true that kids have never been very picky when it comes to entertainment, and that the truly popular stuff that starts fads, like for example, Power Rangers, is all garbage. But Power Rangers has been on the air for 25 years. It bugs me that its writing hasn't evolved at all. I get why the premises can't change, but there should be less worse dialogue than there is after all this time. After 20 years of success, the writers cannot even bother to put in the slightest effort to make the show actually GOOD, and deliver kids something they deserve. It's beyond frustrating at this point. It's been 25 years. This should not still be an issue.

There was one thing in the episode I liked, and I liked it a LOT, so even if the episode gets a failing grade of two stars, it still gets two stars. But I thought Mick failing to catch the Ninja Steel box was a fabulous sight gag. Yes, it was dumb. But it was funny.

For the record, he should be happy he missed. That box was huge and filled with metal. Even if on the off-chance it didn't actually bean him on the head and kill him, it would still hurt like hell to "catch". I assumed he'd basically be knocked over on his ass if he "got it".

But that is literally the only thing I liked. This show still sucks. 25 years later. **.

 

[Scrappy-Fan92]

After 20 years of success, the writers

That's operating under the assumption that the franchise has any consistent team of writers. Not to excuse Lynn, Alwyn, or Dale here, but this series basically runs through writers like tissue with a few holdovers from various production eras. Every team brings a different feel to the franchise, for better or worse.

We're back, so here are my thoughts:

-Good to see Mick again.
-It's nice to see we have official confirmation that this show and Dino Charge take place in separate universes. This is one of those rare times where a season's villains show up without the corresponding Rangers. I wouldn't mind Power Rangers carrying over villains every once in a while.
-It's good to see Sledge and company again. I had my issues with them, but seeing villains from different series interact gets my inner child excited. Strange that Curio and Fury were nowhere to be seen.
-Still not happy with the fart jokes.
-Victor and Monty got rich, and if they weren't already credited in the opening, I might've assumed their newfound fortune would've been their exit plan.
-Brody sure does take the spotlight in fights a lot, doesn't he? Most of it is a carryover from Ninninger, but still.
-I can't tell what accent Odious' new lackey has.
-If Sledge got sucked into the wormhole and didn't die or get warped away due to the Dino Charge Rangers' time travelling, then does that mean their old Earth is still effectively stuck in a parallel dimension as well ?

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 2 (24) - "Moment of Truth"
Air Date: February 3rd, 2018
When Calvin forgets his and Hayley's anniversary, he panics and ends up a spinning a web of lies to cover up his mistake.

 

[Fone Bone]

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel "Moment Of Truth"

That was aggravating, but I'm the one who chose to watch it knowing it would be. So this entire mess is my own fault. And I'm gonna own that.

You know Mick's whole "This is a real pickle," bit was almost cute and funny. Except he's laughs at his own joke, so it's insufferable instead.

Ever notice that the superhero problem on this show is resolved by solving the sitcom problem first? The 2012 Ninja Turtles reboot did a similar thing in always having the cartoon they were watching every week mirror the current adventure, but see, at least they were self-aware enough of that fact to make fun of it more than once. This show has been doing this for decades, and doesn't really see how dumb the idea is. Still.

Hayley claims she loves Calvin because he's forgetful, is always late, and is usually covered in grease. And suddenly every single guy over the age of 16 who saw this episode wishes they had that exact fictional girlfriend. You're allowed to be mad at him, Hayley. He wouldn't have bothered lying about it if you weren't.

That is clearly not pizza at the end, but jello. The show has always had the worst prop department I have ever seen. Just some of the ridiculous things I've seen actually made it to air makes me wonder why this show doesn't have a worse prop reputation than it does. The classic Doctor Who is infamous for fake looking props, sets, and costumes. I don't get why this show is not seen the exact same way. Especially because Doctor Who was actually good and this isn't. I don't see why this gets a pass and that didn't. If anything society's standards should be higher at this point.

Did I mention this episode annoyed me? I only have myself to blame. I knew what it was when I picked it up. *1/2.

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 3 (25) - "Tough Love"
Air Date: February 10th, 2018
Levi tries to change himself to impress a mysterious street performer.

 

[Fone Bone]

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel "Tough Love"

"This whirlwind really blows!" Ooh! Spicy talk.

Speaking of which, I love how the Rangers are making fun of the fact that "Change is in the spice of life" is not an actual saying. That is so dumb.

