The audiovisual begins to resemble the myth of the eternal return: to the always eternal remakes, reboots and sequels now meetings are added, those specials in which the cast of a series meets again so that the spectators can see what has become of them. We’ve seen it in ‘Punky Brewster’, ‘Future Parents’ and even ‘Saved by the Bell’: in the huge insatiable appetite for the most absurd nostalgia, someone at Netflix has decided to carry out a ‘Power Rangers’ special with the team of a lifetime The problem is that the line between “nostalgia” and “old age” is very, very fine.
Old, Old, Power Rangers
Saban’s franchise will never be what it was in the ’90s, when the first two seasons of ‘Mighty Morphin Power Rangers’ were the first mainstream approach of western society to super sentai and unleashed a little “rangers mania”. Despite the fact that seasons continue to come out like cakes (with the thirtieth about to be released) and that more than decent reboot attempt from 2017, the saga has found a new voice thanks to its comic book saga, which for almost a decade has shown that it can be modernized and tell new stories without having to resort to the usual clichés over and over again.
Based on this ‘Power Rangers’ update, something very interesting could have come out of ‘Yesterday, Today and Forever’. But, sadly, the writers have decided to take the most predictable path, capitalizing on the nostalgia of a few and without trying to offer something beyond the most basic: putties, Rita Repulsa, a couple of characters from the original series, four other secondary ones, the Megazord and a return to basics that in 1993 it could be surprising but thirty years later it does not measure up.
‘Power Rangers: Yesterday, Today and Forever’ tries to encapsulate in less than an hour a plot that, far from being an epic comeback, It seems, even for the characters themselves, a way to fulfill the ballot. It wants to be a tribute to the legacy of the series, but it consciously ignores everything that has happened beyond 1995. In fact, not even the return of the evil Rita is canonical: in ‘Power Rangers in Space’, Zordon dies to turn her into a kind being, who would even become known as “empress of all good magic”. Anything goes to please the most nostalgic… Even not being true to yourself.
watered down tribute
As a special episode in honor of Thuy Trang it would have been curious to see the other four Rangers feeling their loss. However, the death of Jason David Frank in 2022 and the refusal of Amy Jo Johnson to participate makes it inevitable to think that, in the mere pre-production of the event, it should have been canceled or significantly modified so as not to seem so watered down. Having all the ingredients for a decent special, the most absurd continuity has created a depressing recipe.
Not that ‘Power Rangers’ scripts were ever impressive, but they were better than this. In its desire to be absurdly continuous visually and thematically, ‘Yesterday, today and always’ refuses to offer any kind of surprisefrom the appearance of Alpha (in its ninth version), who had not been on the screen for 16 years, to the cheap CGI in the fight scenes between giants. Wanting to maintain the charm, what they have done is scratch the mere surface becoming a pastiche scoop.
Nostalgia is a double-edged knife that is difficult to successfully cross: it is very easy to stay in the simple “Do you remember this series?” in the Memberberries style (an essential incision of the current audiovisual life that was shown in ‘South Park’), but what really adds value is updating the product enough so that it seems both modern and old at the same time. The Netflix special is exactly an episode from the 90s but with some faded Rangers and a not particularly brilliant script. It shows that there is no affection put into it. I wish there was.
Pterodactyl Dinozord!
If you’ve been waiting years for a return of “your” Power Rangers, this might not be what you expected. It’s more, works best as the pilot episode of a very low-budget series that was never finished that as epic last adventure of the characters. In an hour, this belated sequel crams everything it can into the same pot: Trini’s daughter, putty fights, characters from three different series, an inconceivable plan by Rita Repulsa and only two enemies with more or less strength.
It is clear that ‘Power Rangers’ was a product for children. Even now it still is. But ‘Yesterday, today and always’ is aimed at those kids from before who are now adults: by not risking changing the childish tone and, at the same time, trying to tell an adult story, the shock is too strong to be able to enjoy at ease some martial arts fights that lack the affection of the Japanese whose images were once shamelessly stolen.
If you’re a series completionist, you might be able to enjoy this special, but if you’re looking for a nostalgia shot, ‘Power Rangers: Yesterday, Today and Forever’ does not measure up under any circumstances, not even as a circus curiosity. It is one of the biggest disasters we have seen on a screen in recent years, an absolute disappointment that would have been very, very easy to hit and hit us in the middle of childhood. For this it was not worthwhile to metamorphose again.
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