POWER RANGERS BEAST MORPHERS (2019-20)
Adapted from Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
Hasbro Era
It's certainly been awhile since I've talked about Power Rangers. I'm a little late on this one than I thought I'd be, but it's time to talk about Beast Morphers, the first season of the Hasbro era of the franchise and the direct sequel to my all-time favorite season, RPM.
To be clear, Beast Morphers appears to take place in the main Ranger timeline that began with Mighty Morphin'. What connects it to RPM though (in addition to appearances from Dr. K and Colonel Truman) is the return of Venjix (going by the name Evox for a majority of the series), marking the first time that a main villain from a previous season returns to fill the same capacity. When this is revealed, they sell the dread very well and gave me goosebumps. This is the artificial intelligence that all but conquered his dimension's Earth; since his defeat, he's bid his time for years, surely growing vengeful the longer he waited, and his goals now seem multiversal. If anything, Beast Morphers once again sells Venjix as the franchise's most dangerous villain.
It actually seems overall fitting that a bridge was built between RPM and Beast Morphers. For one, the team symbols have very similar designs (hell, even their Sentai source footage have similar names with Go-Onger and Go-Busters, even though those series aren't connected).
But for a comparison with more substance, the plots are also pretty much the same: a Ranger team with a motif of animals and vehicles protecting their world from a computer virus and its army of robots. Even if they didn't bring Venjix back, Beast Morphers can be seen as the main timeline's version of RPM's events and very well could have been similar to what RPM could have been had they taken the light-hearted approach instead of going post-apocalyptic. Hell, Beast Morphers even includes robot animal sidekicks for the Rangers that help pilot their zords, which is similar to what Go-Onger did where their zords were actually sentient and could talk (an aspect that wasn't carried over to RPM considering the route they took). I guess the difference is that considering the main timeline has had far more Ranger teams than RPM's, they've had more experience in preparing resistance to a threat like Venjix but not taking it lightly.
Character wise, there's not too much to say about the initial three Rangers. Red Ranger Devon is a gamer who has a strained relationship with his father but doesn't get much of a character arc once they finally see eye to eye. Yellow Ranger Zoey has a very girl next door personality who has a penchant to help the environment but it doesn't come up too much. Blue Ranger Ravi probably has the most complex arc of the three, being the son of Grid Battleforce's commander and expected to follow in her footsteps but has a passion for painting he doesn't want to reveal out of fear of disappointment; much like Devon and his father though, there's not much arc for Ravi once this is also resolved.
My favorite Rangers of the season though are the ones that join later in Nate and Steel. Nate is a child prodigy and the lead scientist at Grid Battleforce, developing the Rangers' powers, arsenal, and zords. When he's kidnapped by the villains to build a robot body for Evox, he's able to trick them by using the tools at his disposal to become the Gold Ranger. As a byproduct though, the robot body somehow becomes sentient and acquires Silver Ranger powers; and if the science behind that isn't questionable enough, the robot also becomes infused with Nate's DNA and is designated as his brother, naming him Steel. Nate's creation of Steel helps fulfill a wish he had for a sibling given he was an only child and had parents who worked overseas most of his life; there are some clear abandonment issues there and it's something that does get nicely resolved in the series. Steel is essentially Nate's idea of an ideal brother: cool, somewhat smug, but caring above all else. While he is mostly robot, Steel repeatedly points out that he's part human and attempts many times through the series to feel more like one, wanting to appreciate the little things some humans may take for granted like eating or owning a pet; it actually makes for some of the most entertaining episodes. Steel's a very unique Ranger in the franchise in that despite not having facial features to express, the show still does a good job at giving him arcs and character moments; compare that to Sam from SPD where he was always morphed or a ball of light throughout that season and had basically nothing else going for him. Despite their differences, the brothers essentially help each other grow.
The main comic relief of the season are the characters of Ben and Betty, employees at Grid Battleforce who pretty much have jobs because their dad is the leading general. The main schtick is that they're very clumsy with their attempts to help usually resulting in physical comedy. While I guess some found them annoying, I found them very entertaining and pretty funny; I feel like it's what it would be like if Awkwafina and Jacob Batalon were a comedy duo. What I really liked is that they always had this upbeat personality that never faltered despite how things go awry for them so often. There are a few times where they do get a win and successfully contribute help to the Rangers, but I really wish they had a bigger role in the final episodes similar to Bulk and Skull as the Zordon era came to an end.
There isn't much difference production wise as we transition from the Neo-Saban era to Hasbro since much of the same people behind the show carried over despite the change of ownership. The only thing that seems affected going forward is the theme song. The Beast Morphers theme is serviceable if not simple, being another remix of "Go Go Power Rangers" with a few new lyrics. It's also really short and it took me awhile to realize that only the Rangers were featured in the opening credits with none of the other regular cast members serving as supporting cast or human looking villains as all previous seasons have done, which I feel slightly diminishes those characters' importance to the series. The biggest problem though is that the theme song now doesn't start until a third of the way into an episode, basically when the main action has already started. If they're not going to begin an episode with the theme or play it after a cold opening, then why even bother doing a theme anymore?
