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Weekend Discussion Thread: Season 11 MoviesWell, the spoiler commands have been lifted, but before we begin discussing each of the episodes, I’m going to you another week to get some of these watched.
So, in the meantime, here is the official list of the movies that will be riffed in season 11: Thoughts? 180 Replies to “Weekend Discussion Thread: Season 11 Movies”Commenting at Satellite News
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That’s just based on what movies were looked up by the same people, you fruit loop. Of course all of the films from the new season will show up together.
It’s Monday morning. Herandar just called EricJ a “Fruit Loop”. I LOVE being a MSTie!
I’m up through 1107 so far, and I’m loving this new season, enough so that I signed up for Netflix to encourage them to back a season 12.
However, should they decide not to, Joel – I will give you more money for a season 12. You need only ask.
My biggest complaint about the new season is that it’s caused EricJ to reach peak insufferableness.
Peak insufferableness? Oh no, Sir/Madam, not peak. Just imagine if MST had been rebooted…by…
MIKE NELSON?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!!??!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!
my preference is for the more balanced style they had after joel left but before the sci-fi channel. i don’t like it too nerdy and wacky (and when i say that i’m thinking of season 3 and early season 4) but not too mean and irritable either. i didn’t really discover mst3k until 2011 and by this point i’ve probably seen every episode at least three times each. seasons 5-7 is the closest to my ideal of what the show was going to be like before i ever saw it in full. no other period is as consistent or funny to me. i consider myself a fan but i just don’t connect with it the way the rest of you do.
i really didn’t care if it ever came back, but i thought i’d give it a shot anyway. so far, i didn’t like the first three episodes at all but “Avalanche” showed promise. that’s as far as i’ve gotten and from that i feel like this could work if it goes on but there’s a lot to iron out. if i could single out one problem (of many), it’s that i wish they didn’t feel the need to make the same old references joel and co. did early on. the new guys are all under 40 so why would they be making these references other than to pander to old school fans? they should acknowledge the past, especially if they’re not going to make any radical changes to the formula, but they need to find their own identity as well. it’s only one season so far, so there’s time for that if they go to a second one. i almost feel like it’s most comparable to the first season of the original show in some ways, despite the many differences they have as well.
i’ll be taking it pretty easy watching, i personally didn’t need more than what they made originally. more power to anybody who was looking forward to this and is enjoying it, but i’ve never been one to clamor for anything to come back, not even my absolute favorites. they are what they are in the end and sometimes you just have to appreciate what did get made instead of wishing there could have been more.
Watched 1101 – Reptilicus this weekend and I would give it a bit so what. After it was over I felt like the country singer who sang “I shaved my legs for this?”. As in this is what we have waited for all these months?
Yes it made me chuckle in spots but just left me wanting more. It just felt so much more canned and scripted than the original. I also agree with the folks who say the riffs came way fast. I hope as we go along the pace and jokes get better. What does Moon 13 – The Moon even mean? Who names their kid Kinga? It’s Netflix why do we need faux commercial breaks?
I could go on but won’t I will continue to watch and hope for improvement. If not I see no need for a Season 12.
According to Urban Dictionary Kinga has several definitions, but most refer to a woman who is both attractive and exhibits a dangerous side.
We are (maybe) talking about Dr. F: a man of substantial ego and severe domination issues. And he probably wanted a boy. What else to name a child under those circumstances but KING-a?
:-)
We’re still trying to find out why the breaks are even needed now. When the original MST3K aired, they were still presenting the films using reel-to-real tape [presumably]. So, they had to switch the tapes every twenty minutes.
Everything’s digital now, so they can put an entire 90 minutes on a single recording. So, what the Hellcatraz do they need the breaks for now? Unless Kinga’s resources are less extensive than she wants us to believe….
:-)
WDT? Bridget, Pearl, Beez or Kinga?
After being extremely disappointed by Reptilicus and Cry Wilderness (the one everyone’s been going on about being an “instant classic”) I decided to give Time Travellers a try, and it was at least watchable. It reminded me a lot of the MST3K movie for some reason, probably because the timing is still weird and the jokes feel filtered to remove anything too highbrow that might go over the audience’s heads, but at least they were still funny.
I’m sure the “dumbing down” thing wasn’t intentional, but is probably a byproduct of losing Kevin Murphy in the writer’s room. There are plenty of pop-culture references (they name-checked Bob and Connie Dobbs and Garth Marenghi), but none of the obscure collegiate references Kevin used to love throwing in, and when they do reference something obscure it isn’t as multi-layered. When a guy who looks like Henry Kissinger pops up on screen Jonah and the bots simply say “It’s Kissinger!” whereas Mike/Kevin/Trace would have done Kissinger’s distinctive drawl, and said “pow-ah is za ultimate aphrodisiac” leaving it up to a certain percentage of the audience to note that they were making a Kissinger reference.
