Power Rangers Zeo (ABC Family)

POWER RANGERS ZEO is the story of what happens to the rangers after their Morphin powers are destroyed. The rangers are still brightly colored karate experts, and the villains are still low-budget actors in robot costumes, but these are the new (in 1996, anyway) rangers. The entire Power Rangers oeuvre may be indistinguishable to adults (who see only the costumes and bad effects), but kids know of a whole series of different rangers, all with different goals and different bad guys. Putting aside the violence, it's a relatively harmless obsession. But the violence may be hard to put aside; to adults it seems campy and contrived, but young viewers take it very seriously.

The Power Rangers series is a fairly mild introduction to the action movie-style violence we take for granted in everything from television programs to video games to commercials. But if it's your children's first step beyond Noggin et al, you'll probably see a difference in the way they play post Ranger viewing. Swords, slashing, and kicking will rule the day for a while.

Power Rangers Zeo always includes a comic subplot to go along with the battle of the day, but it's funny only for the youngest and least sophisticated viewers. This isn't really family programming -- it's pretty painful for anyone over 12 -- it's TV as junk food, designed to sell Power Rangers Halloween costumes and action figures.