The design on the monster was pretty cool.

Not bad. ***.

 

[Theagames10]

Can't wait for episode 4

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 4 (26) - "Making Waves"
Air Date: February 17th, 2018
When a monster threatens Summer Cove, the Rangers tap into the power of a new Megazord.

 

[Fone Bone]

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel "Making Waves"

Buckle up. I am about to bash this episode unmercifully. There have been worse Power Rangers episodes than this. But the reason this one pissed me off so much is because all of the mistakes were unforced errors that would never occur to even the sloppiest of fanfiction writers, much less professional producers that actually put the episode to screen with that particular script, instead of scrapping it entirely, and starting over from scratch.

Let us itemize the suck.

1. The first and main thing I objected to is something I cannot believe I just witnessed. I should not have to object to it. I feel dumber for having to complain about this. But this is 2018. Television should NOT still be this bad. If they did this exact thing on the first season of the original MMPR, I'd chalk it up to the sign of the times, and the fact that even the good kids shows back then like Batman: The Animated Series were actually clumsily written. But in 2018? No excuse.

Okay, so it is credible to me that Sarah tells her dad that Hayley's mom likes spicy food. Telling a person what their potential date likes to eat is actual legitimate dating advice. People would like to know this before the date.

But then Hayley tells her mom that Sarah's dad like spinning around, and my brain is pretty much destroyed. Do I even HAVE to explain how dumb that is? How does spinning around have anything to do with dating? Even worse is the idea that the writers actually made it come up. On a little kids' carousel of all places. I do not simply think the writers of Power Rangers are bad writers. That would be one thing. I actually think they are legitimately stupid people. That is not only not something a competent writer would never do, but it's not something that would occur to a PERSON who never writes anything at all to do either. I should not have to nitpick this idea. A grown ass adult who gets paid money to write for television professionally should already know this. This pisses me off so much because in a sane world, in a show with writers who aren't actual idiots, this would not be an actual problem. It would never occur to anyone except for the genuinely stupid writers of this show. And considering they are writing for children, that pisses me off. I see a crappy show, I can just turn it off (which is frankly something I should have done to this show ages ago). But little kids are impressionable. If they know nothing but entertainment this stupid and badly written, it strikes me that they will know nothing else. It is probably not a coincidence that the current Golden Age of Television started about a generation after cartoons started becoming high quality in the early 1990's, and improving from there. If this episode is the best a kid is gonna see, they won't know any better than to accept utter crap as acceptable. I resent a lot of stuff I used to love growing up when I rewatched it years later, because I believed the adults writing it did wrong by me back in the day. This spinning idea is something so bad, I cannot think of the crappiest live-action sitcom from my youth that would use that idea. MAYBE Small Wonder. Maybe. But that's it. And that pisses me off.

2. Victor and Monty try to claim a prize for biggest fish for dressing Monty in a fish costume. On the one hand, it almost fits, because the entire franchise involves people taking rubbery, fake-looking monster costumes seriously. But read that sentence again. And punch yourself in the face repeatedly because it is less painful than having to watch that.

3. This one annoys me, but it's a problem not only for all superhero kids shows, but ones geared towards adults like The Arrovverse. But Hayley and Sarah's parents should recognize their voices as the Power Rangers immediately. Hayley tries to disguise the voice for a second, but her and Sarah are quickly back to talking normally soon after. This supposedly is the conceit of superheroes that we have been conditioned to accept. But I don't accept it. It is not freaking good enough, and never has been.

4. The fourth thing that pissed me off is Mick. What I hate about him is that the writers think his lessons are clever. They aren't. They are patronizing and insufferable. If I were a teenager in high school, and an adult did the "opposite suggestion to what the right idea is" line to me, I would instantly know they were talking down to me, and b.s.ing me, and thought I was stupid, and were treating me that way. He's a troll, and should be treated as such. That is a move that will impress a five year. Granted, the show's target audience is five year olds, but the Rangers are high school teenagers. The proper response to Mick doing that is "Eff you, Mick you insufferable bastard!" Not only would they instantly know what Mick was doing, but they would be insulted by it. And I hate that this show confuses hamfisted and obvious platitudes as actual wisdom. It's not like the Rangers aren't all dumb as rocks anyways, but maybe the right answer is that they SHOULDN'T be dumb as rocks in the first place.

