Mystery Science Theater 3000 is now live on Netflix!
Here’s the trailer.
Or how about a Q&A with the new Crow and Tom Servo?
|
 |
MST3K is Relaunched!
363 Replies to “MST3K is Relaunched!”Commenting at Satellite News
We are determined to encourage thoughtful discussion, so please be respectful to others. We also provide an "Ignore" button ( Comments are closed. |
|
Satellite News is a fan site for the Mystery Science Theater 3000 television and Netflix series. It is an independent publication written and compiled by Chris Cornell (msampo@aol.com) and Brian Henry (erhardt4@aol.com). Satellite of Love, LLC does not maintain this web site, nor is it responsible for this site's content.
All content posted on Satellite News is copyright © 2024 by Chris Cornell and Brian Henry, except where otherwise noted. This Date in MSTory is written and compiled by Steve Finley, Chris Cornell and Brian Henry. Copyright © 2024 All rights reserved. Please do not reproduce This Date in MSTory items in any form without express written permission from the authors. Items of MST3K news may be duplicated or reposted, as long as Satellite News is cited as the source. The views and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Satellite of Love, LLC. No warranty is expressed or implied that the information given herein is completely accurate, and in fact this information can and will change at any time. So there. Mystery Science Theater 3000, its characters and situations are copyrights and trademarks of Satellite of Love, LLC. Banner image created by Larry Lee Moniz. Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
|
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
littleamishboy’s joke
–
Ericj’s head
MST3K crew riffs on “Stranger Things.”
http://ew.com/tv/2017/04/14/stranger-things-mystery-science-theater-3000/
Funny, I thought Mike was on an all-ramen diet. I wonder if we’ll find out how the ‘bots came back in future episodes? And I thought the SOL was destroyed on reentry!
And why, why can’t I get a baked potato before 5:00 in this town!!!
do any other backers feel a spit in his/her face when the netflix bumper smacks at the intros? couldn’t there also be a “and thanks to viewers like you” appended? other than that the show is off to a good start. the characters could diversify a bit in “character”, but off to a good start
Or possibly MTVs Liquid Television which was an equal part of the oddball programming of early 90s cable that MSK3k was a part of. I’m 4 episodes in and things are coming together nicely, the bots voices are shakey at points but no less than Bill in the first couple Sci-Fi eps and he found his groove pretty quickly.
Ummmm. No. Not in the least.
Maybe I’m just too preoccupied with taking in the wonderful new episodes–not perfect, not exactly like I expected, not like I would have done it myself (thank heavens!)–but creative, hilarious, with moments of brilliant comedic genius shining out amidst the good and even the not so good. Yep, just like the original.
One the whole so much like the old show we all love, I can’t find any reason to be unhappy with this, and frankly I won’t try. Just feel blessed–and I mean that sincerely and literally–to be able to enjoy this.
When the opening scene of Stranger Things (which Jn&tB* were hired to do as a self-aware Netflix plug) featured a fat, presumably redneck slob–with beer cans!–I sank in my seat thinking “Ohh, I KNOW where this is going to go…” And had it occurred to RiffTrax to say “Let’s do Stranger Things, it’s the latest Big Fan Trend we can pick at the fans of, and they say it’s got lotsa 80’s jokes in it!”, it would have merrily gone a-Joe Don Bakering from the opening credits.
And lo and behold…it didn’t. :) Except for a few obvious riffs, Jn&tB neatly avoided the whole banquet table of Mike-era temptations that were placed before them, and kept things back to silly again, with the “sound effects” riff.
Was out last night and couldn’t enjoy the premiere of Reptilicus For Cheapskates, but that’s what Saturday afternoons are for, and I cautiously approve the two minutes I’ve seen so far.
—
* – And do we need a new acronym to distinguish “Jonah & the Bots” from Joel And? Would help for clarity.
