When Power Rangers first came to Nickelodeon in 2011, they introduced Power Rangers Samurai. I choose to refer to this as a very rough series. It was sub-par at best and really bad in certain episodes. However Deker, and Dayu were fantastic villains. Emily was a fairly impressive hero. Lauren was likable and I like Mia okay. However I could never get behind this series. Let's backtrack. The Samurai premise sets up that ancient Samurai protected our world from the Evil Nighloks. We later meet the Nighlock Leader, Master Xandred. Master Xandred could've been a great different villain. He had been beaten years ago. After they learn that Jayden is the heir of the Shiba family and the one destined to unlock the sealing power, Jayden becomes a common target of their plans. PR Villains are known for thinking quite highly of themselves. Xandred could have been a great contrast, he could have actually been scared of his enemies and been a villain you could've connected with. Intstead though they had this lazy recurring routine that he had to take medicine created from the Zanzau River. He hated his medicine and even tried to avoid taking it. He became angry for nonsensical reasons. He was tough to control. Then they revealed he is the weakest on the Earth's surface. However he is still strongly committed to their evil cause. A real inferiority complex could've made him a really different and stand-out villain. Master Xandred is voiced by Jeff Szusterman. Meanwhile Jayden is over promoted and saves the day way too often. Mike Fernandez was quite arrogant at times and Kevin Douglas is the worst blue Ranger ever! Then Mentor Ji who is played by Rene Naufahu also known as Emperor Grum from SPD comes off in an entirely different way. He made a terrific villain but he doesn't have the same appeal here. He's their teacher and an experienced Samurai but he's not friendly, he's closed off. He's there for Jayden a lot and only there for the others in certain moments. He's also not funny, I'm sorry but he just isn't. In SPD he was fantastic. I rooted for Emperor Grum sometimes. I don't root for Mentor Ji. Did they give him a bad script? Maybe, or maybe the guy was just meant to play villains!
Was I excited to see Bulk return? Yes, however what is he really doing in life here? He has no steady job, he lives in a small warehouse, no mention of the Club he had In Wild Force. He tries to be brave but often comes off somewhat unheroic here. Bulk and Spike's so called "quests" are hardly the stuff of legends even by comedy relief standards. In MM Skull had a Crush on Kimberly, however Skull was a bully, a dimwit, and he got in trouble a lot. The fact that Kimberly's friends shielded her made sense. However Spike is actually very honorable and humble. He's no genius but he's not a delinquent either. He's clever and tricky. Spike and Mia had real potential as a couple. The only real reason they didn't get very far is because they barely interacted with each other. Mentor JI was over protective of the dojo and though I understand he was invested in saving the world I can not condone him scaring Bulk and Spike off from training. Kevin and Mia, No! Spike and Mia makes a lot more sense if only they saw each other more. Spike is played by Felix Ryan. However Deker was a terrific and dramatic character and he changed sides sometimes. Ricardo Medina did a fantastic job with this role and he gave Jayden a real challenge. Then there's Emily Stewart the Yellow Ranger played by Lara Hodgson. Her character developed well over time. She and Mike made a great tag team. They had good chemistry. I like Mike more with Emily than I like him without her. Which is why I'm glad they appeared together for the Mega Force finale. Emily also defeated the monster Negatone and that was impressive. Negatone was voiced by David van Horn. The Zords were pretty cool and handy to have folding versions that can be kept in pockets. Antonio Garcia the Gold Ranger was a fun character but that episode where he lost his morpher, that was really sad! He had his headphones on the whole time. Half the team was worried about him. Bulk and Spike find it and try to psychically find the owner and listen to transmissions on it and it's just a very rough plot. Antonio is played by Steven Skyler. Then there's their base. The Dojo looks nice on the outside but it hardly screams superhero lair on the inside. All they have to track the bad guys is a virtual map that shows the monster's location, that seems like a strong downgrade from the original Viewing Globe in the Command Center. However Lauren Shiba the first good female Red Ranger was a dramatic character and even had some fun quirks. She was played by Kimberly Crossman. They put strong suspense into the final five episodes and made a terrific finale which even included Skull showing up one last time. So yeah I'm not a big fan of this series but I'll give them credit for trying. However it's a really rough Forty-six episodes and it just doesn't match up well with the rest of the classic generations. It's a shame they had some good ideas for this generation but the execution was flawed. I'm a Power Rangers fan through and through and I want to present a proper and well-informed opinion on different generations. So I want every generation represented on this site but this one almost made me stop watching the show. I came back to it for the promise of the "Legendary War" in Mega Force but that wasn't really great either. That's a topic for another day though. If you like Samurai, good for you but It just doesn't work that well for me, so it's on the bottom of my ratings list. More twists and surprises to come, stay tuned.
Saw this already. Don't know why I got it again. Still fine job.
Great job on crushing Samurai. Going on the Bulk and Skull etc might have been a separate post, as this was long to read. Your reasons for disliking Samurai are great. You ought to become an editor of the PR shows before they are made. Your notes on other characters like Bulk and Skull and Spike very insightful. Good job!