Sorry for the double post, but it seems appropriate to put a new-episode review in a separate post:
Well, "Silver Lining Part 2" went surprisingly dark with Orion's backstory. This is a franchise that usually avoids the death of human or humanlike beings, except in rare cases like Cole's parents and Master Org in Wild Force. But here, they essentially showed the extermination of an entire planetary population -- well, implied rather than showed, but even if it was offscreen, they're all pretty clearly dead. And since this is totally unlike the Gokaiger version (where the main team are aliens and the sixth Ranger is a human Sentai fanboy), it's not like they just adapted the darkness of the Japanese version -- they chose to introduce such a dark backstory themselves. Which is really unexpected from this creative team.
And if they build on the hints here about Orion's personal vendetta maybe getting in the way of being a team player, it could bring some much-needed conflict to the show. But it was addressed so cursorily here that I don't expect much.
Cameron Jebo is okay -- a bit too cool and casual to be convincing as an alien, but then, who expects anything on Power Rangers to be believable? At least he's a more charismatic and expressive lead than Andrew Gray, but then, so is Gosei, the immobile tiki head.
I'm starting to get tired of this show's conceit that the Rangers have to "unlock" certain pre-existing powers and weapons before they can use them, like in a video game. What's the deal, Gosei? These guys are fighting off alien invaders trying to destroy the world, so why are you hampering them by holding back their most powerful weapons until they meet some arbitrary goal?
Well, "Silver Lining Part 2" went surprisingly dark with Orion's backstory. This is a franchise that usually avoids the death of human or humanlike beings, except in rare cases like Cole's parents and Master Org in Wild Force. But here, they essentially showed the extermination of an entire planetary population -- well, implied rather than showed, but even if it was offscreen, they're all pretty clearly dead. And since this is totally unlike the Gokaiger version (where the main team are aliens and the sixth Ranger is a human Sentai fanboy), it's not like they just adapted the darkness of the Japanese version -- they chose to introduce such a dark backstory themselves. Which is really unexpected from this creative team.
And if they build on the hints here about Orion's personal vendetta maybe getting in the way of being a team player, it could bring some much-needed conflict to the show. But it was addressed so cursorily here that I don't expect much.
Cameron Jebo is okay -- a bit too cool and casual to be convincing as an alien, but then, who expects anything on Power Rangers to be believable? At least he's a more charismatic and expressive lead than Andrew Gray, but then, so is Gosei, the immobile tiki head.
I'm starting to get tired of this show's conceit that the Rangers have to "unlock" certain pre-existing powers and weapons before they can use them, like in a video game. What's the deal, Gosei? These guys are fighting off alien invaders trying to destroy the world, so why are you hampering them by holding back their most powerful weapons until they meet some arbitrary goal?
Not complaining though. 
It's solidly designed and has three basic sound effects and three musical effects, which are accessed by holding the mouthpiece button first. These include the MMPR theme, the Dragonzord's theme and the Zord combination theme.
There's a new Dragonzord figure coming out soon, and I can't decide if I really want to spend the huge dough on the Legacy Megazord so that the two can combine. I'll have to see.
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