Power Rangers VS 爱
Yes your eyes are not playing tricks on you. I've placed these 2 seemingly unrelated TV shows side by side. Why? Coz among all these differences I actually found some striking similarities to the way the shows were designed and produced.
Background Info...
Power Rangers is a TV superhero franchise that started 19 years ago, adapted from the highly successful Japanese tokusatsu series Super Sentai. The first 6 seasons featured a continuous storyline (but with yearly costume/theme changes that correspond to the Sentai season of the previous year). From the 7th Season onwards, each season has its own storyline, with minimal references to previous seasons except during team-up or anniversary specials (similar to the system adopted by Super Sentai). This discussion will primarily focus on the first 5 seasons, i.e. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers till Power Rangers Turbo.
爱 is a Taiwanese longrunning drama that aired from 2006 to 2008, and subsequently found its way to Singapore (and has been airing till NOW and beyong). The characteristics that will be mentioned are probably applicable across all similar longrunning Taiwanese dramas, but since 爱 is the (in)famous one that has hogged our weekday primetime 7pm drama slot for almost a year, it's chosen as a “代表作” lol. And the key thing is that I managed to get all these information on this show WITHOUT watching it (refer to below for how I did it, and how you probably can too).
Repetitive Plot
Even different drama serials may bear similarities in plot with one another, let alone a super long drama like 爱. There are bound to be times when the writers ran out of ideas and had to recycle them, causing plots to repeat themselves even within the same show. The framework is even easier. The good guys are introduced, then enter the bad guy(s). They fight it out, and the bad guys either die or turn good. Meanwhile new bad guys appear, and the cycle repeats itself...
This framework is even more structured in Power Rangers. The minor villian will appear at the start of an episode and die at the end of it (if it's a 2-part or 3-part story arc, the villian dies at the end of that 2 or 3 episodes). The major villians will be renewed yearly.
Write as you Film, Film as you Show
Probably the only way you can film a longrunning show I guess. If you wait till you finish filming the whole thing, the starting episodes would probably be covered in dust already... Furthermore, it allows writers to actively refer to viewers response or current trends, allowing the focus of the show at the time of airing to remain relevant enough.
The End is NOT in Sight...
‘Nuff said.
Popular Character Strikes Back
Benefit of the previous 2 points I suppose. Tommy Oliver (aka THE GREEN RANGER) was supposed to lose his powers after the "Green Candle" saga and never return. But the writers got him back. Because he was so freaking popular. So popular that he went on to become the Ranger character that has the most air time throughout the whole franchise.
And how can we not mention 郭聪敏, who was supposed to die of some cancer, but some legendary petition or something convinced the writers to do a medical miracle, let him survive and stay till the end of the whole serial. He's probably the only character to be present both at the start and the end of 爱 I think.
Boss, I'm Quitting
What happens when an actor quits? Simply write his character out of the story. Either go overseas, or DIE. When I watched Power Rangers back then loooooong ago, I always wondered why Jason the Red Ranger, Zack the Black Ranger and Trini the Yellow Ranger had to leave suddenly. Now, we know it's because the actors quarrelled with the producers and left. I didn't even realise those 3 characters didn't appear unmorphed at all (and spoke with funny voices when morphed) for a few episodes before they left.
Things were apparently a bit more peaceful at 爱 (probably coz Power Rangers actors were severely underpaid at that time while 爱 actors earned big bucks). Actors usually leave the show because they need to go film another strikingly similar show (like 娘家 lol).
Missed an Episode? No Worries!
One thing people hate about watching TV serials is that everything goes haywire if you miss an episode. But 爱 overcame that! By having super draggy scenes and characters who recap what happened every few minutes, it's easy to catch up after missing one month's worth of episodes (and mind you, that's quite alot, considering that Channel 8 showed up to 10 episodes a week at one point in time). The scenes are so draggy that I can go watch an episode of Power Rangers and come back and see the same few characters sitting on the same positions discussing/quarrelling (usually the latter) over the same issues.
Power Rangers, on the other hand, feature a mini story each episode. And there was severe lack of character development in the first 5 seasons. How do I determine if a show has unimpressive plot and character development? When you can jumble up the episodes and watch them and still find nothing wrong.
Powerful Villians
Villians are so powerful and resourceful that at times it takes another (ex-)villian to take him down. Because the good guys are usually righteous and good hearted and will not do bad deeds to bad guys unnecessarily. Probably occurs more often in Taiwanese dramas than Power Rangers though.
Who Says 解铃还须系铃人?
Watch the first and last episode of the respective shows, and count the number of common characters. I think only Zordon and 郭聪敏 LOL. Oh yes and Bulk & Skull.
Funny and Retarded Duos
Bulk and Skull VS 铁板 and 铁齿. The epicness of comic relief.
Well, that's all I can think of for now. Anyway, since we're on the topic of Power Rangers, here's the opening of the nineteenth (which is the newest) season - Power Rangers Samurai, based on Samurai Sentai Shinkengers. Now that Saban is back in control, he can probably do better than Disney.
Click to viewYes they are using the same old theme song once again :D and yes, BULK.IS.BACK.
I'll probably have a look at it (out of curiosity) after I finish watching Shinkengers