Hopefully, they’ll keep getting better at the season progresses. It felt like they weren’t rushing to fill every possible second with riffs this time around (even ones that weren’t funny), and this episode had the first sketch that I really laughed out loud at (edible silica gel packs that come packaged with silica gel packs!)
DirtyTerry: WDT?Bridget, Pearl, Beez or Kinga?
WDT? World Drinking Team? If you are asking to whom the entry refers it is Kinga Forester.
IUm… I was askin’ somethin’ else…
Does anyone else think that the new MST3K meatball/moon looks like it is covered in used condoms?
“Take me to the river…dip me in the water…” How individuals are reacting so far depends on whether they feel they have been dipped into a pristine New Zealand waterway or the flammable Cuyahoga river of the 1960s. After watching the first 5 episodes, I can still say that, overall, I am enjoying the reboot. My personal favorite so far is “Avalanche”. A late entry in the 1970s-style disaster genre, and one that was not only DOA, but already a rotting corpse before anyone had the misfortune to see it. As Crow (I think) observes, “Was there a writer’s strike in the late 70s?” Featuring a totally vapid “performance” by Mia Farrow, and a must-have-needed-the-money appearance by Rock Hudson. Ouch! And sorry, EricJ, I loved it when the crowd was “dancing” at the “party”, and our theater subjects yell “We want California Lady”! I also really enjoyed the host segment featuring the mash up of animal names with natural disasters, ala “Sharknado”.
As far as the speed and concentration of riffs, yeah at times it is jarring, but I am also finding it refreshing to try and get my middle-aged synapses firing faster to keep up, with (at times) very satisfactory results. But not always. It (seems) like the mixture of riff types and tempos evened out a bit in 1104 and 1105, we’ll see. Welcome back MST3K!
Here is a thing I have not found myself thinking about anything in 2017: “I wish this were more cruel.”
The most important line in the history of MST is : “Just repeat to yourself it’s just a show, you should really just relax!”
So all this stuff about what Gypsy is dropping off/picking up in the theater? Who’s Kinga’s mother? Or Max’s mother? Why are the bots back on the SoL? What movie should be next? Who’s the next guest spot?
WHO CARES?
This is not STAR TREK, STAR WARS, or the fracking Marvel Universe.
This is (or should be) a cowtown puppet show.
Once,in the misty north, the right group of people met in the right place, at the right time & created something wonderful.
Lightening struck.
And we all laughed our asses off.
I hate to be the bad guy (unlike EricJ, who clearly loves to be the bad guy) but I have to say that the new MST, JUST… ISN’T …FUNNY.
I really wanted it to be, but it’s just…not.
And before anyone assaults me for being a “newcomer”, I have been a fan since it’s earliest day’s on the Comedy Channel. (Yeah, I’m old).
(I can’t make claims to having knowledge of the KTMA days, but, as the guys who created the show say it’s not worth watching, I’m good with that.)
I’ll admit that I was born & raised in Wisconsin, so the original series had a special connection for me (“Meanwhile at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Potawautami Park”).
So where was I?
Oh yeah, the new MST isn’t that good.
It’s just not.
Believe me, that thought had occurred to me. But I think the fact that the reboot was made by the holy and infallible Joel, meaning it’s more or less how EricJ wants it to be, makes it worse in a way. Because he’s getting the reboot done by his preferred person, and STILL HAS TO COMPULSIVE BASH MIKE/RIFFTRAX IN NEARLY EVERY SINGLE UNBEARABLE COMMENT HE MAKES.
Well, that certainly blows away the green cheese theory, doesn’t it.
Made it up to Starcrash (with work and other commitments, it will probably take two additional weekends to watch the rest of the season).
My main comment when it comes to the episodes that I watched so far: what the heck is up with the story structure of Cry Wilderness? Watching the film, and with it failing to explain some of the key elements involving Bigfoot (or at least have a flashback to Paul meeting Bigfoot), it really felt like it was a sequel to some film that I don’t know about, with me needing to watch that film first to get a full understanding of what happens.
(Or remember Talking Heads lyrics popping up in the old series.)
There were some attempts for the New World Roger Cormans and the American Internationals (we could have gotten Sean Connery in “Meteor”) to get in on This 70’s Disaster Thing while it was still hot, but….no. This was a game for only rich boys to play, and I dimly recall even this one playing the cheap drive-in theaters.