OK, I watched the first new episode yesterday and slept on it to get my thoughts in order. Here they are, FWIW…
LIKES:
* Miniatures and “special effects”: As promised, Joel found the right balance of updated look but retaining the “home made” feeling.
* TV’s Son of TV’s Frank: Perfectly cast and played!
* Music: I had feared that since Mike was one of the key musical guys this would be an area that would suffere but was glad to see that’s not so. Loved the “break” music and the “each country has a monster rap” was a home run.
DISLIKES:
* Riffing: Maybe “dislike” is too strong here, but the riffing seemed a bit weak. I still LOL-ed in a few spots, but a lot of the rest was average at best. There were some real missed opportunities (e.g. the marionette monster eating a glowing cartoon farmer deserved derisive laughter and some stronger riffs). Also, the timing of the riffs seemed just a bit off, like a lull and then a too-quick deliver on the next one. I fully admit a contributing factor was my own attitude while watching: too many mental distractions such as trying to figure out who said what, comparisons to the old cast, etc. Hopefully this area will improve as I just let future episodes “happen” instead of over-analyzing on the fly…
* The main host segment SOL set: It looked so flat and painted-on, especially compared to the great new tunnel & doors
* Servo flying in the theater: Distracting and a bit too “gimmicky” to me.
* The new Dr. F: She seemed like she was “posing and reading” rather than acting the part to me.
I don’t know whether I like or dislike Jonah and the new bots yet. Too early to tell and I can’t really distinguish their voices or personalities during the riffing yet.
Cry Wilderness is already a new bonafide classic IMO. Reptilicus was fun enough and a nice way to start, but man, Cry Wilderness felt like a team that had been at this for years all over again. Such a huge, immediate jump in confidence and overall quality and absolutely funny as all hell. They were really firing on all cylinders. So freaking good! Stoked to keep going tonight! Great job so far!
I’m a little bit lazy today so here is my mini-review of the first ep (I also watched half of ep 2) lifted from another forum where I post:
I really liked the opening, the new theme, and the commercial break stuff is cool. It all reminded me of Statical Planets a lot and that’s a compliment of course. Host segs were okay but they’re not a big thing to me anyway. I’m sure they’ll develop a bit more chemistry as it progresses. Remember how so so Season 1 was?
Okay my one complaint. The riffing is too fast when there’s no dialogue. Given a sequence without dialogue, they speed up the riffing to the point where I don’t really have time to laugh. Or maybe I was just really tired tonight? It works at moments as when they riffed on all the lamps but there were long stretches where maybe 4 out of 5 riffs would have been enough. I watched the first half of ep 2 and felt the same. They need to slow it down. Someone on the rifftrax forum noted that they are not recording the riffs “live” in theater like they used to. This could also explain the timing being way off. And remember, in comedy timing is everything pretty much.
Watched Reptilicus.
First Thoughts: I am willing to change my opinion later.
Agree with new Dr. F, a little too forced. Will quickly sing her praises after I watch the rest.
VERY happy with the general riffing; Joel knows his audience and lots of throwback riffs.
Agree with the timing of the riffs, they started a mile-a-minute, then got in the groove.
On first review, a good effort. I’m was somewhat reluctant when they announced the relaunch because there are so many times when it doesn’t match the original. However I was surprised and will give attention to the remaining episodes with a better attitude.
Jim Mallon’s credit is one of the oddest I’ve ever seen.
Apologies if any of my two cents has already been discussed, but a few hundred comments is quite a bit to filter.
Reptilicus
What an odd feeling. So few of my Mst3k viewings have been original airings. This was nice.
Knee-jerk Reactions
–> I was nervous at the start. Riffing was non-existent for the first few minutes and then settled into a nice pace.
–> Tom and Crow are hard to tell apart, but with only a SINGLE episode’s exposure to the new voices, expected.
–> My wife LOVED Gypsy’s old voice, so her new voice will take some getting used to.
