Power Rangers: Once & Always is now streaming on Netflix.
As restless as the mid-90s were for me like most kids my age, it was shows like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers that kept me situated, and with a concept and a brand that stood on something far bigger than most of us in the Western world would realize until the advent of the internet and galvanization of fandom made things so much more possible. Fast forward thirty years since the Fox Kids program took off and the show’s legacy remains as fresh as it did then for its target audience, including its latest commemorative induction with Netflix’s one-hour special, Power Rangers: Once & Always, featuring most of the cast of the franchise.
Charles Haskell directed the special which centralizes franchise vets Walter Emmanuel Jones and David Yost back into the thick of things in the respective roles of Zack and Billy. Joined by their remaining team in the heat of battle in a deadly attack by RoboRita and her beat-em-up squad of Putties, the Rangers quickly find themselves outnumbered, and just moments later, one Ranger short when the Yellow Ranger, Trini, gets vaporized by RoboRita’s supercharged magic staff, leaving Zack and Billy to break the bad news to the late Trini’s daughter, Minh (Charlie Kersh). From then on, the story kicks in one year later on the anniversary of Trinh when the Rangers are ambushed by RoboRita and two of her recreated monsters in a diabolical plan that results in Red Ranger Jason, Pink Ranger Kimberly, and Green Ranger Tommy, miniaturized as lifeless dolls and captured, and before long, Billy and Zack will have to regroup with other makeshift members of the team and come up with a plan to prevent Rita from whatever dastardly evil plan she building. The real question, however, lies in whether or not they can do so with their team short one Ranger, with the Yellow Ranger’s Power Coin yet to relinquish itself to Minh who is nothing short of eager to get revenge.
Haskell and his team do a good job of connecting the timelines spanning the last three decades and establishing the characters as we know them, even if a select few of the series regulars are only visible as their costume counterparts, audible vocals calling on their uniforms or even flashbacks or photos. To that end, the weight isn’t too much on Yost and Jones to aid the transition and it isn’t that long before Ranger additions Rocky (Steve Cardenas) and Kat (Catherine Sutherland), along with cameos by Karan Ashley and Johnny Yong Bosch, and character favorite Alpha in his ninth form, a.k.a. Alpha 9 (voiced by Richard Horvitz).
At the core of this story though is Kersh’s portrayal of Minh, and the one-year jump from the time she learns of her mother’s death to the anniversary thereafter. She’s already set her sights on RoboRita, but she’s more than precocious. She’s angry, and even vengeful to the point where it not only affects the team, but her own standing as well when she eyes her late mother’s Power Coin in the hopes of using it to transform. Little does Minh know that there’s more to the story about how Trini died, culminating way more that she needs to understand about what the team lost that fateful day, and effectively, what it means to truly be a Ranger.
The production overall lends a slightly more upscale look and feel while the pacing and energy of its made-for-television predecessor remain about the same, with ardent respect paid to everything fans of the bygone series know and love. It’s definitely tweaked for kids but it’s not too kitschy that fans now up in age can’t take a little something away from it. Even the characters themselves are well into their 40s and 50s, which makes it all the more endearing seeing Jones bust some Hip-Hopkido on some Putty asses.
What’s more is that by killing off a major character, the show found a way to deal with some of the unhealed trauma that’s been built over the years until recently with the loss of another major franchise staple just last November. It kind of brings to question just what this means for the future of MMPR even with the release of this special, although on its own, Once And Always does enough to bring at least a piece of the franchise full circle, and the addition of Kersh makes for potential new blood to the franchise with a great story, and a character that rightly earns her place in Ranger history.
Lead image: Hasbro/eOne