You can almost hear the TV execs talking on this one. "OK, OK - we'll take the cuteness quotient of Blossom, right, throw in the interpersonal dynamics from Saved by the Bell, OK, OK, still with me? OK, last part now, this is where the twist comes in, mix these two together, add a pinch of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and I'm telling you, we'll have a bona fide hit, it'll be huge, we'll call it, hmm, we'll call it the Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad."
Featuring the same campy antics as the mighty Power Rangers but with a decidedly more techno twist, Superhuman Samurai airs weekday afternoons on independent US television stations. Flouting any kind of conventional logic, fuzzy or otherwise, a group of teens, led by superhero Servo, battles Kilokahn (voice of Tim Curry), the Evil Overload Overlord of the Digital World, as he attempts to take over the grid - the buzz term for all things Internet and communications-oriented.
In cahoots with Kilokahn, frustrated teen hacker Malcolm Frink creates Megavirus Monsters, which are sent via phone lines into the grid. By striking a guitar and saying loudly, "Samurize guys!" good guy and definite milk drinker Sam Collins (played by Matthew Lawrence, brother of teen heartthrob Joey) transforms into the supercharged hero Servo to combat the Megavirus Monsters. When Servo gets in trouble, he calls on his teen friends, who have their own snappy catch phrases like "Pump up the power!" and "Let's kick some gigabutt!"
Featuring a comical live-action stage set that looks like the inside of a telecommunication switch box, Superhuman Samurai peppers its often goofy dialogue with references to the Net and other computer lingo like "interface" and "digitally rendered" that suggest the 10-year-old viewer might be a little more techno fluent than previously thought. All this and the most blatant product placement in the annals of computerdom - all sequences set in the digital world are neatly framed with the word COMPAQ written in the lower left corner of the monitor screen.
Now, if only superhero Servo could do something about those nasty real-life Telecom Overlords.
The Superhuman Samurai Syber Squad: Check local listings for televised times in your area. Produced by DIC Entertainment and distributed by All American Television.
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