–> What did Gypsy drop off at the start of the movie and retrieve at the end? What was the deal with Tom flying off the top of the screen and reappearing later? Similarly, Crow exited right and reappeared left with a barrel following him. The hell?
–> The “Every Country Has a Monster” song was AMAZING! Jonah ran out of room and knocked some of them over and they kept going. A PERFECT homage to the original series.
–> The new hallway to the theater is interesting. It looks like different rooms of the ship and I have to pause to check them out.
–> Perfect target movie. Not boring, not nasty. Just lovable cheese.
–> There were various growing pains with the original MST3K and so I didn’t expect the first show of the revival to blow me away. It didn’t. It was more like coming back home from a long vacation; it just… feels… like home.
–> Just between you and me, this is my first streaming experience. If Netflix wanted a killer app, they just rolled one out, IMO.
Hey, the dude deserves some respect. (And some $ for his work.)
Sure, it’s just a weird credit is all.
You *can* enjoy the MST3K relaunch without dissing Mike and Rifftrax.
Have you tried meditation? Maybe it would help you deal with the residual resentment (and jealousy?) you have.
Lave
Reptilicus was a odd start, but ALL the first shows have been odd choices. They have to start somewhere.
Cry of the Wild is an inkstand classic, I agree. I kept thinking it was made by the same crew that did Final Sacrifice. Almost like Universal made the Spanish Language version of Dracula on the same sets as the English version. They had the crew,they had the staff, on weekends they made THIS movie.
As we get into new shows we can make more specific observations.
Heck, we have the right, right ?
The riffing is good if not too fast. It is almost like there are more riffs in one episode than a whole season of the original. I am actually exhausted at the end. But hey, I am old. Know what I mean ?
The only thing I will comment on (besides the need to “calibrate” Gypsy’s voice) is a lack of real character development yet. I am half way through Time Travelers (one of my favorite B Sci Fis) and none of the show’s characters are interesting. They just seem THERE. This was driven home by the appearance of Pearl, BrainGuy, and Bobo. Characters that were developed as the show went on, we liked (or did not like) and were as responsible for the success as the movies and riffs. Joel and Mike both had different relationships with the bots, but there were relationships. We are, so far, getting nothing like that from this obviously talented cast.
Just an observation.
I think Patton Oswalt is perfect for the part he plays. In general the new eps provide a very similar vibe and feel to the original, and it’s really fun to “crack open” a new episode that I haven’t already seen fifty times. Never thought that would happen again.
Fun!
Several MST3K alums have tweeted their support of the relaunch.
https://mobile.twitter.com/BillCorbett/status/852600453586198528
https://mobile.twitter.com/FrankConniff/status/852922965847158790
https://mobile.twitter.com/kwmurphy/status/853315346312437761
https://mobile.twitter.com/TraceBeaulieu/status/853274844430950401
https://mobile.twitter.com/MaryJoPehl/status/853297636786524160
https://mobile.twitter.com/JElvisWeinstein/status/852557040090095617
I can’t tell you how thrilled and happy I was with Ep. 1! They got it right–this was real MST3K. So great to hear the monster song (a new “Play MSTie for Me” classic) and the call-backs to earlier episodes. And thank God they still have stingers! (Felt lost and adrift when they scrapped them for four episodes in Season 8.) Like the new cast a lot, although there wasn’t any particular chemistry twixt Jonah and the ‘bots, and (as a lot of people have pointed out) it’s hard to tell the voices apart. I also want to see more of Kinga and Max. BUT–it’s only the first episode, so I (we) should really just relax! (What a hunk of over-ripe cheese “Reptilicus” is, though. I had no idea Scandinavians did stuff like this . . . ) Since I technically have a life outside of MST3K, I’m going to try to pace myself with the remaining episodes–but it will be difficult. (Especially since I just got my XXXVIII set from Shout!.)
