Power Rangers Dino Charge: The Ghostest With The Mostest Review

This Power Rangers Dino Charge review contains spoilers.

Power Rangers Dino Charge episode 13.

Let’s be real here. Clip shows suck. I don’t care what show it is. I don’t care how inventive they get. Clip shows, as necessary as they are in TV, suck. Even the king of clip shows, Xena: Warrior Princess, couldn’t make them totally work. Even if you can do something fun and inventive with the clips, as Xena did, you’re still seeing old content. No one needs that these days when we can watch episodes whenever we want, especially for a show still so early in its overall run. Power Rangers, especially in the Disney years, would tend to let its clip shows fall towards the end of a season and I wish that was still a thing.  Well, okay I wish clip shows didn’t have to exist at all but if they need to happen? Let them happen at the end.

Oh sure, technically plain ol’ Dino Charge is almost done but Dino Super Charge really is just the back half of the story. Are these clip shows pretty much mandated by Nickelodeon? Yes. So… We’re stuck with them. So how does this clip show fair? Pretty okay! It doesn’t rely on the clips too much and weaves them into a nice little mystery. Which Ranger was copied by Duplicator? I honestly thought it wasn’t even going to be a Ranger that was copied but a random civilian. But the reveal that it was Koda? That was subtle. Not what you expect out of a Power Rangers mystery. Big kudos to Mark Litton and Chip Lynn for pulling that off.

They even used the clips to forward the Tyler/Shelby romance a bit, although I have to wonder if Shelby was thinking about using the new Cupid Charger on Tyler. That would have been… awful? But hey, she’s a young kid. Of course she’d think about it. Instead we got Chase falling in love with himself. I honestly thought they were going to go for a, “Oh man, Chase falls for a guy, isn’t dudes hitting on each other hilarious?!” Thankfully that wasn’t the case.

The real star of this week was Curio. Man, we don’t know a lot about that guy but he’s all about candy. He really just wants to have fun. He could care less about terrorizing people. He just wants to watch his shows with Poisandra and eat. Watching TV and eating are his favorite things? Yo Curio, you’re my boy now. Is Curio a boy? You’re my monster! Oh wait, does that have a negative connotation? Uh… you’re my living being! Yeah, yeah that’s right. You go Curio. Four for you, Curio.

You know, for not doing a whole lot? Sledge is still great! He even feels the need point out, “I am so smart!” And the plan to reanimate a monster solely to collect the bounty? That’s smart! He can use the monsters as cannon fodder and still collect those sweet dollar bills. Sledge knows what’s up.

But yeah, this episode was above average for a clip show. But it was still a clip show. So it’s forgettable. Can’t win them all.

STRAY THOUGHTS:

-Kendall was REALLY into figuring out who was a fake. That dramatic turn she had towards the end? Classic.

-I’m constantly amazed how Dino Charge takes the sillier aspects of Kyoryuger (this week being the Cupid Charger) and making them sort of make sense.

-I haven’t mentioned this for a while so I’ll reiterate it. Every Dino Charge episode should be bookended with a Ryan Steele voiceover from Tyler about how much he misses his Dad. Come on Judd, I know you totally read these. You can still make it happen. I believe! And hey, Mark Litton wrote for VR Troopers as well. COME ON GUYS. I don’t ask for much.