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Originally Posted by Mega Mana
Hear hear. It's not just comparison to the eccentric personalities of Shinkenger (who seem more subdued than what miniscule amount of Go-Onger I've seen... is everyone there on a constant sugar high?).
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It's not really the eccentricities I was referring to, it's the personalities and conflict. Now, on Go-Onger, the characters were quite eccentric and very exaggerated. But Go-Onger was first and foremost a fun season. Not necessarily funny, but it was very fun. Now I know that aspect of it made quite a number of people not like it, but I thought it worked and it's probably my favorite Super Sentai season for that reason...I don't think I've ever seen another show that's as purely fun as Go-Onger was.
Shinkenger took a very different direction. It focused very much on the characters, particularly the conflict between them. For example, Takeru (Red) was cold to the rest of his team at first, and Chiaki (Green) especially disliked him and was often at odds with Ryuunosuke (Blue) because Ryuunosuke was practically the polar opposite of Chiaki in that he was disciplined to a fault and very loyal to Takeru. The group becoming closer as the series went on was very important to the season. This all pays off considerably at the end of the season. The reactions the characters have to the revelation are likely not the reactions that would have occurred had it been revealed at the start. Shinkenger had a very large focus on the characters...perhaps too much, as it had a fairly weak plot.
In Samurai, that conflict is removed in favor of making everyone super chummy with each other, kind of like back in the MMPR days. Which worked for MMPR to a degree, but if you're trying to copy a season that focused considerably on character conflict but are removing that conflict, then the series doesn't work well, and you're left with...well, Samurai, which has the weak plot of Shinkenger without the things that actually made Shinkenger interesting.
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It helps that they've been given excellent material to work with and great characters with lots of focus, but it can't be denied that their actors are above par for Power Rangers.
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It's not even that RPM had great acting. The acting on Samurai is below par for Power Rangers. Granted, outside of Time Force, RPM, and SPD, the series has never been particularly known for great acting (not to say the acting is bad most of the time, just nothing particularly impressive), but there's a difference between the acting being good enough and the acting being as poor as it has been at times in Samurai. Mia's delivery sometimes reminds me of Isobel from The Vampire Diaries...the difference being that Isobel was, I assume, supposed to talk that way to show her general apathy and disconnect towards the world. Not so much in Samurai.
But to be more back on topic, yeah, RPM is worth watching. Time Force is also a good seasons, and be sure to check out their team-up episodes in the following seasons, especially the one for Time Force/Wild Force (really, Time Force doesn't feel complete unless you watch the two-part "Reinforcements from the Future" episode of Wild Force).
Another good season is In Space, but it's harder to jump right into than RPM or Time Force, because it's not standalone and continues from the first five seasons. You can still pick it up at the start and enjoy it, but you'll get more out of it if you've seen the previous five seasons.