Random thoughts: Overall, watching the reboot was like when you have a dream about something you know really well but in the dream it doesn’t look anything like it does in real life. Somehow it feels right to have Servo hovering on his own and Gypsy coming down from the ceiling. Tom sailing up to the top of the screen was kind of WTF?, but in the end it’s not much different than Joel or Mike patting a character on the cheek or Crow sniffing a character’s arm pit. I like Gypsy’s new, female-lady voice, another change that makes a lot of sense. Don’t know about that skeletoid band, though, or Gypsy drifting into the theater from time to time . . . But we shall see what we shall see. Another new feature that is going to take a while to get used to is the slicker production values, combined with the more traditional home-made touches; but it’s more superficially jarring than bad. “Movie in the hole!” is my new favorite catch phrase, and I love the fact that it’s Joel in the hazmat suit pulling the switch! Finally, it’s just so wonderful to have The Greatest Show on Earth back!
Okay, let’s try again (why isn’t the first post getting through?):
My view on the “speedy” riffs in 1102?–Think the Pearl & Bobo cameo was there for a REASON.
With everyone noticing the resemblance to Final Sacrifice (the “Rowsdower!” callback was shameless, but it fit), the movie was riffable, but the riffing felt like it was the Return episode specially tailored to try and kiss up to the SciFi and RT fans to get hooked on the new show, if they thought that’s what an MST3K show was “supposed to look like”.
M&tB’s riffing always felt speedy and frenetic out of desperation and while co-director/writer Joel tries to keep up the pace of the SciFi episodes, we also get a few neatly unsubtle RT shoutouts–Maybe the “Life Day” joke was earned, but even with their 80’s experience, when was the last time you heard them make a Megaforce ref, when they weren’t pretending to be “Hello, fellow young-people RiffTrax fans.” (Who is that guy holding the boombox in the Internet meme, anyway?)
Even Hampton’s Crow seems to be deliberately going into Bill-Crow territory at the end, with strings of “Now I know how bad this movie is!” riffs, until Jonah parodies it with “It’s okay, Crow, just breathe into this bag…” Ohh, some of us always wanted to say that.
Joel in retirement knows he can play to the fans by quoting the classic catchphrases out of the Old Book, but apart from his own CC ones, he knows he can get a reaction with the SciFi lines he’s watched–“Hey, guys, ‘Biff Hardcheese’, amirite?”
That’s probably why the riffing gets back to “normal” later on: This is the one they wanted to Get Out There for the new fans, and then get back to business.
I love it when fans yell “What have you done to MY show!?!”
Wife and I just saw show 1102 this morning. Overall we liked it better than the first, but neither one is up there on the scale (I’d rate the first as a 5 on the old 10 meter, with this one coming in at perhaps a 7, although much of that might be due to the cameos).
But it’s SO much fun to see the show back I guess I don’t mind (too much) if the riffs aren’t great (I can tell if they aren’t TOO clever by how much I can anticipate them. When I said “Draco!” and then two minutes later they said the same thing all I thought wasn’t how clever I was, but how predictable THEY were). There’s nothing wrong with comfortable, safe choices (could they possibly have made it through this episode WITHOUT a Rowsdowser reference? I don’t think so, would have felt as wrong as missing the Battlestar Galatica stuff in that famous show) but, again, nothing that made me go “Wow!”.
But, again, even middle of the road MST3K is better than most other shows which hit it out of the park. DW and I are enjoying the new stuff each and every week (and now with more waffles!).
It’s possible that 1102 was pitched to newer fans (and RiffTrax fans, etc.), and if so I’m okay with that. (I consider myself to be a new-old fan, since I was one of those who was introduced to the show via the Movie, which we rented from our local Blockbuster back in 1996/97.) The fact of the matter is that there is no longer one kind of MST3K fan (not that there ever was, I hasten to add), and if the makers of the new show want to reach as many MST3K fans as possible (new, old, and somewhere in between), and if they choose to do so in a variety of ways (maybe leaning towards a certain kind of riffing style for a certain kind of movie), then I say, go for it!
