Power Rangers: Once & Always (2023) + Smoking Causes Coughing (2022)

The Kaiju Transmissions Podcast

Byrd, Matt, and guest host Trev (Days of Future Podcast, Failure To Franchise) run through a superhero double feature. First up is the recent Power Rangers reunion special from Netflix, which sees many of the original Power Rangers team return to face a robotic reincarnation of their arch enemy, Rita Repulsa. We'll talk about how nostalgia drives the narrative, the lack of certain prominent cast members, and more. After that we have the French Super Sentai pseudo-parody, Smoking Causes Coughing, directed by prolific surrealist director Quentin Dupieux. This postmodern send up asks the question "What if a Super Sentai team sucked at their jobs and were ordered to go on a team building retreat where they told each other weird stories around a campfire?" We'll talk about subverted expectations, the merits of surrealist humor, and more.