Watched four episodes so far and I'm okay with everything thing. Someone else said it's like how you would have expected the show to evolve if it had never been canceled and I agree with that view. The show as always evolving so it's not a real shocker to the system to see things are bit different. But different can be fun like the house band and TV's son of TV's Frank. First episode does feel like everyone finding their feet, even us as fans. But as the episodes go on it does have that feeling of hey they are going their feet under them and things are starting to click. It's nice that they didn't attempt to reinvent the wheel like some revivals attempt to do.
Up to episode 2 so far and it's so nice having regular MST3K episodes on call. Also Jesus Christ is it just me or does the plot of Cry Wilderness make more sense for the boy having psychosis or something with how absolutely idiotic every single action he makes is?
Something feels off about this show. The original looked the way it did because it had a shoe string budget, this new Netflix original feels wrong. Like it's trying to hard to be "nerdy" and "cult".
They tried to make it look shoestring while also updating it. I personally find it a natural evolution - just compare the changes from the original KTMA format to the true first season. Plus the meat and bones of the show is the riffing anyway, the rest is outright framing material for it.
So I watched the next two episodes of the new MST3K tonight. The Time Travelers and Avalanche. I'd have to say they've gotten their groove on here. Lots of good riffing in both. So 4 watched, 10 to go. Hopefully this revival will do well enough to get us further seasons.
Exactly! If MST3K was just made today, I believe it would be something like this. As I said before on a Facebook group I'm in. Compare Joel's first KTMA episode to his last full season. And Compare Mike's first full episode to his final season on the Scifi channel. There is a huge evolution made between time periods. The meat and potatoes of the show is the riffing and the character interactions with each other. And sometimes with the movie.
I've seen the first two episodes so far. Reptilicus was an ok start. The most memorable part of that episode was probably the giant monster song in the middle. The Cry Wilderness episode was something else though. Kudos to whoever discovered that gem of an awful movie. It's one of those movies where you question how the hell did they come up with this part. It was perfect for an MST3K episode and provided some good riffs. It felt like they saw Harry and the Hendersons go into production, and they had to beat it to release so they just threw Bigfoot into some other movie where he is just a deus ex machina. I also liked the joke about shows taking a while to catch on. That was a pretty clever jab at the way modern TV works. I've also been trying to watch more of the original episodes. I love so bad it's good movies, so it's probably a bit surprising I've only seen a handful of episodes from the original run. I got through about ten to fifteen of some of the better episodes that people told me about before I put it on hold to start the new one.
Just finished the Hercules episode. I was never a fan of the Hercules films on the older episodes and you can add this with the bunch. The best part was when the movies finished. Literally! The end segment and stinger was the best part.
I think people forget that what shoestring budget looks like changes over time. We tend to remember what made on the cheap looked like when we were younger and somehow expect things to look like today. When I was young low budget was British shows like Doctor Who or Red Dwarf. But time has marched on and now a budget of what the production crew could shake out of their mom's couch looks very different. Personally I was glad they could keep a bit of warmth to the low budget feel of the show. Kind of feels like a blend of the past cheap and cheesy with the modern cheap and cheesy.
And lets not forget what could be done with a low budget today compared to back in the 80s and 90s. Look at youtube. It's amazing what could be done with little to no budget.
So I'd never really heard of this show beyond the odd clip on Linkaras videos and decided to check this reboot out on Netflix. And for the life of me I just couldn't get into it. Like I should love this! Sci-fi, robots, puns.. but for whatever reason I couldn't. Then I checked out the original series and oh my god I'm hooked. I'm not sure if it was just "of the times" but the original series just had this amazing charm to it that I loved that I didn't really feel In the reboot. I'm gonna try and go back and watch more of the Netflix series but I'm going to make sure I watch all of the original MST3K if I can.
Admittedly the original Mads were more evil than the current version also at times more stoogish is their willingness to hurt each other in comparison to Kinga and Max. Also they have never really topped Trace in villain persona since he left. He was just the right mix of evil yet relateable. This is just the first season of the new show though, they start getting better in later episodes. It can also depend on the movie they are riffing as well. If the movie is just right, the jokes land perfectly. If not, it can be boring even with the jokes. Part of the reason the original when viewed later was so good, was because most people didn't see their first KTMA seasons which when compared to later ones is pretty lackluster. They don't riff as much and the budget was beyond shoestring. So they went through the awkward phase off a main network.
It's not a reboot. It's season 11. The first episode of the season was not that good. The next episode, Cry Wilderness is one of the seasons highlights. The older episodes on Netflix was chosen by fans as some of the great episodes. Over a year ago Joel the creator had a survey for the top Joel and Mike episodes. Every season have it's stinkers. And season 11 does have them. "The Loves of Hercules" is s11's stinker.
I'm so glad Cry Wilderness is getting this deserved attention. I've seen my fair share of bad films, and this is surreal; up there with Troll 2.
Now if they could get Troll 2 for a possible season 12 here... I really hope MST3K gets another season here.
I can't imagine a Troll 2 episode of MST3K living up to my expectations. Plus, I'd like them to focus on finding the next Manos or Cry Wilderness - something utterly strange in its deviation from usual quality filmmaking, yet totally entertaining.