(And a few Woody jokes but no steak knives!)
That was pretty shameless–There’s “callbacks”, and then there’s JUST. PLAIN. TINCUP. BEGGING. (Y’know, like Rifftrax usually does.)
The running-joke harping on the title just before the disaster did also teeter dangerously on the obnoxious Mike-era “C’mon, movie, start avalanching!”
Wouldn’t be so bad if it had just been 1102, but the fact that we have the new generation writers, plus the co-creator who thinks that Girl in the Gold Boots is in the Hall of Fame because the new fans say so, it’s kind of screwing up the experiment.
Rather like Disney’s new Star Wars movies saying “Yes, it’s our chance to do something new without Lucas, but well, we still need to work a JarJar cameo into Rogue One, the prequel fans would expect it!” No, we wouldn’t, we’re trying to flush the works and leech out the poison from the last guy who handled it!
Well, opinions are opinions, I guess. I most strenuously disagree with yours. But we can still be friends!
No, by the way, the MADS are supposed to be the “enemy”, by SENDING them bad movies. Jl/Jn&tB are just trying to survive.
(Which Kinga & Max do a better job of suggesting, in the classic Clayton Forrester “You guys’re evil!” “Thank you!” sense.)
The fact that that little distinction became a bit blurred back when Pearl, Brain & Bobo were just comedy-relief clowns, did start to create MK&B’s, quote, “cruel” style when misdirected aging-high-school anger started lashing out at whatever temporary attention-deficit slow-plot-moving-annoyance was “wasting our heroes’ time”. Which is why everyone makes all those cynical ageist judgements about the new audience’s “We love his cruelty!” laffs, and vice versa.
And I’ve spent 20 years agreeing with burt that we could have all used a bit less of it.
I love being able to discuss new episodes of MST3k in real-time. I never thought I would see that happen! However, I’m very disappointed that this means we’ll have to put up with even more of EricJ’s bull on a regular basis. Any other user, on any other message board, who keeps spewing the same negative points unprovoked for YEARS with his condescending attitude would be banned.
I just watched only 30 mins. of BEAT OF HOLLOW MOUNTAIN and there were several instances of Servo just singing songs and replacing the lyrics with “beast” or “hollow mountain” (I’ve had the time of my life, Eye of the Tiger, Cats in the cradle) That’s the same kind of riffs EricJ complained Bill’s Crow did adnauseam, but when Joel’s protégés do it, it’s fine right?
C’mon mods, do something.
I know you meant “Beast”, but I’m now picturing somewhat of a hepper cat, if you get my drift, daddy-o.
(Disclaimer: I’m probably not a beatnik. Capisce? Done. Feels good.)
Honestly, this site is getting to be much less fun in the past week with the increased troll rants, instead of the lightheartedness I’d hoped we’d all have with the new season. I am seriously getting to the point of saying either ______ goes, or I do. Or give us an option to put certain posters on “Ignore.” I don’t need the constant, repeated hate-spewing about certain hosts or movies or genres.
Yeah, any callbacks made by Cinematic Titanic were cute and coy nods to the more intellectual fans, like our resident gentlesir EricJ. But all the callbacks made by Rifftrax were crude pandering by belligerent dummy heads who slothfully appeal to the lowest common denominator.
So of course, all the good call backs in the new season were carefully chosen by Joel and only reference Joel episodes or episodes that Joel approves of. But any badly placed or Sci-Fi era callbacks were made by the other writers who probably like Mike too much and want to pander to all the unwashed masses who clamor for more references to caveman-favored episodes like Space Mutiny or Track of the Moon Beast. I bet Joel heroically fought them tooth and nail to keep out those unfit callbacks but got too much pushback from those dastardly millenial writers who worship the Sci-Fi era religiously.
Oooorrrrr EricJ is just an oblivious hypocrite and/or purposeful troll.
It’s annoying but it’s not “We do 70’s/80’s references in lieu of actual material”, that found funny the fact that a very decade existed, that Bill’s riffs were.
It would be NICE if they could come up with how to use an old song with an on-screen gag without “Inserting the movie title”, just for a change of pace, but even the 70’s jokes in Avalanche–like combining 70’s references with the “New Terms for Sidehacking” segment to create the “New Terms For 70’s Ice Skating” routine (“She’s doing a Dorothy Hamill, with a Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific!”)–didn’t reach the sheer level of decade-kitsch begging MK&B created.
It’s not the What, it’s the How Desperate, and Jn&tB just aren’t as much, since they know other jokes.
