You've probably seen at least one of the incarnations. Five young people are chosen to get special powers and wear cheesy costumes in order to fight off some evil alien person. Eventually the fight culminates into a Godzilla "homaged" beat up consisting of the Ranger's giant robot versus a lame giant monster (inspired by non-threatening things such as pizzas - I shit you not) which usually blows up from a sword swing or energy weapon of some sort.
The final result was pretty tacky and well deserved to be mocked. But what if seen from a different, darker angle? Like the way Tim Burton reinvented Batman.
First, let's not make it a kids show. Move the age bracket higher. Adult themes. Give our heroes complex personalities. Characters dying. In-feuding. Throw in some black humor. Brand them vigilantes that the authorities aren't too fond of (well, they do destroy several city blocks each week). But keep the bald head guy in the tube.
Second, make everything less tacky and more cool. Give the Rangers cool Matrix inspired clothes. Equip them with wicked looking weapons (like the swords from The Stormriders). Their personal vehicles are mean, evil looking things. And their giant robot looks more like screwed up version of the machines from Evangelion.
Third, make the villians true bastards. Ones so twisted and evil you just want them to die, but have a certain sense of humor that people love them anyway. Give them monsters that would make H.R. Geiger crawl under his bed. And obviously let them win more than 2% of the time.
Fourth, how cool would this be if they fought in a surreal, hyperknetic, wire-fu loaded type of way?
This would culminate in a show that would be so badass, all memories of the original version would be wiped clean.
Plus, such reinventing might work with other kid shows. Pokemon anyone?-- mrkillboy, Jun 06 2001 John Woo's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles project http://www.corona.b...s/tmntanimated.html [mrkillboy, Jun 06 2001, last modified Oct 17 2004] I would prefer Power Grangers--old farming couples with superhuman powers like Sly Humor, Impermeable Gumboots, and Problem-Solving with Baling Wire, preserving all that's fine in life and not coincidentally putting up a mean batch of preserves along the way. And I don't mean Green Acres or whatever other rural dreck TV has served up in the past.
[I note that this specifically does not target kids. Good. But the idea still leaves me clammy.]-- Dog Ed, Jun 06 2001 Isn't there an [m-f-d] "likely reason" that applies to this? Like, this is baked, but my "new" idea is to do it *a lot*.-- globaltourniquet, Jun 06 2001 No. Take it easy, we've had much worse.-- jutta, Jun 06 2001 Baked as anime, I'm sure.-- bookworm, Jun 06 2001 Isn't this just the same as the short lived VR Rangers series, especially the cool wire-fu and matrix similarity's.
[And yes, i do watch too much television]-- [ sctld ], Jun 06 2001 I was thinking "Hulk"...but yes, "Daredevil" was poo as well.-- igirl, May 21 2004 Evangelion was creepy enough <shudder>.-- daseva, Aug 18 2006 There's got to be something in it, the show's run how many seasons?
<Wikipedias 'power rangers'>
14 Seasons in total.
Anyways, Power Rangers is hilarious fun to watch, whether you're six or sixteen (or older). I have seen at least three episodes of each series and it's a scream.-- froglet, Aug 18 2006 random, halfbakery