Zeo is definitely a step up from Mighty Morphin. The story arcs continue to improve, and the characters begin to evolve and grow. Quite honestly, the Rangers needed this, as they were incredibly bland during the Mighty Morphin days. While they never become well-rounded, they finally move away from being simple cardboard. The Machine Empire, while not as entertaining as Zedd & crew, was much more threatening, and felt like a genuine force to be reckoned with. The only exception to this is Prince Sprocket, who was an annoying twerp. This did diminish as time went on, but not nearly as quickly as Zedd's menace evaporated. Billy was given a very interesting role here, and it's a shame that he wasn't the Gold Ranger. That was the weakest arc, due to the lackluster resolution to the mystery. We get all this build-up, all these clues, and it ends up being some random guy we've never seen before. Well, props for not taking the obvious choice. However, that's really where the season's main problem lies: there was so much wasted potential. The replacement villains in the Machine Empire frankly didn't work as well as King Mondo, and the brainwashing of Tommy was over fairly quickly. Plus, it would've been really easy for the Empire to win if they had simply launched a full-scale assault instead of relying on the same tactics as Zedd and Rita. This isn't to say the season was bad, rather, it was fairly good, it just could've been better. Bulk and Skull continued to be great, and Lt. Stone was a good foil for the two, even if he did ultimately care about them. They continued to display their growth, voluntarily leaving the Jr. Police after learning their antics got Stone fired. Rita & Zedd were good as well, and their return late in the season was welcome. The new music was nice too, giving Zeo a sense of epicness. Overall, it was a success, and proved that Power Rangers could make the suit swap work. Unfortunately, it couldn't last, and next we would get Turbo.
Stronger Than Before
Zeo is definitely a step up from Mighty Morphin. The story arcs continue to improve, and the characters begin to evolve and grow. Quite honestly, the Rangers needed this, as they were incredibly bland during the Mighty Morphin days. While they never become well-rounded, they finally move away from being simple cardboard. The Machine Empire, while not as entertaining as Zedd & crew, was much more threatening, and felt like a genuine force to be reckoned with. The only exception to this is Prince Sprocket, who was an annoying twerp. This did diminish as time went on, but not nearly as quickly as Zedd's menace evaporated. Billy was given a very interesting role here, and it's a shame that he wasn't the Gold Ranger. That was the weakest arc, due to the lackluster resolution to the mystery. We get all this build-up, all these clues, and it ends up being some random guy we've never seen before. Well, props for not taking the obvious choice. However, that's really where the season's main problem lies: there was so much wasted potential. The replacement villains in the Machine Empire frankly didn't work as well as King Mondo, and the brainwashing of Tommy was over fairly quickly. Plus, it would've been really easy for the Empire to win if they had simply launched a full-scale assault instead of relying on the same tactics as Zedd and Rita. This isn't to say the season was bad, rather, it was fairly good, it just could've been better. Bulk and Skull continued to be great, and Lt. Stone was a good foil for the two, even if he did ultimately care about them. They continued to display their growth, voluntarily leaving the Jr. Police after learning their antics got Stone fired. Rita & Zedd were good as well, and their return late in the season was welcome. The new music was nice too, giving Zeo a sense of epicness. Overall, it was a success, and proved that Power Rangers could make the suit swap work. Unfortunately, it couldn't last, and next we would get Turbo.