[Remus Lupin]

Double Posting because it would not let me post the entire post in one.

Then ... an almost tragedy. Wild Force. I attempted a rewatch of this series a few years ago and could not get past episode 5. I just finished a new rewatch where I was able to get through the entire series. When the series started, the acting and writing were probably the worst in the entire franchise. The only Ranger I could stand, at first, was Taylor and she was not even that fantastic. She's just passable. She's gotten slightly worse as the episodes went on ... but not much. Then, somehow, the series started actually getting slightly better. The writing never did improve much, but the acting (for the most part) did. Cole's acting in Forever Red was still terrible. Danny never did improve, but the rest of the cast did improve a bit. Forever Red was a decent Anniversary special. Despite Cole being in it, having every other past Red Ranger (except the original actor who played Aurico) made that episode is a decent episode. Except for the fact that a frickin' motorcycle destroyed what was supposed to be the most incredible evil Zord ever made -- Serpentera. Also, it seems like the director of the episode just didn't care about acting because this was a "fanwank" episode. Guess he thought that all that mattered was just making the episode. Even the editing was off. Sometimes there would be way too much space between character's exchanges or awkward looks/stances. Anyway, I made it through the rewatch and the series did rise above even Turbo.

Thankfully, it seems Disney learned a lesson with Wild Force. Ninja Storm was VASTLY better in every single way. I don't remember having any gripes about this series. The characters were completely believable and the actors did a fantastic job portraying them. This was, in my opinion, one of the three best Disney produced series. It had it all ... comedy, drama, a love story (Tori/Blake) and the internal conflict of knowing you have to fight your own family to save the world. Even if they didn't consider Lothor part of their family anymore ... he still was. The weirdest part, for me, with my rewatch was hearing Sally Martin (Tori) speaking with an American Accent instead of her native New Zealand accent. I haven't watched Ninja Storm in years ... but over the past 3 years, I've watched the entirety of Welcome to Paradise (a New Zealand show starting PR Alums Sally Martin and Holly Shanahan) probably at least 20 times. It's only 13 episodes and easy to just put on and listen to while you're working. There was no change in my ranking of the series, as it stayed right below Dino Thunder.

The second best, in my opinion, would be Dino Thunder. And a big part of that, honestly, was having Jason David Frank back and seeing that he is a much better actor now than he was before. I do have a problem with the fact that he was crystalized and then stuck in Ranger Form and then made invisible. I just don't know why they decided to do all that. It made absolutely no story sense to me. If it was just so they could do the Fighting Spirit episode, then they could've had Tommy lose in a battle really bad ... have him attacked so hard that he ends up in a coma. Anyway, I digress. I also have to give it props for something that other fans seem to give it hell for ... Lost and Found in Translation. I loved seeing the Abaranger episode ... even if it was horribly translated. I'm basically just giving it props for seeing Asuka-kun-tachi! Abaranger is one of my favorite series in Sentai. I just wish it had been an episode with Nakadai-sensei ... the best character EVER in the entirety of Sentai! That's my only real gripe with DinoThunder -- Trent. I don't think that Trent lived up to the level of evil that Nakadai-sensei reached. They made him good again too quickly. in Abaranger, Nakadai Mikoto was evil, but eventually started struggling with it and didn't fully decide to help the other Abarangers until around episode 47. So, I just think Trent was mishandled.

SPD was a bit of a step back for a couple reasons. My biggest problem was Sam. I mean, come ON! A ranger is a frickin' ball of light? Really? Fail! He is really the only big problem that I remembered when I originally wrote this. I thought the acting and writing were decent and the production value was pretty good as well. However, after watching it again, the acting was mostly decent, for the most part, when they were NOT morphed. However, the ADR was really terribly written and acted. In fact, Rene Naufahu was even a better actor than he is in Samurai! Weird! He's TERRIBLE in Samurai ... but as Grumm and his human counterpart (the one time we saw it), I really loved his acting. I don't know what it is. Even when he was in the Matrix movies ... he did a great job with his incredibly small role. Maybe it's the new production team. I don't know. Now, I will add one thing. While I think SPD was a step back for Disney ... they still gave us one of my all-time Favorite characters ... Bridge Carson! He's probably my favorite ranger comic relief ever! Also ... Matt Austin is one of the best actors in the entire franchise ... so he brought a lot to the role that someone else probably wouldn't have. Plus ... "it's **wiggles fingers** buttery." Now, I think this was the last PR series I saw before I saw it's Sentai Counterpart. In fact, I may have watched them almost at the same time. Still, I miss DekaBright. I know she kinda shows up in the finale ... but only briefly. Then again, she's not around much in Dekaranger, but she's at least around for one episode, but it was still an entire episode instead of like Nova Ranger -- just showing up at the end to help in the final fight (a bit) and then take Sam "back to the future." Then, let's not forget the incredible Ms. Kat Manx! She was an amazing second in command to Kruger and often kept him grounded. Then, you can't forget about the fact that she was drop dead gorgeous! At least, that was my opinion. Also, her acting was, like Matt Austin's, some of the best in the entire franchise. Another problem I have is that this was the beginning of the much lamented "wire-fu." I'm sure it was used a bit in Ninja Storm and Dino Thunder, but it was not as obvious nor did it feel as out of place as it did starting with SPD.

Speaking of comic relief ... I find it hilarious that they go from having the best comic relief ranger to probably the worst ever in the very next series. Among it's many problems ... Mystic Force's Chip was unbearable! Also, the production value of the entire series dropped for me here. Most of the actors were terrible. The only one I really liked was Melanie Vallejo. After the rewatch ... that still stands true. However, I do think that Barnie Duncan (Toby) and Holly Shanahan were very good in their roles as well. Now, there was one episode where Nick and Xander were arguing and during that argument ... I actually believed what they were putting out there. But that was the only time that I believed those two. There was not much to update here ... everything pretty much stayed the same. While the whole series was not a failure ... I don't think it was the worst that was under Disney's umbrella.

That title would fall to Operation Overdrive! I've just finished my rewatch, as painful as it was, and I can definitely say that it is the worst series under Disney's umbrella. As I remember, it was everything I could do to keep watching this show through to the end the first time and it was the same this time. There was so much fail in that show. The writing was the worst it's ever been and the acting was just as terrible. I HATED that they squeezed the 16:9 source footage into 4:3! I honestly just hated the characters and didn't really care anything for the show. If I remember correctly ... the only thing that really kept me watching the first time was Spencer ... the butler! Now, on the rewatch, I noticed that there were some other decent characters/actors. The woman who played Tyzonn's girlfriend ... she was pretty decent. Kelson Henderson was fantastic as Zorg and Flurious was pretty decent too. Then, there's also the fact that Operation Overdrive gave us "Once A Ranger" bringing back four of my favorite rangers of all time! I'd have preferred someone else from Mystic Force ... perhaps Madison and then change out Tori for Cam or Dustin if they were dead set on just two female legendary rangers. But ... Adam was back and he was fantastic! Bridge was back as Red and explained things in his typical way AND got some **wiggles fingers** buttery toast! But, Alpha 6 was terribly done. They put so many effects on the ADR voice that you could barely understand what he was saying! But other than those very few good things about the series ... Operation Overdrive was, in my opinion, a colossal failure!