No, I’m guessing Joel was the one who THOUGHT all the SciFi fans would woo-hoo and rock-concert devil-sign like at the live shows, if they stuck the California Lady line in for little other visible reason known to man (and this was the guy who complained about “Audience pandering” in the CT shows??)–That’s sort of the problem, and I’d probably collect the Daily Double on it.
Any other old show vet still in touch with the fandom would at least create theillusion of being more subtle about the cheap mid-show audience boost.
An article on pop-site Vox also seemed to be written by a Mike-raised fan who’s grousing Denver’s same point about “Gee, I liked it when it was meaner, and yelling abuse at the movie…Now it’s only about boring SMART stuff, like it’s for geeks!”:
http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/4/18/15325114/mst3k-season-11-best-films-review
It’s just an op-ed as an excuse to plug the episode list, and not as openly as a high-school as the “Gee, I wish I was a bully who could pick on everyone and look cool too, the way Mike does…Maybe he’ll teach me someday!” sentiment that created the whole host-obsessed Jim Jones personaity cult out of the SciFi/RT years that Joel’s CC years didn’t, but it does illustrate how much the problem has seeped into our fan bloodstream and into our DNA:
In case you’ve ever wondered–and I’m sure you have ;) –THAT’S what I was so angry about all these years. Not the guy. Not the lack of the other guy. Not the painfully-untalented supporting replacement. Not even the contemptuous refusal to even bother watching the movie anymore.
It’s about watching in helpless frustration at what it did to US. It was about taking a show made for people who’d grown up on obscure references, and giving it to a fandom who hadn’t grown up, period. The Right People used to Get It, and now the Wrong People were in charge and getting to do all the bullying they’d dreamed of doing all those years they couldn’t do it in their own lives…Sound like a certain recent election?
Read carefully, folks, I’M not the one complaining that the new show “Isn’t like it used to be.” I’m the one trying to say it is…And maybe you’re not.
Wow, was Mike Nelson just compared to Trump? I think it’s only a matter of 30 or so more posts on this thread before Godwin’s Law is trod upon.
There’s a chart to see what your name would be in “Space Mutiny”. EricJ is “Chunk Rockbone”!
Sheesh, I literally can’t be on this site anymore. I thought it would be fun or at least very interesting after the new season, but I’m out. Enjoy everybody who sticks around.
That’s it. I’m outta here too until things change. This site used to be fun. It’s horrible since the new launch — I don’t need to be lectured, talked down to, told what I’m thinking, told I’m wrong for liking certain movies or comics or jokes, etc. Compared to Satellite News this past week, Facebook is a giant playgroup of funny, happy, nice people, or at least ones who remembered to take their meds.
Sitting Duck, DarkGrandmaofDeath, and all you other funny folks, so long and thanks for all the fish.
I just finished “At the Earth’s Core” completing my first viewing of Season 11. For what it’s worth I enjoyed them all, finding the new season smile worthy. As a long time fan (since 1994) the new stuff seems to me to continue the zeitgeist of the old show, but change is the nature of the universe, Grasshopper, so why quibble over details? Just enjoy. I am.
PS – How about a good old short in Season 12, eh?
You guys are just quitting because you aren’t SHUT-IN SUPERMEN who watched TV when cable was in it’s infancy and UHF was king.
(What am I being too harsh? Mike Nelson held me down and Snicker-snagged on me when I was a unique nerd snowflake watching Dr. Who on PBS)
Sorry to sound like a jerk, but from what I’ve seen so far, I don’t really like the new MST3K.
It’s not horrible or anything, but many of the sketches and jokes are awkward and poorly written. It doesn’t feel like they put enough thought into it.
The song with Neil Patrick Harris did NOT feel like something out of MST3K at all.
Also, the crappy green screen backgrounds and effects look so lame. Very disappointing.
Well, you’re right, that may have been a tad excessive-
I may have stepped over the line comparing the Second-generation fandom to the adoring cult hordes of a smug narcissist, whose fandom, wishing he would bring new respect to their lives with his “outspoken” style, silenced all question to his leadership with “Well, it’s over, he’s the New Guy now, and you can’t do anything about it, so shuddup and live with it!”, while snickering between themselves over their “victory” over what was clearly a small vocal minority of pencil-necked eggheads the new changeover probably made “cry”, and that any continuing objection to what he was doing with his new mantle of power was just the night-and-day plotting of “sore-loser babies” who couldn’t accept the new party’s cool reality to get revenge on all those in our troubled society who had once held them back…
…(Python voice): “We are sorry if this impression has come across.” ;)
New fan here with a question. Back in the days when the old show was in production were there commenters here that constantly found fault with it? Just wondering.
