I'm quite pleased with the cast of "Dino Charge," the 22nd season of the Power Rangers franchise, which premiered on Nickelodeon on Feb. 7, 2015. The new actors all have high degrees of charm, energy and charisma and their characters are more interesting and more layered than the individual rangers have been in some time (possibly since "Jungle Fury" in 2008). They're also older than the Rangers have been in a while. These aren't high school kids but young adults just past college age and venturing out into the working world for the first time. In a historic first for this franchise, this lineup marks the first time there's been only one female ranger in the initial lineup. (Later episodes promise more rangers, so presumably at least one will be female.) The female ranger here is the Pink Ranger, of course, and the character, Shelby, is played by a black American actress (Camille Hyde), making her the first black Pink Ranger ever. Not only that, but she's the first black female ranger in 14 years—since Yellow Ranger Katie Walker (Deborah Estelle Philips) in "Power Rangers Time Force" back in 2001. (In Japan, most of the early sentai seasons traditionally had only one female ranger, even "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger," the basis for "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," which turned the male Yellow Ranger from the original into a female for the American version.)
Shelby also happens to be the most compelling character here given her extensive knowledge of dinosaurs and the constant need to prove herself in her efforts to make a real impact on the Rangers' mission. She also expresses dissatisfaction at having to work as a waitress in the cafeteria of the Amber Beach Dinosaur Museum during her downtime when she's got so much paleontological knowledge to share. (In all fairness, the other Rangers have to do drudge work in the museum also, while still being on call to morph into Rangers at a moment's notice.) Their supervisor, Kendall Morgan (Claire Blackwelder), also director of the museum, which houses the laboratory base of Power Rangers operations, is a white female who has some prickly exchanges with Shelby. Anyone who's observed black female workers in an office setting with white female supervisors will recognize some of the dynamic at play here. The two female characters dominate the drama in episode #7: "Let Sleeping Zords Lie."
The four male rangers are all personable, endearing characters, each with different backgrounds. Tyler, the Red Ranger (played by Brennan Mejia), is a young man of color, but of indeterminate ethnic origin (I'm guessing Mejia is Hispanic, thanks to his last name and Los Angeles birthplace.) Tyler's father was an archaeologist who disappeared after tangling with one of the lead villains here, a monstrous armored warrior called Fury, who Tyler gets into a serious battle with in episode #8 ("Double Ranger, Double Danger"). Tyler hopes to find his father or at least learn his fate. He keeps a journal and sometimes narrates his thoughts about the others. Koda, the Blue Ranger, is a caveman who has somehow been revived after being buried alive a few thousand millennia ago during a confrontation with one of the ancient villains they're now facing. (It's all explained in #4: "Return of the Caveman") He's played by Yoshua Sudarso, from Indonesia, as someone new to the modern world and struggling with the language and the new technologies he witnesses around him. Riley, the Green Ranger, is a white farm boy (played by Michael Taber), newly arrived in the city, who has a very precise way of doing things, which sometimes puts him at odds with the Black Ranger, Chase Randall (James Davies), a white slacker from New Zealand given to riding a skateboard with headphones on. One episode (#6: "The Tooth Hurts") shows their contentious relationship and how they learn to adapt their working methods to each other. It's a highlight of the series so far because of the way it develops the characters and their working relationships, something not always given much attention in past PR seasons.
Even though the series is shot in New Zealand, as have the previous eleven seasons (since "Power Rangers Ninja Storm," 2003), this season appears to take place in California. One can only surmise that Amber Beach is a neighbor of Angel Grove (hometown of the first few seasons of Power Rangers). The series is adapted from "Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger," the 2013 sentai season in Japan, one of three sentai seasons with a dinosaur theme, the first being "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger," the aforementioned basis for the original "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers." Since I'm following "Kyoryuger" episodes as well, I am happy to note that much of the Power Rangers fight footage in "Dino Charge" and most of the villain scenes seem to be newly shot in New Zealand for this version while the Zord battles, which take up the last five minutes, are, as usual, taken from the Japanese original.
As of this writing, there have been only eight episodes of "Dino Charge" aired on Nickelodeon. (I watched them all.) "Kyoryuger" had 48 episodes. Last year there were only 19 episodes total for "Power Rangers Super Megaforce," while the sentai basis for that series, "Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger," boasted 51 episodes. I'm not sure why production seems to be curtailed on the U.S. version, especially since these recent seasons have been so good. Oh, and I like the theme song as well.
ADDENDUM (12/12/15): There have been 14 additional episodes since I did the above review. Three new Rangers have appeared, with one (Gold Ranger) joining the team as a regular member and the others appearing intermittently ("Graphite Ranger" and Purple Ranger). This means there have been a total of eight Rangers so far this season. That's gotta be a record. And based on its conclusion, it looks like today's episode, "One More Energem," is the final one. It was a great season.
