I am surprised to note that I have only a single reply to this thread. And that is way at the beginning. Hmmmm…
Yes. I know it is a favorite of many, and that’s fine. To each their own.
I concur that episode 3 is epic.
Well, that’s good to hear, because I love Manos. Time to watch episode 2!
It doesn’t have the same creepy weirdness of Manos, but hope you enjoy it. Be sure and let us know what you think!
Cry Wilderness seems to really click with some people. I found it middle of the road personally but I’ve seen some out there really love it.
I should clarify there were some good laughs, but I thought it started strong and went out with a whimper.
“Tell me more”
“Like does he have a car?”
You’ve gotta laugh at that.
Wait, did they have the “Beware, thieves are silent” snake warnings in the US too?
I did indeed laugh at that pretty heartily as I recall. The rap bit was damned funny, too.
“But the cowboy didn’t like him so he shot him in the fa-aa-ce” – The Beast of Hollow Mountain got a good laugh from me.
Overall, I’m really enjoying these. Biggest difficulty for me is distinguishing the voices from each other. Makes it hard to establish the vibe of each character, particularly the robots. Jonah I can pick out after years of hearing him on the Nerdist podcasts.
The riffing definitely picks up with episode 3. This is pretty great so far.
I’ve been watching Reptiliculus (the first movie in the new season) today when I get time. I’ve been laughing so hard! I remember MST3K being chuckle-worthy most of the time, but the comments during this movie are just so good. I’m loving this.
It also helps that I really like the underlying movie. It’s bad, but it’s also a certain type of bad, where you’re still kind of drawn into its world and characters and plot. Not a lot of MST3K movies do that to me, but Reptilicus definitely does.
The first 3 movies they picked that I’ve seen thus far have been prime bad movies. They did a good job selecting them.
Finished episode 1.
Well, I have to say I am happy that this is good. We will have to see if this has the cult classic staying power of the original 10 seasons, but I am very happy with that first episode. It felt like MST3K.
I love the bone-minions and Har Mar Superstar, I love the set design and themes of the mad scientists too. I think that the casting is overall very good. New crow is great, and Jonah is good too. The new Tom Servo is probably the weakest part in the first episode. It is tough because Kevin Murphy was basically Tom Servo for the entire run of the show, and he was so excellent at it. That is a big gumball machine sized pair of shoes for Baron Vaughn to fill there. Crow has had a change or two, and Bill Corbett was probably the best crow, but the new guy is great too.
I think that the riffing did feel like they were trying a bit too hard in some spots, but that was a really decent episode. Better than some of the originals I remember.
Looking forward to more.
What? Trace was best Crow. I think I like Hampton more than Bill already too.
The writing and production design are as charming and fun as they’ve ever been, but there are a few odd things about this that have turned me off.
Jonah, Crow, and Tom sound almost identical to me. Perhaps I need more time to acclimate, but I’m having the hardest time differentiating who is making what riff. Ultimately, it probably doesn’t matter that much, but one of my favorite things about the original is how each of them had a distinct riffing style. Crow goes darker, Tom sings a lot, Joel did his little shadow interactions.
Somewhat relatedly, I find it weird that the actors voicing the bots are not actually doing the puppeteering. This means that when they are in the theater, there’s an obvious disconnect between what the characters are saying and their movements, exacerbating the issue mentioned above. There’s barely an attempt at “robot mandible”-syncing, as their CGI robot mouth flaps unconvincingly, or not at all. Then, a CGI Gypsy flies in from nowhere for no discernible reason.
Some might say, “Who cares? It’s all about the jokes!”, but, for me, MST3K was not just ALL about the jokes, but about the characters. Those same people probably hate the host segments, which I ADORE and believe to be just as important as the movie.
So, yeah, I’ll give it shot, but it’s like a good steak that wasn’t properly seasoned and doesn’t come with any sides.
The character stuff is still there and comes out more as the show goes along.
I think the puppeteering is something they can get better at if they get another season. I think this season was shot in two weeks of filming.
I get that this is totally a YMMV thing, but the character voices don’t sound at all alike to me. I’ll grant you that Crow and Servo (and Gypsy) seem far less exaggerated than in the past, maybe the fact that all of them seem more like “normal” voices makes them seem more similar?
I’ve watched about half the episodes. Only about a third of the jokes really land, there are too many times when they repeat a line as if mere repetition made it funny/meme-worthy, many of the host segments are just awkward (especially invention exchanges,) and the mads mug shamelessly for the camera.
… in other words, it’s all classic MST3K!
It’s easy to forget that the original was often a shambling, uneven mess. But it was a charming, lovable, and sometimes hysterically funny mess, and it’s to the credit of everyone involved that the reboot not just captures the overall spirit of the original, but actually improves on it in some ways. I’d say there are actually more successful jokes per minute in this season than in all but the very best of the original episodes. And the song in the opening episodes is also a series highlight.
The only things that really bug me are: I don’t care for the opening credits, especially the guy singing (is it Jonah?), and the bumpers seem really out of place with no actual commercials (are they there to cover edits in the movie?)
One online complaint I don’t quite get is people saying there are too many jokes per minute. I watched a bunch of Rifftrax leading up to this, and I think those guys are going about the same speed. And MST3K mostly avoids my biggest complaint about Rifftracks - riffers talking over the dialog.