Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel Episode 15 Review: Tech Support

This Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel review contains spoilers.

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel Episode 15

Did you know we’re about five episodes away from the finale? You’d be forgiven if you forgot, considering Super Ninja Steel is still acting like we’re in the first half of any standard Power Rangers season. Five episodes (not counting holiday clip shows) before we say goodbye to these characters and we’re still doing throwaway episodes that add nothing to them or the plot.

Why is that? Why does it feel like Power Rangers has given up trying to tell engaging stories across a whole season and is content with mediocre at best one offs? Why doesn’t it feel like Power Rangers is ever reaching for more? Why does it feel like nearly every episode of Ninja Steel was met with a shrug of “eh, good enough. This crap is for kids. Who cares?”

Just look at Emma, specifically her name. It hasn’t been that long since Megaforce, you know, the season with a character named Emma. Why does no one check this stuff? Why did no one at Saban Brands go, “hey, we just used that name recently. Maybe pick something else.”

This isn’t a new problem. Dino Super Charge named a one off character Zach. You know, the name of one of the original MMPR Rangers. It screams of laziness. Even though the show is meant for kids that’s no excuse for this poor level of quality control.

It makes you wonder who is signing off on these scripts. Fans like to lay blame on the feet of various writers or producers (and much of what they guess is probably wrong) but at the end of the day someone is rubber-stamping all this. Someone is totally fine with endless Victor and Monty gags involving farts and food.  Someone is fine with the Ninja Steel Rangers being bland as hell, making Emma seem delightful and a joy to watch in comparison.

Is no one reading these scripts? Is no one stopping them before the go into production to say, “Hey, maybe we can do better?” Even worse, are people raising these concerns but someone at the top just shrugs their shoulders and go, “eh, it’s for kids. Whatever.”

Power Rangers Super Ninja Steel feels lifeless. This episode wasn’t bad but it did nothing to stand out. It was just there. It was 23 minutes of content that was tossed out into the world and will be quickly swallowed up by the void, only remembered by the most die hard of Power Rangers fans.

It begs the question, if the people in charge of this franchise are fine with this level of apathy, why should anyone care about it? 

Shamus Kelley is a pop culture/television writer and official Power Rangers expert. Follow him on Twitter! Read more articles by him here!