The season has continued on pretty medicore, and we finally got the best episode this year I thought -- followed by the worst.
Coming off the hiatus, "MAN AND MACHINE" definitely would've made a better stopping point.
Shadow Serpent put up a good fight against the Rangers which I enjoyed but the timeframe went on too long.
Some of RoboTroy's lines were bad but I'd take that over channeling his inner-Alata. >_>
Vrak working with the mutants and developing his own agenda that
Malkor's not privy to is one thing I'm really liking as well as the fun
moments at the end between the Rangers. But a lot of the dialogue bogged
the episode down, especially with Robo Knight learning the value of
teamwork. And the ADR looks like a mess when you have the Rangers, RK and Gosei all talking during zord summoning. Not to mention
hearing "Vulcan Cannon" again and again.
I'd go with a 3.5/5. Action was good and Vrak's easily one of the most
interesting characters since RPM.
"ULTRA POWER"
The fight with Distractor would've made a lot more sense if it had actually been an illusion, which was never stated. RK's big mode was cool but obviously it'll never been seen again. And it was funny how incompetent the team looked, while RK has to guide them basically (since most of the time Gosei isn't).
The Rangers and Vrak trying to control the Wild Sword was pretty good. And with some decent moments in the Command Center I'd say this did enough for a 4/5.
"LAST LAUGH"
I was glad to have a break from zord/weapon intros and this episode
handled the character focus pretty decent. I thought Noah and the plot
worked with the GoseiBlue/Knight footage pretty well.
Before NoJoke met with Bigs and Bluefur I wondered if he was even a
mutant himself or if we'd only seen with with Vrak. And most of the
jokes were just OK but I did chuckle a few times late in the episode.
I'll never get used to hearing "Ultrazords" in a team powerup.
So Gia morphed inside the pod with all the people? It would've been cool if she had gotten a solo morph afterwards instead.
Bonus points for finally showing that Troy is human and can make faces -- even if he still has horrible line delivery. 4/5
"DREAM SNATCHER" was a very enjoyable episode. Good scenes between the team and pretty decent
extras. Plus I gotta hand it to the effort to match footage.
Dream Snatcher being a latino monster was odd but helped make for a fun
episode. Did anyone else wish he had said "Pasta la pizza, baby!"? And I
loved the disco trick.
Thought it was cool seeing RK and Emma work together and some of his deadpaned responses.
The ending was perfect and I enjoyed the song playing through. Yeah, they really hammered the dreams lesson but the episode otherwise had a lot
going for it. At last, the best one this year and the latest in a season I've ever given a 5/5.
Now "GOSEI ULTIMATE" was a weird episode.
Adapting a plotline from multiple sentai eps into a half-hour is
nothing new but here I felt like it really didn't work. Too much dialogue between the mutants and their going on about the box being powered from the toxic ooze.
Bigs taking over the top of the building was just awkward. I woud've
liked it better if the Rangers had killed him sooner and the fight just
with Bluefur had been longer. Loved that they slipped in the bigfoot
reference.
Also I did like that Tensou had to prepare the Command Center and all we
saw were parts flying everywhere. But aren't civilians going to notice
when the mountain goes into space?! Imagine if Zordon's Command Center
had been a shuttle.
Gosei Ultimate Megazord is a refreshing change not being on any cards
and it's easily the only Megazord name I care for this year.
Gotta say I was never much of a fan of the mutants being created
from the toxic waste and man-made pollution so you could call it poetic
justice that the end of their arc I consider Megaforce's worst episode.
Not to mention the cast was barely in this. 2/5 -- one of the most lopsided excellent-to-terrible episode turnovers I've ever seen.
"RAISING SPIRITS" was a fun episode and better than I expected for a clip show, with more originality working around Goseiger and fewer clips. They could've given Glytcher a special power like ruining machines around the city or creating the crystal ball, and less bouncing around. Decent 3/5, about on par with "PARTY MONSTERS."
Looking forward to the introduction of Prince Veker and the armada coming up, and hopefully a good finale to lead us into Super Megaforce. But I know with this show I can't be too optimistic no matter how good it sounds.