5. Sarah's Dad invents a drone to "catch fish without hurting them". If you don't want to hurt a fish, there is no point in catching them. A truly humane person would simply leave them alone. Even a marine biologist, a person who DOES study fish would know this.

Were there any things in the episode I liked? I felt like Hayley's mom and Sarah's dad had genuine chemistry, and I like that they both figured out they had been had, which suggests they are both smarter than their children. Of course, Hayley's mom isn't actually TOO smart, because upon the spinning suggestion, she didn't smack her daughter across the head and say "B****, please!"

The other thing I liked was hearing the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers theme song again. That was fun.

But I have incredibly low standards for this show and it seems to keep failing them every single week. I used to follow Power Ranger Super Samurai and Mega Force. Not religiously. I only saw each episode once. But neither of those versions (especially not Samurai) had the same kinds of bad writing problems associated with both Dino Charge and Ninja Steel. And I'm not sure why it is. But both of the sets of writers for these two most recent seasons need to be fired from the franchise, and never hired in Hollywood ever again. And at least Dino Charge had the awesome Ryan Carter in the back half of the season, which made up for a LOT. Ninja Steel has nothing so good going for it. 0.

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 5 (27) - "Game Plan"
Air Date: February 24th, 2018
The students of Summer Cove High become addicted to a new video game.

 

[Fone Bone]

Power Rangers: Super Ninja Steel “Game Plan”

If this review is entirely about Power Rangers, I’ll be surprised.

I don’t want to get off on a rant here... but Dennis Miller totally sucks. I could be wrong.*

The biggest question this raised for me is “Why the frak wasn’t Commander Riker court-martialed for doing the exact same thing Preston did here? How is it that Burnham is a mutineer and that traitor Riker skates entirely? How is it Riker gets to end that episode sitting on the bridge next to Picard as if nothing happened?” You know your Star Trek is messed up when Commander Riker is more detestable than Wesley Crusher for an episode. And Wesley Crusher was already plenty detestable in that episode.

Where was I? Oh, I liked that they actually spent money and created game graphics for the device, and was tickled when it looked like the monster would be a little CGI cartoon creature. And then he turns into a Japanese rubbery monster (that looks nothing like the CGI design by the way) and I remember exactly how hamstrung by the Japanese version this show actually is.

I am not simply mad that Victor does the Roadrunner gag to sneak playing the game in class. I am mad that it worked. I hate this show. The lady losing her wig was similarly cringe-inducing.

“It’s like fish having to swim or bees having to buzz.” I understand this show has terrible, unintelligent writers, and possibly the stupidest writers on television. Stipulated. But when it comes to the fictional hall of fame of a character who can’t come up with a decent simile to save his life, Mick is probably gonna the bring home the gold. I say this because it’s far from the first time he’s said something that dumb and cliched.

I think Mick and Levi are overthinking things about how to get the kids to stop playing the game. What they should do is invite all the parents to the school to play, and then have the parents be super into it. Then the kids would break the devices on principle. Leave it to this show to always take the least funny option.

I am so pissed off at Star Trek right now I am barely aware that I just watched a Power Rangers episode. **1/2.

*I’m not.

 

[Scrappy-Fan92]

I've been gone far too long. I'll just say that I actually enjoyed episodes 2-5 more than episode 1, I felt the life lessons were at least handled better than they were in the last season. And to heck with it, Victor's fake wall gag this episode was funny. Victor and Monty in general just seem funnier and less intrusive than usual.

Also, easy with the ad hominem attacks toward the writers, Fone Bone. I certainly want improvements to this series from them, but there's no need to attack their intelligence.

 

[Fone Bone]

Also, easy with the ad hominem attacks toward the writers, Fone Bone. I certainly want improvements to this series from them, but there's no need to attack their intelligence.

Yeah, there is. They are DUMB. Maybe you can criticize me for taking it too hard on clearly mentally challenged people, but you'd have to admit they were mentally challenged in the first place. So as of now, my insults stand.

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 6 (28) - "Attack of the Galactic Ninjas"
Air Date: March 3rd, 2018
The Galactic Ninjas arrive on Earth to destroy the Rangers once and for all.

 

[veemonjosh]

Episode 7 (29) - "The Need for Speed"
Air Date: March 10th, 2018
Sarah tries to break the world hoverboard speed record using a strange new technology.

 

[Storm Eagle]

There's just one more episode next week, and then the hiatus begins.


For the record, I want to slap Victor and Monty.