You know what, man? Just don’t watch it. Save yourself, and us, the annoyance.
I watched the first episode and it was… fine. I think it might just take me some time to adjust to how different the voices are.
Not fucking worth it. Can’t dislike anyone involved in space. Enjoy.
… ok.
Haven’t watched the new episdoes yet, but I did enjoy this new-MST3K take on the beginning of Stranger Things.
Plus you have to applaud the meta-ness of one Netflix property taking on another Netflix property.
I only get notifications if people reply to me. Trying to enjoy my nephews birthday party without emails about how I can’t dislike Wil Wheaton without setting off the world. So if you don’t want me in the thread don’t mention me.
Deep breaths. I don’t think anyone is attacking you, merely pointing out that for a little while there you were basically poo-pooing on every single positive response with how much the show ruined your life. It comes out a bit over-the-top just based on phrasing.
Love the Stranger Things tie-in myself - it got my daughter to at least see what MST3K was since heck if I’d convince her to pay attention to it otherwise. Hooray viral ads.
Dude, don’t respond to him!
Saw ep 1 last night and enjoyed it well enough. The cast was fine and though all the pre-show marketing pimped them hard, the focus of the show was the movie/riffing not the cast. Which was what I feared going in.
Felica Day was pretty good and I wasn’t expecting that. The bots seemed their old selves for the most part. And the riffing was good with some consistent giggles from me.
Patton O didn’t work for me. Seemed to be trying too hard to be TVs Frank it felt. But it was the first ep so I can see him becoming more his own character and/or me growing on his take of TVsF.
Johah was close to a non-entity. Joel and Mike had pretty strong characters, or at least pretty individual ones. Jonah just was kind of a dude. Again, first ep so I can see him creating something original as the show goes on.
Thumbs up! Like! 8.4!
Watched a couple. So far, Crow is the first character to work for me even though he was never a favorite, and I think Yount is going to pull that off no problem. Tom’s voice and characterization hasn’t clicked for me yet, but it doesn’t particularly bother me either. Also neutral on Jonah, Forrester and Max at this point.
So far, my favorite thing about the show is the music, and I hope they leverage and build on that appropriately.
Actually, what I’m most happy about is that they didn’t fuck the show up when they could have done so quite easily in a variety of ways. Nothing is seriously bothering me yet. Whew!
Edit: Anyone else notice what they’re doing in the end credits with the backer names? They got to the “D” names by episode 3.
So far I’ve watched the first two, which I would rate as OK. I’m willing to give it time to find it’s voice. Not every episode of the original knocked it out of the park either.
Opinions:
- The third episode (Time Travellers) really kicks up the quality in the riffing. The first two were about as good as a mediocre original episode. They also felt like they were less dense with riffs. But the third… man, they were all over that movie and so many of the jokes landed for me. If you’re feeling skeptical, don’t give up before the third ep!
- The movies are good choices–more watchable than a lot of the original eps, but still bad.
- I don’t think the puppeteering is very good, but I assume that takes a lot of practice. Vaughn seems to be doing better than Yount.
- Don’t care for the new Gypsy. Joel explained why he changed her in the kIckstarter notes, and I guess it was probably the right thing to do. But she talks too fast for the mouth to match (as gargantuan as it is), and she doesn’t add much to the theater segments. She used to be inherently funny (maybe for the same reasons she might have been inherently insulting) and having her show up in a sketch was almost always a joy. Now there’s nothing there.
- I wish the actors’ voices were more distinctive. I’ll probably learn to pick them out as the series goes on, but right now it’s tricky.
- Jonah’s fine. Felicia Day is good. Patton Oswalt is great. The returning cast in Ep2 (?) were… uh… yikes. My guess is that was filmed totally separately from everything else, and the direction was just bad.
- There’s something a little scattershot about the host segments, like they can’t decide if they want to build a little backstory or not give a shit about backstory. Either would be fine with me, but they’re stuck in the murky middle.
- Skeleton dudes are neat minions! I love the band. And the songs are arrangements of old MST songs like Tibby and Livin’ in Deep 13, etc., which is so awesome.
- The new theme and love theme are real good.
- I also really liked the Every Nation has a Monster song. I was ready to cringe when it started, but they actually did some pretty skillful rapping. I wonder how many takes it required?
Overall, I’m real happy with the reboot. I think it’s been produced with love and affection. It has a lot of the same weaknesses as the original, which I feel disinclined to complain about. It’s basically real good.
The riffing definitely picks up in episode 3, Nightgaunt. And it continues to develop from there. And the movie choices, as you point out, are great choices. I also agree that it’s still difficult to distinguish the individual actor voices from each other. (Mostly between Jonah and Tom, for me.) I’m hoping this will gradually, naturally resolve itself. Everything else you said I also pretty much agree with. Also, their solution for the nudity in episode #4 was brilliant.
I want more Har Mar Superstar. Unleash the “Skeleton Crew”! Or just more music in general. This could be their strongest card IMO.
Didn’t like the choice of the second movie (Cry Wilderness). Dreadful, but not in a good way.
Why? .
The skeleton crew are inspired from Inframan, which they totally need to riff in season two.
I’d never heard of Har Mar Superstar! Thanks, barstien! Seeing him, I recognize him in the title sequence, with skull makeup on… Great singer.
Why? Very little happening on screen (not quite as bad as Manos) giving them little to work with. Some of the riffs were decent but the overall effect was boring.
I put Cry Wilderness in the “charmingly bad” category. So many head-scratching creative decisions in that thing. It was definitely the worst of the movies I’ve watched so far, but still enjoyable to see riffed.
So you also found Manos dreadful in a bad way?