I think if the effects get too good we need to start worrying! The day we get a Crow wth blinking eyelids is the day we need to rise up and fight back. 
The Official and Very Rifftastic Mystery Science Theater 3000 Thread
- Thread starter cooleddie74
- Start date
The Roman arc gave us the "bring Mike down" bit, which remains one of my favorites.
"Oh, I know -- Gypsy likes me!"
Okay, cool. One can never be sure around here.I'm not that subtle with sarcasm. If it was, you'd know it
Sarcasm isn't usually an art in these forums, it's a baby elephant with a can of paint. 
My favorite bit from the "season arc" (ie the first year on Sci-Fi) was the running gag with Mike either directly destroying or assisting in the destruction of 3 planets. I love the notion of lovable, dopey Mike becoming something of an "accidental Galactus". Let's tally the "score".
At least we can't really blame the burning of Rome on Mike. That was all Bobo's doing.
- Future Earth, by suggesting how the Apes can arm a doomsday bomb
- Obesrver's World, requesting the Nannites provide a "distraction"
- "Camping" PLanet, dropping an over-packed baking soda bomb to thwart an unseen army of killer robots
At least we can't really blame the burning of Rome on Mike. That was all Bobo's doing.
Good point.Sarcasm isn't usually an art in these forums, it's a baby elephant with a can of paint.
Tom Servo and Crow take viewer questions. (Skip ahead to 3:35 mark.)
I just finished the Kickstarter backer preview episode. I'll have to sit on it to figure out how I feel, but my overall reaction is about the same as the one I had back when the show jumped to the Sci-Fi Channel with new bad guys, a new set, and new Crow: hmmmmmmmm. I got used to it then, I'm sure I'll get used to it now, but for the moment there's a lot of good plus a lot of things that give me pause.
No spoilers, so I'll just say that a lot of the episode felt very rushed. Two things Joel said during development was that they were packing in more riffs and aiming to spend less time on the host segments to get back into the theater faster. They accomplished both, but at the cost of making the episode feel like it was running on fast-forward. For example, there was a Church of the Subgenius joke I really wanted to laugh at, but it was followed immediately by another unrelated riff, with zero breathing room between. I found it disorienting. Similarly, most of the host segments were over almost as soon as they started. (Luckily, they don't make that mistake during the one segment with a song, which is the standout sequence of the episode.) The whole affair moved so fast it ended up feeling kinda weightless.
The cast appears to have excellent chemistry together -- especially Felecia Day and Patton Oswalt -- so I hope we get to spend more time watching them interact in later episodes.
The one thing I'm unambiguously enthusiastic about? The new doorway sequence. It's a fresh spin on the old idea that reinvents the function of the doors while fitting into the goofball logic of the show. It's like a screwy version of Bruce Willis' apartment from The Fifth Element, or maybe the Sarang base from Moon if it were also a Transformer.
No spoilers, so I'll just say that a lot of the episode felt very rushed. Two things Joel said during development was that they were packing in more riffs and aiming to spend less time on the host segments to get back into the theater faster. They accomplished both, but at the cost of making the episode feel like it was running on fast-forward. For example, there was a Church of the Subgenius joke I really wanted to laugh at, but it was followed immediately by another unrelated riff, with zero breathing room between. I found it disorienting. Similarly, most of the host segments were over almost as soon as they started. (Luckily, they don't make that mistake during the one segment with a song, which is the standout sequence of the episode.) The whole affair moved so fast it ended up feeling kinda weightless.
The cast appears to have excellent chemistry together -- especially Felecia Day and Patton Oswalt -- so I hope we get to spend more time watching them interact in later episodes.
The one thing I'm unambiguously enthusiastic about? The new doorway sequence. It's a fresh spin on the old idea that reinvents the function of the doors while fitting into the goofball logic of the show. It's like a screwy version of Bruce Willis' apartment from The Fifth Element, or maybe the Sarang base from Moon if it were also a Transformer.
I'm up to episode six, and the season is slowly improving. The too-rapid pace of the riffs has leveled out and I'm starting to tune into the new characters. There's still stuff I'd like to see improved on -- the (non)use of camera angles is killing the energy, and the puppeteering remains awful -- but overall it's a solid if rough effort.
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I've only seen the first episode so far, and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. The pace is too rushed, and the characters lack distinctive personalities. The riffs were pretty funny some of the time, but it helps that Reptilicus is one of my favorite bad movies. I'll keep watching, since I loved the old show, and I've been told it gets better.
Before anyone freaks that I violated the informal NDA, this video was posted by NetFlix itself a few hours ago. So, no harm, no foul.
Anyway, I wholeheartedly agree with Gepard. This is the standout element, a new, distinctive twist on the iconic door sequence, distinctly its own thing and ironically, quite logical. It also helps to explain just how Jonah "eats and breathes and other science facts", all without saying a word. Without reservation, it is my favorite of the door sequences.
I'm watching the first episode right now. Loving it so far. It's different, but the show changed a good bit over the years. If it had kept going over the years and this was the 20-something-th season, it would probably be somewhat like this.
I like the new theme too.
I like the new theme too.
Watched the first episode and thought it was pretty decent, though after so many years of the "MST3K:TOS" and its spiritual successor Rifftrax it's hard to tap into Jonah and these other voices for the bots. It's just weird to not hear Kevin Murphy.