Don’t worry. You are entitled to your opinion.
You are not a jerk.
Eric J. is.
People are complaining about the riffs not being highbrow enough? Need I remind you that the second episode contained a SOLARIS namedrop? Again, everyone involved in this gets a lifetime pass from me for that.
Welcome new MSTie, Cerno!
To answer your question, I don’t remember anyone here who is as negative as Eric J.
I think he has other issues that have nothing to do with the show or anybody here.
Please, please just enjoy MST3K! :-)
Ignore the troll.
Have you watched any episodes of the classic MST3K?
If not, I suggest you start with “Teenagers From Outer Space” from the Joel era and “Werewolf” from the Mike era.
The original version, or the dumbed-down US version?
I’m just going to assume the original, given the Woman in The Dunes mention in Hercules Against the Moon Men.
I never complained about it. I have no problems with callbacks in Cinematic Titanic OR Rifftrax OR the new MST3K. All I pointed out was your blatant hypocrisy that you are either woefully and pitifully unaware of, or you are aware of it and use it to purposefully rile up saps like me. Either way, you’re cancer to this site.
Lavendare – Welcome new MSTie Cerno!
Thanks for the welcome. I have seen the two episodes you recommended and enjoyed them both. Never had a nyquilada, but I have been in dingy biker bars frequented by women who are strangers to the English language, so I can kinda relate.
I really enjoy the esoteric references in the riffs and hope to hear more of them in season 11. Maybe a mention of De Re Metallica or The Book of Kells in the Wizards movies? Of course, a good old fart joke is always a plus. Looking forward to it!
Errrr, NO, paranoid boy–I was referring to Joel needling the other Titanic crew when they tried to boost the crowd with old MST3K staples (“Hey, Joel…’Rock climbing’!” “Hey, Trace…’Audience pandering’!”), because CT wasn’t supposed to be an MST3K fanboy reunion, it was supposed to be a new gig for the old performers.
Here, it is supposed to be an MST3K fan reunion, so Joel has clearly lifted the restrictions on old cheap callbacks. Makes sense, yes, but he could be a little less painful about the Hello-fellow-SciFi-fans-who-love-parroting-catchphrases kissups he believes he’s part of because he watches the reruns.
If you knew the Solaris riff was regarding the rocky lake scenery, you’d know it was about the Russian original. Well played, guys, kudos. :)
I don’t know if I can add anything…..(at this point, someone is yelling well don’t!) but I will anyway.
My experience is probably much different than most here. I became a fan during the SciFi years, so my initial experiences were with Mike and SciFi channel first. My Saturday mornings were a ritual, in front of the TV at 8am Central with breakfast, ready to enjoy, then cutting the grass at ten. For anyone living in the South, you realize this means you miss the coolest part of the day. But it was worth it. I personally like the caustic Crow, Mike’s understated delivery (better than his current Rifftrax one) and one other thing; they laughed during the riffing, which I always took as genuine enjoying themselves.
After it was over, I found out more of the history, watched all the Joel episodes, found those fascinating (IMO) years in the Mike/Joel with Trace and Frank and Mike.
Saying all this I give leeway to the reboot MST3K because I can understand the disagreements with it from fans who remember the earlier MST3K before Mike. I find some agreement with them. I personally believe a lot of the riffing is too wordy, simply too much said. Some of it is quite good. I’d like to seek Kinga get a litter meaner. After all, she is Pearl Forrester’s grandaughter! I do believe that Patton Oswalt was a great choice for the Son of TV’s Frank. Other than that, I’ll make up my mind as I go on.
I’ve decided not to binge-watch these episodes, I’m going to watch them just like did in the Sci-Fi years to be fair. Every Saturday morning for 10 weeks (saw a couple already) I’m going to wake up and watch with breakfast and make up my mind that way.
Finally I may disagree with EricJ (especially about the Mike years) I don’t have the real dislike some here have. He has his opinion, and I hope we can still have disagreements without flames. I mean, it’s not like he’s Joe Don Baker! (Excuse me, went Mike there for a second). :)
^^^^ yeah, but now he’s not just giving an opinion, he’s starting to name call and flame people.
“The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Amazing Colossal Episode Guide” is essential reading.
They are selling used copies on Amazon, but I suggest if you haven’t read it yet, pick it up from your local book store or library. :-)
Also, avclub posted an article on the twenty essential classic MST3K episodes.
http://www.avclub.com/article/10-essential-imst3ki-episodes-83328
I don’t agree on all of their choices, but it’s a good list to fill in the spaces of classic episodes to watch.