I will confess that I was very skeptical about the idea of the new show when it was first announced. I was mostly worried (I think) that they wouldn’t be able to transcend the limitations of such a venture, one in which a certain degree of self-consciousness was essentially built in. I found myself thinking about how the show was perhaps approached in its early days. Joel maintained (and obviously still maintains) that the right people will get it, and in the early days I can’t help but think that each new episode was made as an ultimate act of faith — faith that someone out there would get it. Those days are clearly over, and now they have to approach (and write) the show KNOWING how many kinds of MST3K fans there are. That strikes me as an incredibly difficult venture (calling for a different kind of faith). Based on what I’ve seen so far (the first two episodes), I think they’re doing just fine.
I have faith in the new incarnation of the show, and I think a lot of other people do as well.
Thanks, Joel — thanks to you and everyone who is now working with you to make this great show possible all over again! :)
Although it does start to bring up a serious question–
It was easy to fan-snub the “geeky lil’ fanboy foot-stomping” of the Joel vs. Mike wars, when it was just a two-pronged back-and-forth Tastes Great v. Less Filling war between two versions of the show…But now we have THREE differing versions of the show (if you put RT into the same SciFI pigeonhole, like putting CT into the CC one), it now means that fans will be instinctively making a 1-2-3 ranking, leaving the question of who’s going to be on bottom.
Or, if you still want to think “rivalry”, there’s going to be an implied 2-1 majority of who did it “right” over who did it “wrong”, especially for fans who may think the Return didn’t do all that much wrong.
And if you have previously uncommitted fans who like Joel, like Jonah, and may now find themselves beginning to concede that the tone did change in S8-10, or that RT’s riff quality might be getting a bit lazy since their cable days–and that the two “good” versions both had Hodgson creatively behind them–what does that really start saying?
Starts to get out of the easy “Wind geeks up and watch them fight” territory of Kirk vs. Picard, and starts getting into Kirk vs. Picard vs. Janeway vs. Sisko vs. Archer…At some point, you have to just pick somebody who messed up or jumped sharks.
So apparently the in-theater riffs are recorded separately by the voice actors wherever they happen to be and then sent in to be stitched together? (Making sure the riffs don’t obscure any of the film dialog?)
That would seem to account for the riff pacing problems mentioned above.
Cinematic Titanic worked exactly the same way, and RiffTrax also pre-records the riffs. The pacing might have to do more with the actor’s sensibilities.
PRE-recording is not the question. I think my post was clear, but just to spell it out: The question was whether each character’s lines are recorded in isolation, without any interaction with the other actors, after which each actor’s separate recording is cut up and then spliced together with the other performers’ recordings and synced with the rest of the show. Several posts here give the impression that that is the process.
Unbelievably tedious — has anyone ever set out to derail or ruin a comments section as comprehensively as EricJ has? I mean I know it’s basically a running joke at this point, but hopefully under the promised new commenting paradigm it can be addressed one way or another.
I repeat: Cinematic Titanic worked exactly the same way, and so does RiffTrax.
Well, if CT and RT are/were edited together in the same way, then the fact that the pace of riffing on Series 11 has drawn adverse comments which those other series have not drawn indicates that whoever is/are editing the Series 11 riffs is doing it wrong.
Meds, EricJ. Meds. ;)
Well, I never thought I’d make a post like this but here it goes…
EricJ is wrong about the Mike-era catering that was done for episode 1102. Yes it’s an opinion but, being super-knowledgeable about MST3K past and present, his analysis is woeful. I know he hates the Mike-era of the show, which he repeatedly certifies post after post. I never took sides in the Host Wars and will not do so now, which is rather silly and is people taking sides just to take sides. Of course there was a tone change when the host was changed, as well as when Crow was changed. Season 11 has tone changes, too. Hardly a revelation. Did it hurt the show? Opinions vary. Since this site got hacked I haven’t been here or posted until now. Today is my last post and visit to this site. The caretakers of this site, the admins, are great. Some of the discussions are fun. Opinions are great. Disagreements are great…until they become petty and useless. EricJ, you win. To all the EricJs that post here (yes, there is more than one), and this will make you smile…I’m done here. Another rational, fair person (until now, I guess) is leaving. Thanks for the memories. Enjoy season 11 everyone…if you want to. :-) Ralph C.
