Rangerreview's "Top 7 Power Rangers Seasons For Beginners"

I may have to disagree with you about Dino Thunder because I don't see a lot negatives outweighing the positives in that season. The only things that I thought were bad about Dino Thunder were Tommy being stuck in his ranger suit in several episodes, because of Jason David Frank's massive ego at the time and the episode, "Lost in Translation". Oh and Zeltrax's out-of-nowhere motivations to why he wants to kill Tommy. But, other than that, the negatives are probably at a bare minimum in the season. The story is still pretty decent, tge character are a bit more likeable than when they were back in 2004, the writing can be a hit or a mess, but at least it's better than what we've been getting from Neo-Saban era TV seasons at the time. Plus, Cassidy and Devon had sone real character-developments unlike Victor and Monty and Bulk and Spike. Messogog, while not as active as a villain-character like Lothor, Gruumn, Moltor, Dai-Shi or Zen-Aku, but he is still as menacing and scary than he was before. Even if you do meet his actor in real-life, he still sounds menacing and scary up close and personal.

Also, unlike Megaforce and Super Megaforce, Dino Thunder does pay more respect for the past seasons than those two seasons do. Connor, Ethan and Kira not only act like that know what a Power Ranger is, but as soon as they looked into Tommy's video diary explaining this history of the Power Rangers legacy and his role as a ranger, himself, they not only have more respect for him as a mentor, but they have more mutual respect for their predecessors than any of the schmucks from Megaforce and Super Megaforce do. Except for when they fought against the Wind Rangers who were under mind-crontol during "Thunder Storm, Parts I and II," but that's mostly the fault of the writing and direction.

So yeah, I hate to disapoint you. But, there was a lot more positive than there are more negatives in Dino Thunder than you would ever imagine. Now, Samurai and Super Samurai could've been a new timeless classic, if they had actually spent more time adapting the episodes of Shinkenger, stop talking down to its' audience like they're stupid, give the actots better scripts to work with, maybe even find a better show-runner that actually cares about putting in some real effort in story-telling, make the villains more interesting to watch and less-annoying, give us more and more and more original storylines instead of rushing the production of the show, running the Japanese script through Google Translate and dubbing over the sentai like a bad 4kids English-dubbed anime series, and stop treating the characters like they're a bunch of arch-types. That, and give the fans what they really wanted which is an actual Asian-American red ranger in a Samurai-themed Power Rangers TV series centers around Japanese culture and its' history. Do you see the problem here?! This why I am hoping for a possible rebooted adaptation of Samurai and Super Samurai to happen in the near-future, because there are a lot of problems with the original material that needed to be fixed in adaptation, immediately!!! Even more problems than Megaforce/Super Megaforce and Ninja Steel/Super Ninja Steel.

I am not sure how "public" my feelings on Dino Thunder are on these boards, but it is my opinion that the season did a major disservice to Tommy's character by ignoring practically everything that had been established about him and forcing him into a n archetypal role for which he was not in the least bit suited, which in turn detracted from the season as a whole because of how central to it he was as a character.

If Dino Thunder had played out "as-is" but with a Tommy who was not suddenly, inexplicably, and forcefully retconned into being a Billy-level genius who had somehow not only crammed 20+ years of schooling into a 7-year period of time but also simultaneously been responsible for the creation of the very evil he ended up needing to confront, I can say with confidence that I would consider it to be a favorite season because of its overall cast, villains, and design aesthetic.

However, because it tried to play on nostalgia by inexpertly forcing Tommy into an archetypal role for which he was not suited and that did not in any way match up with his character as previously established, the season ended up collapsing under its own weight and cancelling out the positive narrative elements that it brought to the franchise and the strength of its cast.

The Dino Thunder team's mentor and eventual Black Ranger was originally a character by the name of Doctor Payne, whose backstory was supposed to be that of both Anton/Mesagog's former scientific partner and a rival for Zeltrax, and the role ought to have been rewritten once it became clear that Doug Sloan was going to be able to get JDF to return and reprise the character of Tommy... unfortunately, it was not, resulting in the character, to a great degree, being "Tommy In Name Only" and handicapping all future appearances of the character with the OOC-ness that defined his first return appearance.

If I was asked by those who were starting out,(especially for those that have kids or are kids) I would first off not advise them to start with RPM simply due to the fact that it isn't all that great that most fans make it out to be. Now, I like RPM as much as the next fan, but it isn't a good season to point to as to how Power Rangers should be. It is too dark and the whole humans purposefully creating a computer virus and releasing it into the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And plus, it was made with more of the older fans in mind then the target audience due to at the time was suppose to be the final new season of the show when it became clear that Disney was done with Power Rangers.

In my personal opinion, I would recommend to newcomers to start out with the Zordon era just to see where it all began. Also, I would never, ever recommend or advice people in skipping over certain episodes(especially if they are a part of a multi part arc) all because some fans hate those episodes or because they are fillers or for whatever reason is stated. If you are viewing something for the first time, it's always the best advice given to newcomers or fans who have yet to check out a certain season to watch every episode of the show to form your own opinions on them and not basing them off of some reviews people post on them. Reviews can be helpful at times, but they are never a reason as to not watch an episode or movie because more so then not, those reviews are more opinion based then anything else. Everyone has different opinions so, there is no right and wrong answers as some fans will like or love episodes or seasons that other fans hate and vise versa.

Transformers is also a toy commercial. As are G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, The Real Ghostbusters, Jem and the Holograms, Batman the animated series, the Joel Schumacher Batman movies, Thunder Cats, Voltron, the Avengers, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy, Spider-Man, Super Mario Bros., Pokemon, Star Wars, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai. Even Sailor Moon, and Digimon: Digital Monsters were being treated as glorified toy cocommercials. Same with the Disney Princess Line-up and DC Super Hero Girls.

How are any of those franchises any different from Power Rangers as being toy commcommercials, hmm?! Explain youself!!

Season 1 is essential viewing at any rate.