One of my favorite plotlines of the season, albeit a short lived one, was Devon receiving a Fury Mode that while powerful was corrupting him and his judgment. I found it similar to Spider-Man when he had the Venom symbiote and is something I thought would be a good idea to see in Power Rangers.
Conversely, I have to bring up that I think the worst episode of the season is "Goin' Ape". It's Ravi and his girlfriend Roxy's anniversary and a misunderstanding leads Roxy to believe Ravi is cheating on her, and instead of just explaining things, Ravi turns it around by accusing Roxy of not trusting him. This overdone sitcom/rom-com trope is infuriating enough, but the episode by the end makes it seem like Roxy was in the wrong for accusing Ravi when he was the one who overreacted. I haven't really cursed in a Power Rangers post since talking about Megaforce and Operation Overdrive, but man, f*** this episode.
The season features another major team-up, bringing back the past dinosaur themed teams in Mighty Morphin', Dino Thunder, and Dino Charge. I know what you're thinking; why did a season not having to do with dinosaurs do this? Well, in terms Super Sentai, Kyuryuger (the source of Dino Charge) came after Go-Busters and when it came time for the annual team-up, they decided to celebrate the dino theme by also bringing back the Zyurangers and Abarangers (the sources for Mighty Morphin and Dino Thunder). Beast Morphers decided to adapt this footage, and much like Go-Busters, the team became fourth fiddle for this event, though it feels even worse considering this happened in their own series.
While I would like to say every Ranger of each team came back, Power Rangers unfortunately doesn't have that kind of money. The only Mighty Morphin' alum to return is Austin St. John as Jason while Dino Charge Rangers Tyler, Chase, Koda, and Ivan appear on screen with Shelby and Riley only providing voicework in their Ranger forms. The other Mighty Morphin' Rangers and Dino Thunder team appear only in costume with very minimal dialogue from them in an attempt to not draw attention to the fact it's not the old actors. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't love seeing them all fight together for an extended period of time. I mean, Beast Morphers didn't have to adapt the Go-Busters/Kyuryuger team-up, but I think they knew fans would love some attempt at it if it meant seeing the older teams and even their Megazords working together, not to mention Goldar's own return. And honestly, any kind of effort put in is appreciated after the laziness of Megaforce and their so called "Legendary Battle."
In many ways, Beast Morphers is a culmination season. Along with being an RPM sequel and featuring a team-up with three past Ranger teams, Beast Morphers makes it a point to show that all of Ranger history is connected. Building off the anniversary team-up of Ninja Steel, we see there is regular communication between the different Rangers' timelines, sharing intel and technology. Grid Battleforce even has an archive of past Ranger weapons and morphers donated to study and build off of (in addition to being Easter Eggs for long time fans), an idea touched upon briefly back in SPD.
That being said, I think Beast Morphers is a satisfying season, with good acting and well written episodes with some having real emotional moments. There's nothing to really hate about it (and even the weirder elements I didn't mind this time around), but there's nothing really exceptional either. While there's a lot to like about Beast Morphers in its own right, a lot of what I enjoyed most were its connections and references to past Ranger seasons, which is a problem when you want something to stand out on its own; it'd be like if Tommy kept referencing his old Ranger days in Dino Thunder. Besides that, there were moments throughout the season where I kept seeing similarities and making comparisons to character traits and plot elements from past seasons. I was making a mental list for whenever I got around to this post, but it kind of grew out of control by the end. The few examples I will give are Devon's aforementioned father issues being similar to Wes's in Time Force, Blaze and Roxy reminding me of Jarrod and Camille from Jungle Fury in being able to morph into their own pseudo-Ranger forms, and Nate and Steel joining the team as bug themed Rangers like Hunter and Blake did in Ninja Storm.
I'd say the writing has become uninspired and maybe Hasbro was playing it safe for their first attempt at Power Rangers, but then I had to consider the franchise has gone on for nearly thirty years (and fifty for Super Sentai), so maybe it's becoming harder to come up with new motifs and unique characters; I mean, the season after this one is dinosaur themed again.
Again, I have no ill will towards Beast Morphers. It just seems in some regard that we're at the point where Power Rangers may be showing its age and trying to relive its glory years. We'll have to see if things get better next time for what could very well be the final Power Rangers series...for reals this time. To explain, it was reported in 2020 that Hasbro was cutting ties with Toei, the company that produces Super Sentai, meaning acquiring footage and adapting Sentai will soon be a thing of the past; in conjunction, Hasbro and Netflix are also planning to reboot the Power Rangers franchise with cinematic universe goals in mind (because of course there are). There's also rumors of a 30th Anniversary special next year bringing back the original Mighty Morphin' team to give a proper conclusion to the whole series, but that's getting ahead of ourselves. Between Hasbro working out the bugs of their first production and possibly needing to stick the landing for the whole series, Power Rangers Dino Fury will have a lot to live up to (and I'm hoping to get my thoughts on that season out much faster than this one).
My Rankings of Power Rangers Seasons:
14. Beast Morphers