I like the "premise" of the events laid out in opening and take on the theme, the "Moon Base 13" is delightfully in sync with the basement of the Gizmonic's Institute from the Joel years, Jonah walking through the entry corridor of it looking around at the stuff going on around him is sort of fun before he gets put the the Umbilicus into the Satellite of Love.
Felicia Day is too irresistible and adorable as Kangah Forrester I mean, seriously, this woman can rule me any day.
Patton Oswalt as TV's Son of TV'S Frank doing a great vibe of Frank Coniff.
I have to readapt to there being host segments, too used to RT's lack of them and seeing the whole movie, and the more "Saturday Morning Kid's Show" aspects I was never too fond of with the Joel years. (Like the prop-comedy invention exchange, reading the fan letters.)
The theater segments are funny but, for the first episode at least, the jokes came too fast it was rapid fire like it was coming out of a Gatling gun, makes it hard to process and appreciate the jokes when they're just one after another. (I see that some are saying that that calms down as the series goes on.)
This not being a serialized story beyond the thin premise needed for an excuse to have things happen it's not something I'm going to speed through, probably watch an episode every couple of days or something.
But there's just a fun, warm, giddy feeling about hearing the "In the not too distant future..." song, having a door sequence (showing various habitable compartments of the SOL) and the MST-Love Theme over the end credits.
MST3K is back and it feels good, though I've still enjoyed it on home-video as well as through Rifftrax.
I agree with @Nomad that the characters lack their own personalities, most notably in Crow and Servo. Their voices sound too similar and they don't quite have the distinct personalities they had in TOS, Crow being a wiseacre (or easily "triggered" or inappropriate as in the SF years) and Tom being a bit esoteric and "high-brow" in his jokes, not to mention the deeper baritone voice given to him by Murphy. Again, I've only watched the first episode so don't know if this changes as the show goes on and the actors settled into their roles, it took Murphy awhile to get "his" version of Tom to shine as well as Corbett and his take on Crow.
There also seems to be too much "busy work" going on in the theater with Gypsy dropping in on occasion doing something, Tom flying around to the top of the theater, the three of them moving around the row of seats. Sit and watch the movie, guys!
Never seen Reptilicus but even at the end I was like, "What about the arm that got blown off? Where's the second one?" Though it's "interesting" how it in the movie's premise the remains regenerated into a whole monster but the only reason why the severed tail (somehow) regenerated an entire monster was because of nutrient-enriched water they put it in. Seems to me that the severed arm in the sea wouldn't have the benefit of the water being nutrient enriched or given other life-sustaining help to regenerate.
I like the "premise" of the events laid out in opening and take on the theme, the "Moon Base 13" is delightfully in sync with the basement of the Gizmonic's Institute from the Joel years, Jonah walking through the entry corridor of it looking around at the stuff going on around him is sort of fun before he gets put the the Umbilicus into the Satellite of Love.
Felicia Day is too irresistible and adorable as Kangah Forrester I mean, seriously, this woman can rule me any day.
Patton Oswalt as TV's Son of TV'S Frank doing a great vibe of Frank Coniff.
I have to readapt to there being host segments, too used to RT's lack of them and seeing the whole movie, and the more "Saturday Morning Kid's Show" aspects I was never too fond of with the Joel years. (Like the prop-comedy invention exchange, reading the fan letters.)
The theater segments are funny but, for the first episode at least, the jokes came too fast it was rapid fire like it was coming out of a Gatling gun, makes it hard to process and appreciate the jokes when they're just one after another. (I see that some are saying that that calms down as the series goes on.)
This not being a serialized story beyond the thin premise needed for an excuse to have things happen it's not something I'm going to speed through, probably watch an episode every couple of days or something.
But there's just a fun, warm, giddy feeling about hearing the "In the not too distant future..." song, having a door sequence (showing various habitable compartments of the SOL) and the MST-Love Theme over the end credits.
MST3K is back and it feels good, though I've still enjoyed it on home-video as well as through Rifftrax.
I agree with @Nomad that the characters lack their own personalities, most notably in Crow and Servo. Their voices sound too similar and they don't quite have the distinct personalities they had in TOS, Crow being a wiseacre (or easily "triggered" or inappropriate as in the SF years) and Tom being a bit esoteric and "high-brow" in his jokes, not to mention the deeper baritone voice given to him by Murphy. Again, I've only watched the first episode so don't know if this changes as the show goes on and the actors settled into their roles, it took Murphy awhile to get "his" version of Tom to shine as well as Corbett and his take on Crow.
There also seems to be too much "busy work" going on in the theater with Gypsy dropping in on occasion doing something, Tom flying around to the top of the theater, the three of them moving around the row of seats. Sit and watch the movie, guys!
Never seen Reptilicus but even at the end I was like, "What about the arm that got blown off? Where's the second one?" Though it's "interesting" how it in the movie's premise the remains regenerated into a whole monster but the only reason why the severed tail (somehow) regenerated an entire monster was because of nutrient-enriched water they put it in. Seems to me that the severed arm in the sea wouldn't have the benefit of the water being nutrient enriched or given other life-sustaining help to regenerate.
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I'm downloading all fourteen episodes now (my name finally shows up on the list in experiment eleventy-leven). Are we allowed to say the names of the movies? There's a couple of my old favorites here, including Reptilicus, plus a couple I've never seen before. And so far I'm quite happy with the new characters and skits.
I do really like door/corridor sequence. Examining it, pausing with each door/section just shows just some nifty visuals and details.
