Monday, February 20, 2012

"SUPER SAMURAI": Stronger Than Before, Powered Up For More

This was pretty much what I was expecting - a good start to the "season" with a mostly original episode (For me I'm going with this being Samurai's 23th episode, skipping "CLASH OF THE RED RANGERS").

The Rangers out being active before the river pools were discovered was a nice start to the episode. I like the updated opening and I wasn't surprised they kept the same logo with the slight modification. The cast looks good in their credit shots.

Antonio's crazy as ever, but I thought it did work once we got to the Shinkenger fight.

Octoroo setting up a barrier to block the morphing was pretty sneaky. The unmorphed action was great and the blend with the Shinkenger fight looked nice, though it was weird when it was suddenly just Jayden. After so many years of team power up finishers, one Ranger at a time using Super Mode will be a bit different. 4/5

500 episodes of The Simpsons

Tonight was a major milestone episode for the Simpsons, which involved the family getting kicked out of Springfield by the locals and finding a new home in the Outlands. It was a good plot for the occasion and I enjoyed the one-liners about Fox and Homer's original voice from early on. And boy oh boy, those days seem so long ago now. I still remember watching the show on its original Thursday night in the early '90s (I was about 10 when it started) and I never got why it premiered with a Christmas special, which didn't really introduce the characters (The actual produced first episode ended up held back and was an old favorite my sister and I liked, with a plot that had the devious "Babysitter Bandit").

I've only missed a few episodes in the 22 years since and the rest I've seen about every way possible - DVR'd, taped, downloaded, on Fox Sunday and months later in some cases when I was never home Sunday evening. There's been a lot of funny moments, many brilliant pop culture references, great episodes I have in a collection - and some weird ones as well. And though I've never been a big fan of merchandise, I did have a Bart Simpson poster on my wall for over 10 years and still have a few other things.

It's safe to say there's almost no way they'll make it for another 500 in this day and age, but I still get laughs out of the Simpsons adventures and will continue to do so until it does come to an end someday.