What I like about RPM is that we get a glimpse into the world where the bad guys won which ended up with the world turning into a terminator, mad max, and the road warriors sort of hells cape (just without the major violence and swearing.) but even when things are at its worst the Power Rangers still manage to save the day.

I think it’s interesting that we ended up with this season right around the time the Power Rangers series was being dropped from the Disney lineup as a whole. It was plagued with production issues changes in lead writers and producers and still managed to one of the best seasons in the series. I see this as an example of hope and change when everything feels like it’s coming to an end. And also its example of “if we’re going to go out we’re going to go out with a bang,” something that is reflected in the series.

So What Was So Amazing About This Season?

If you were to ask me this question five years ago I would have said that it was awesome because it was Dark. It was a season that wasn’t so happy and perky like the seasons that came before it. It was teen show that tackled the end of the world with nuance. But that’s coming from my limited understanding of it.

But now after watching it again, what really makes this season so great is how it displays the parallel between Hope and Despair. When we first get introduced to RPM we see the world outside of Corinth has turned into a wasteland. The world’s color is gone leaving everything in sepia and dusk like haze. Everything is rusted and tattered. The people have become vagabonds or enslaved to the machines. People are escaping into the city leaving behind everything including losing love ones. Everything is serious and urgent. This subverts the utopian setting that we are normally accustomed to in the series.

However the Power Rangers in this season adds something to the world, better yet changes world themselves. A running joke in the season is about the Ranger’s Suits being color spandex suits and how they look “goofy” in them and Dr. K always reprimands the rangers for their suit comments. And at first glance this just seems like joke that was just thrown in the show for a quick laugh but the emphasis put on the suits repeatedly has some interesting themes on their own.

When we see the rangers in action in Corinth City they just look like your average rangers. The action scenes are goofy (like fighting with a baby stroller in the park), the colors are flashy for no apparent reason, they have on tire Heelys…it’s something we’ve come to expect from Power Rangers. However, it’s when we see them adventuring outside of Corinth that the suits kind of change or at least how they’re seen is changed.

In a world where everything is a wasteland you would think that a bunch of colorful “not spandex” heroes would look out of place and a spectacle. And yet, when you see them in action, rescuing civilians, and taking down machines they look like a beacon of hope. In a world gone colorless, hazy, and full of despair a team of color heroes bringing hope and levity is needed. And without realizing it, every time the rangers sprang into action against Venjex the world slowly became more hopeful, lively, and colorful.

Something I thought was a nice additional touch to this theme was the flower introduced in episode one. Like the rest of the world it is dying, and Dillon who isn’t known to be the self-sacrificing gives up the last of his water to save the flower, when we return to that same flower at the end of the series it springs up life as something can now grow beautiful in this world.

RPM is interesting because it isn’t a show about saving the world. The world (at least as they know it) is already destroyed. And while the show frames itself as “saving what’s left” it really is a show about rebuilding what was once lost (from Scott’s relationship with his father to Cities outside of Corinth) and also growing from that loss (Ziggy becoming reliable, The flower in the rubble, and Dr. K finding the true meaning of being ‘free’.) And its nuances like that that make this show an amazing watch.