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Reviews
Power Rangers in Space (1998)
Power Rangers as Space Opera
Power Rangers in Space set itself apart from previous seasons in pursuing more nuanced and more adult-themed story lines. As others have mentioned, the villains in this season did not so easily fit into caricatures of "evil" that were presented in MMPR, Zeo, and Turbo. The writing as well as the production quality in "In Space" very much exceeded that of previous (and subsequent) seasons. I actually felt connected to all of the ranger characters, and there was, of course, no shortage of handsome men in the cast - Selwyn Ward, Justin Nimmo, Roger Velasco. But Astronema's story arc perhaps provided the most intriguing element to this season.
Power Rangers in Space aired in 1998/1999 when I was about 11 or 12. At this age, it really wasn't considered "cool" to like the show anymore - but I watched it any way. In Space's more intelligent writing made it incredibly enjoyable to watch. I continued watching with the next season Lost Galaxy but kind of lost interest in subsequent seasons. The themes just became so tired and the production became garish in a way that couldn't even manage to be campy in manner similar to the Mighty Morphin seasons.
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (1993)
Gloriously Campy
I unabashedly love this show, even 26 years after I watched it at the age of 5. I love the bad voiceovers and the absurd monsters. David Yost and Thuy Trang were definitely my favorite cast members from any of these seasons. Rewatching episodes now is like looking into a glorious time capsule from the 1990s - the fashion, the music, et cetera. I'm debating about purchasing the box sets of Seasons 1-7.
Get Out (2017)
Went In with an Open Mind...
But it just wasn't my cup of tea. I think a lot of white liberals and progressives are lying about what they thought of the film; I say this as a white Lefty who felt compelled to lie about what I thought when I first saw the film. Here's my honest opinion:
I think the only reason the film got so much attention was because of white guilt and atonement for the Oscars' neglect of black filmmakers and artists. It's really easy for white people to go to the film and sing its praises in order to show how "woke" they are. But that's incredibly dishonest. The film is cynical and stigmatizes interracial relationships. It's super manipulative. The black characters are painted as helpless victims while the white people are all painted as evil villains. This idea that people of color in interracial relationships are being entrapped by white people into interracial relationships is intellectually lazy.
I did appreciate the satirizing of northern WASPs who "would have voted for Obama a third time if they could have." When I tell people I'm from the South, I get enough looks of pity and/or "you don't have an accent" comments to understand how insufferable these types of people can be. Jordan Peele clearly seems to have a lot of experience with these sort of elite circles (he grew up on the Upper West Side and went to Sarah Lawrence), so I can't really knock him for writing a film about what he knows.
But films should be evaluated on the strength of their writing and the acting, not because they are serving to assuage people's white guilt or as an antidote to Hollywood's overwhelming whiteness. There have been *PLENTY* of great black films, directors, actors, and actresses that are light years better than what we are presented with in "Get Out."