Couldn’t put it better myself. My breaking point was the repulsively, gratuitously misogynistic comment EricJ made on the RiffTrax Mary Jo and Bridget Christmas thread, which unfortunately required push-back from one of the very stars of the show to which this fan-site is dedicated. And this was treated as somehow normal? Imagine if all the trolling, all the derailing, all the obsessive rehashing of one particular idée fixe — with which I and I imagine a considerable number if not a majority of fans disagree — disappeared overnight, or was relegated to “the grays” Kinja-style, would this be a poorer place? Obviously not. It really is too bad, and I urge the administrators to use the upcoming overhaul to wrestle with what kind of community this site should be and to whom it should cater.
Stay!
Don’t let the Eric J.’s win.
Fight back and make them frown.
Love it! Love it a lot! Not exactly the same, and that is good thing. Movie choices are right on and the riffing is excellent.
Well, you only HAVE to pick a “best” if you are already inclined to do so, or if your personal tastes are crippled by a zero sum game paradigm. Me, I prefer to have lots of “bests” and many “favorites,” all while acknowledging that anything created by people, no matter how much we may like or admire it, suffers from flaws.
The cold opening needs to go. I like the idea that Jonah has to re-eneact that opening, but having him talking to the ‘Bots and then get pulled out of the SOL is tedious. Just play the theme and be done with it. As for the opening itself, I really enjoy it.
The Skeleton Crew is a kind of bigger budget version of the two mole people from the original series. I think they shouldn’t be there, or at least not be doing the work that Dr. Forrester should be ordering TV’s Son of TV’s Frank to do.
Kinga and Max are really growing on me. I think both are fine successors to their family’s tradition of incompetent villainy.
Jonah and the ‘Bots have a good relationship with each other. Jonah is a good host of the show. The robot voices are good, and Gypsy’s voice is so clear that it’s almost she can be Magic Voice too. That makes sense to me since she keeps the SOL running anyway.
The bridge set looks flat to me. While there are details to the wall, I don’t get a sense of it being a room like I did with the original set. Even season one’s bridge had more depth to it. The new set is well lit, but the camera is feels locked into one place. Too stiff.
The third sentence, totally.
So far so good. Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but I think Kinga planning on stealing the bubble fan invention is a callback to the mads stealing the cumber bubble bund invention from Joel.
Just watched “Avalanche” this morning and was very pleased to see NPH have a song with Kinga and Max. Hope this means there is a chance for Fillion somewhere in the rest of the season.
Still getting used to all the breaks for potential commercial spots at some later point in this season’s history. But I’d rather see them provide the breaks rather than Comet or Retro force them in a few years from now.
I THINK WE’D ALL AGREE THAT JOEL IS BETTER THAN PICARD…
It’s good foresight to have made up this commercial bumpers and they’re fun on their own.
Watched Reptilicus, Cry Wilderness and skipped ahead to Starcrash. So, that’s three of fourteen.
