How About That Thing?

Yeah yeah, we’re doing Power Rangers again. Partly as a palate cleanser after having to endure the atrocity that was the first three episodes of Ultraforce all in one go last week. Also, when I was planning out the prototype version of what would eventually become this website, MMPR was pretty much one of the two series that made it to the finals. So yeah, I have quite a few of these in the idea pile. I’ll try to space them out so they don’t get too annoying, but yeah.

Besides, with a concept like “Power Rangers Vs Frankenstein”, tell me that doesn’t grab your attention. 

“Um, actually, the monster wasn’t called Frankenstein. The monster’s name was Adam, and the doctor who created him was Frankenstein. You’d know that if you weren’t a total fucking noob, you loser.”

Hey, man, don’t look at me. The show refers to him as Frankenstein. Or rather, Franky, but we all know better.

And if you still think I’m yanking your chain, BEHOLD!

Here’s Frankenstein, fresh out of Finster’s bizarre little monster oven thing. I got to admit, it feels kind of lazy, just giving Rita a royalty-free Frankenstein’s monster like that. Sure, you could argue that the REAL plot was that they were harvesting “super putty”, and needed something to distract the power rangers, but even then, it felt like Finster was running out of ideas. Oh well, I guess they all can’t be winners.

While Rita and her band of bumbling idiots harvest super putty, there’s a costume party going on down on Earth. The power rangers volunteer to help out, because they’re shining beacons of hope and pillars of society that all children should aspire to be. Bulk and Skull are helping out because it’s probably part of their court-mandated community service. and once the party actually gets started, Franky comes along and crashes it.

Unfortunately, instead of everybody running in terror, everybody, including the rangers themselves for a while, think Franky’s just some rando in the second best costume. SPOILER: this ends up being the best.

Yip, that’s right. Alpha5, the annoying comic relief who’s voiced by a guy who finds himself repeating “just a few more years till Invader ZIM, just a few more years till Invader ZIM, … ” to himself over and over again in order to get through most of the material given to him for this show, somehow convinces Zordon to let him take a mental health day, and attend the party. Luckily for him, it’s a costume party, so everybody has no idea he’s a legit robot. Also, robots must have been in that year, because the chicks flock to him like nobody’s business. Seriously, in this episode, Alpha5 got so many bitches, the writing staff contemplated changing his name to Bitches5.

As long as we’re talking costumes, you want to see what costumes the Rangers’ went with? Too bad.

Zack goes as King Tut, Billy goes as Sherlock Holmes, Kimberly goes as… I want to say the princess from Super Mario Brothers? Jason goes as a musketeer, and Trini… Well, if my understanding is correct, Trini would probably be on the verge of getting canceled if she were white. But she’s not, and wokie logic gets a little awkward when addressing Asian woman dressing as native Americans.

Of course, I say all this knowing that this is a show that made the black guy the black ranger, an Asian woman the yellow ranger, and somewhere in the middle of adapting this to English speaking audiences, forgot that the yellow ranger was actually a boy in the original footage. So maybe I’m overthinking this.

But to me, the real MVPs of this episode were Bulk and Skull.

I probably glanced over Bulk and Skull in previous articles about this show, and that was in large part due to the fact they were barely an afterthought in those episodes. Here, they’re a lot more involved, and… Upon watching this as an adult, it’s probably some of their best work on the show.

There’s a segment in the episode where Bulk and Skull try on different costumes. Including, but not limited to…

And, of course, my personal favorite…

SIDE NOTE: Contrary to popular belief, a lot of 90s kids actually did know who Elvis was. All be it in the form of that conspiracy theory our parents used to spread about how Elvis actually isn’t dead, but rather, he was alive and living in [INSERT LOCATION HERE]. It was like the kid-friendly version of the JFK conspiracy theory.

After a humorous little montage, though, Bulk and Skull finally decide on costumes. And their big costume idea… Is to go as themselves. Well, technically, they’re going as punks, but they were punks before. Or at least what the people writing the show thought were punks, anyway. All the same, though, when you cut through the bullshit, my point stands. They literally go to a costume party as themselves. I genuinely can’t decide if that’s brilliant, or stupid. It’s definitely Bulk and Skull, and it definitely got a chuckle out of me upon rewatching this episode for screencaps, that’s for sure.

Oh, and here’s the guy who runs the juice bar.

He says he’s going as Dracula, but he reminds me a lot more of that Count Floyd guy. If you’ve never heard of Count Floyd… Yeah, I don’t blame you. The fact I even know who Count Floyd is surprises me as well. But I digress.

Eventually, the rangers figure out that the Frankenstein wandering around the party, picking up chicks and punching out assholes who think they’re funny isn’t Tommy like they originally thought. The battle ensues, the monster grows, the Megazord is formed… And from here, it ends up being one of the better zord battle sequences. It’s a nice long battle, only breaking once so we can see Tommy kick some putty patrol ass before morphing to the scene of the battle.

Although I have to wonder: were those super putties or not? The episode makes a big deal about harvesting super putty, but those looked, and acted like pretty standard putties to me. They probably just held on to the super putty for the time being, and used it in a later episode, I guess. I don’t know.

All I do know is the monster gets destroyed, Rita complains about having a headache, and Alpha5 ends up winning the costume contest. And every guy at the party who isn’t a power ranger gets angry at him because he stole all their bitches. Whatever, Alpha5 deserves all the bitches he can get for having to spout out some of the lines he does.

OVERALL: the monster fight was pretty good, but upon rewatching this in my adult years, I weirdly got more enjoyment out of the costume party. I don’t know, just something about watching one of the monsters of the day actually passing for normal and getting to dance with one of the few bitches Alpha5 didn’t score amused me. The fact Bulk and Skull went as Bulk and Skull also got a bit of a chuckle out of me. Really, the idea that Finster willingly just made a low-budget Frankenstein that looks like something out of Hammer horror and didn’t even get called out for half-assing it this week was a little amusing as well.

Whatever the reason may be, this episode remains one of my favorites to this very day.