Drama
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
It’s morphin’ time — three words that have captured imagination and nostalgia for decades. It takes a lot for a franchise to thrive this long, but Power Rangers has done it, entertaining generations of kids through movies, video games, comic books, action figures, 30 (yes, 30!) seasons of television, and much more.
And it doesn’t show any signs of stopping. Power Rangers Cosmic Fury picks up where its predecessor, Power Rangers Dino Fury, left off, following a new group of superpowered teenagers on their mission to protect their home planet.
In Dino Fury, four misfit teens (and two aliens) came together to form a new Ranger team, joining forces with family, friends, warriors from the past, and the occasional cyborg dinosaur to defeat the evil Void Queen. The Rangers were able to save their hometown of Pine Ridge from destruction, but they had little time to celebrate before finding out that their longtime nemesis, Lord Zedd, had escaped captivity.
So…what happens now?
Enter Power Rangers Cosmic Fury, a continuation of Dino Fury. In this season, our heroes face new intergalactic threats, personal turmoil within the team, and an evil mastermind who, once again, wants to take over the planet … all while making it home for dinner on time.
First of all, let’s meet our Power Rangers—the same ones we met in Dino Fury. Taking on the iconic color-coded suits are Ollie, Amelia, step-siblings Javi and Izzy, and aliens Zayto and Aiyon. Tech mogul Billy Cranston, whom Power Rangers fans will recognize as the original Blue Ranger, stops by to help as well.
No matter what galaxy-level threats they face, the bond between these friends is always what keeps them going—and it’s here that Cosmic Fury shines. Whether they’re battling aliens on foreign planets or stressing about going to college, our Rangers know that they can always count on each other, demonstrating great examples of friendship and teamwork for younger viewers.
Cosmic Fury also keeps its young audience in mind through its content—mostly. Battle scenes, though frequent, are more reminiscent of action figures being thrown together than actual violence. Swords collide and punches are thrown, but we never see blood or injury. (The most serious instance occurs in the first episode, when a character loses an arm; the wound is covered by a shirt sleeve and nothing is shown.) Explosions often result from both the villains’ and the Rangers’ attacks, but again, these have minimal visible impact. While very young eyes may be frightened by the mayhem (and the original Power Rangers got quite a bit of flack from the show’s violence), what we see here is right in line with what we’ve seen for 30 years. I terms of bloody, wince-worthy violence, there’s little to be found here.
Language is absent, save for the occasional crude joke or rude comment, including words like “uggo” and “sucks”. And, of course, since we’re dealing with a group of teenagers, the topic of young love is all but inevitable. Amelia and Ollie are in an established relationship at the beginning of the series, though we don’t see any intimacy beyond hugging in the first few episodes.
Now, about that teen romance. At first, Cosmic Fury seems like a home run for kids in search of an action-packed adventure…so much so, in fact, that when the female Izzy casually references her girlfriend, it feels a bit like air leaking from the tires. We see Izzy kiss her girlfriend Fern on the cheek, and their relationship is discussed openly among the Rangers, with nothing at all to suggest that anything is amiss. It’s issues like this—the “unimportant” ones, barely relevant to the plot—that make the waters of kids’ entertainment nowadays so difficult to navigate.
Power Rangers Cosmic Fury has more than enough action and suspense to keep older kids entertained, plus bonus points for themes of teamwork and heroism. The real problems here, however, only appear when the armor morphs away. Parents should be aware of the problematic messages that lie beneath Cosmic Fury’s colorful exterior, and they may want to take time to consider how those issues will affect their own little heroes.
On the planet of Zordnia, the Power Rangers battle the forces of Lord Zedd and supervillain Bajillia (CEO of Squid Ink, Inc.), but they’re compromised when Zedd turns Ollie against his teammates.
Much of this first episode takes place during an extended battle sequence. Both evil aliens and Rangers are knocked around the battlefield by swords, punches, laser beams and explosions. None of these attacks cause any real damage; our heroes pick themselves up and keep fighting soon after being hit.
The only real instance of bodily harm occurs when Javi, the Black Ranger, attempts to open a secret underground bunker. Lightning strikes and blasts him backward, and when he wakes up, one of his arms is missing. The wound is constantly covered and he’s quickly moved to safety, but this may be disturbing for some younger viewers.
Another potentially upsetting plot point includes Ollie, the Blue Ranger, turning against his team after being poisoned and hypnotized by Lord Zedd. For some very young viewers, seeing their hero fight and insult his friends—along with the emotional impact this has on the other Rangers—may be somewhat distressing.
Bajillia’s daughter Squilla uses the words “uggo” and “bozos” as insults. One of Zedd’s henchmen is named “Doodrip,” inspiring a few crude jokes from the Rangers.
With Ollie still evil as a result of the poison and Javi recovering from injury, the Power Rangers struggle to regroup in preparation for Lord Zedd’s next attack.
Fighting is less prominent than the first episode, but it still features plenty of action. Two battle sequences include the Rangers fighting against the evil Doodrip’s ship, ending as the ship explodes with Doodrip inside, and a fight scene between Ollie and Amelia. The latter may prove upsetting, as Amelia is forced to battle against her teammate and boyfriend. The Rangers lock Ollie in his room and watch through cameras as he knocks over furniture in anger. To prove his loyalty to Lord Zedd, Ollie throws his sword at Amelia, scratching her cheek as she dodges.
Izzy, the Green Ranger, is revealed to be dating another girl named Fern. We see the two embrace and kiss each others’ cheeks. This is spoken of casually among the Rangers, and it’s implied that the girls’ parents approve of the relationship.
The word “sucks” is used once.
Lauren Cook is serving as a 2021 summer intern for the Parenting and Youth department at Focus on the Family. She is studying film and screenwriting at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. You can get her talking for hours about anything from Star Wars to her family to how Inception was the best movie of the 2010s. But more than anything, she’s passionate about showing how every form of art in some way reflects the Gospel. Coffee is a close second.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a little like its titular character. It’s painful. It gets under your skin. And it just might leave a mark.
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