Honestly? I’m not blown away yet. I thought that it was, for the most part, okay… but not much better than okay. I wasn’t into the increased theater shenanigans (Gypsy, Tom flying around, Crow walking around, etc.). Riffs were often crammed together and not allowed to breathe or were kind of almost out of sync. There were a few times I thought the riffing wasn’t particularly inspired or was REALLY predictable. The Mads were… serviceable, I guess. I wasn’t as charmed by them as I was by any iteration of our old antagonists. There are a lot of little things that aren’t a big deal, but collectively just kind of distracted or bugged me (Jonah is forced to reenact the show open each time? Not really into the cold open. Not really into the needless commercial breaks. The liquid tech is a thing, I guess. So? Ditto with the Skeleton Crew. The celeb cameos take me out of the show in a way Pearl Forrester giving Leonard Maltin a hard time never did. Never a huge fan of the Invention Exchange, etc.). Liked the new Crow, very not sold on the new Tom. Jonah was… okay. Didn’t really have the sleepy eyed good nature of Joel or the exasperated charisma of Mike. Quite liked the new hallway sequence and most of the miniatures in general. New Gypsy is fine, but again, her random appearances in the theater were a bit jarring. Some pretty crummy movies thus far, but that’s par for the course. Starcrash was so disjointed that I didn’t think it was a lot of fun. Cry Wilderness was another glimpse imto madness, nut I liked it a bit better. Reptilicus was a pretty forgettable effort all around, methinks.
I certainly didn’t hate the show or anything, and I’m trying hard not to punish it for being something it’s not. A lot of my niggles are, to be fair, probably just teething issues. I wish I liked it better, and maybe I’ll stumble across an episode that really socks me in the funny bone.
Your theory has a hole in it… Pearl, Brain Guy and Bobo appear twice more this season (I don’t know how far you are).
Just a little background on myself first…
I’ve been a MSTie since the middle of season 2.
I have many favorite episodes with both Joel & Mike.
I’m currently 12 episodes into the new season.
At first, many things bothered me about the new series (incl. new voices, fast riffing, Jonah’s acting and the look of the set.) I became accustomed to these things after a while and in some instances I think the people making the show became more accustomed/comfortable as well. However, after viewing these first 12 episodes (some on multiple occasions), there’s one glaring issue that still bothers me. The writing.
The riffing (the meat and potatoes of the show) is just okay. There are a few LOL moments here and there, but these occurrences are minimal compared to many episodes from the CC/SF eras. A great deal of these new (and occasionally recycled) riffs fall flat. Also, having Gypsy in the theater use to be a rare treat. But now she appears twice per-episode, like clockwork, to deliver a riff that’s sometimes funny but usually not.
Then there are the host segments. Let me start by saying that I loved the monster rap from the first episode. It gave me hope that things would get better eventually. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case. Many of the sketches seem half-baked. In fact, a major plot twist towards the end of the season feels like it was ignored or forgotten, unless they dig it up again in one of the last two episodes which I haven’t seen yet.
Now, my initial conclusion WAS going to be that they never should have brought the show back without head writer Mike Nelson. Sure, Joel created the show, but in my opinion it didn’t start to become funny until Mike Nelson took over the lead writing chores. However, upon careful reflection on the matter, it took Best Brains at least one season (post KTMA) to get to the level of funny that attracted me to it. And I surmise that if I had started watching at the beginning of season one, I may not have kept watching, missing out on all the great laughs to come. Therefor, I’ll remain optimistic and consider season 11 a warm-up season of sorts which hopefully will lead to bigger and better laughs if Netflix decides to renew it. And besides, I need to remain supportive and protect my $200+ investment.
What do you think sirs?
I’ve now watched the first 5 episodes, and probably the most accurate thing I can say is, it’s nice to have the show back, and I’m still waiting for that “click” that REALLY makes me a fan of the new production. I think I’m still at the point where I’m trying to digest the actual movies, and it takes me a watch or two to get into the MST3K part of the deal. (This was my MO for most of the original episodes, I can’t seem to help it.) So, some of Season 11 has left me a bit flat, but I suspect it has something to do with the movies they’ve chosen, apart from all the stuff we’re all discussing here.
I will hang in there!
Nobody give matches to this guy.
YOU SHUT UP MIKEY, YOU SHUT UP! YOU DON’T GIVE NO MATCHES TO MIKEY, YOU HEAR ME?!?! I DON’T CARE WHAT MIKEY SAY OR MIKEY DO!