Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return

EDIT- I feel I need to knock off a point from my initial review. At the time I was more forgiving but season 2 drives home a serious problem with the new series. There are too many jokes. For every two good jokes, it feels as though there are twenty bad ones in between and hurt the two good ones. The original series worked because it played off the movie, this is nothing but a distraction from it.

One of my favorite TV shows of all time get its second wind and the breeze is good. With a new cast and Joel behind the wheel, they have sought some great material for their 14 episodes and have given the series a nice new coat of paint. It took some time to get over the new voices for the bots, I'll admit, but nothing a little more exposure won't fix.

I love their selection. Two of them I have seen on Netflix before, Starcrashers and The Loves of Hercules, and Reptilicus is in my personal collection of $1 VHS tapes. With such quality, there is a plethora of ribs to be made. There is an android Texan for God sake, we have already crossed the camp line and I'll be damned if we aren't going to see that to the end. The other movies are strong contenders as well. In Cry Wilderness an obnoxious brat of a kid befriends Bigfoot and has to save his father from... all the while everyone throws as many insults as possible at the sole native American. Wizard of the Lost Kingdom has a doughy swordsman sort of avoid using swordsmanship to protect a bratty wizard kid. Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II has a fat wizard teach a bratty kid magic while David Carradine desperately tries to avoid swordsmanship to protect them. I am beginning to sense a trend. But Yungary... has a giant monster dance with a bratty Korean kid. But they don't just pick on kids, The Time Travellers has a bratty man child, son of a...! If I were to pick a best episode, it would have to be Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II because woof. Between the teen actor getting hit with puberty hard and the cast forgetting to act, it is just non stop fodder for Jonah and the bots. Carradine's constant heroic entrances and sudden departures are especially hilarious, half the time he doesn't even do anything. Just show up, kill a couple guards, then out the window as everyone stands around and watches. The weakest movie of the season has to be Avalanche, it starts strong and ends well but for a stretch the movie just doesn't have much to ridicule. Mainly because nothing happens, the movie stalls on endless exposition that makes one wish the avalanche would come sooner. Even then, I wouldn't call it a terrible episode, the end is ripe with cheesy goodness as Rock Howard frets over his endangered mother who might be his age and Mia farrow is as wooden as ever.

The humor is pretty diverse. The sketches have that family friendly, perhaps even PC at times, quality that was very reminiscent of Joel's seasons. They try to be inoffensive and sometimes slap on the hand of the movie for being behind the times, such as shaming Rock Hudsen's character in Avalancehe for being a poor role model. The theater however feels more like Mike Nelson's run. They tear into the movie ridiculing it for all of its faults without remorse. Bad special effects, terrible costumes, the wizard kid runs like he may have some special need, nothing is safe. Even Gypsy gets into the act, though why I can't quite understand. Her appearance has more flair then the others but her jokes just don't deserve the build. She shows up, drops something off, and leaves with a somewhat disappointing quip while Tom and Crow are left with the A material.

There is one glaring flaw I have with the new season/series, and unfortunately its the mads. I like Felicia Day and I like Patton Oswalt, but Kinga Forrester and TV's Son of TV's Frank just don't seem to cut it. There is no activity with the characters, while their fathers were very active in their segments their kids are very wooden. They deliver their scenes like a stand up routine, they just stand in front of the camera and deliver their lines. The invention exchanges are especially weak, their inventions rarely if ever call for them to do anything beyond spin a wheel or talk. Their predecessors made love to the camera, I kind of wanted more from them.

Despite the review title and some of the things I'm going to get into about the new season, I am still giving it an 8 out of 10 because more than just being happy it's back, I'm happy it's on people's minds again. For close to twenty years MST3K was a niche show, a cult classic. I mention it to somebody and more often than not I just got a blank stare back at me. Now with the successful Kickstarter (of which I am a backer) you can find MST3K everywhere. It's streaming on several platforms, the DVDs got put out faster, there's real merch now, people know what I'm talking about and they want more and that can only be a good thing. That being said however, here's what I thought about the new season. Overall I liked it. Not as much as the original series but that's to be expected. It's certainly different, which doesn't mean it's bad, just different. It's like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy wakes up and everything is both the same and different at the same time.

The Good:

-The writing is top notch with the movies themselves and with most of the host segments.

-The rapport between Jonah, Hampton and Baron. The jokes flow really well between the three.

-Also really enjoyed Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the new Mads.

-Hampton Yount as Crow in general, he's like right smack dab in the middle between Trace and Bill as Crow as far as voice and personality are concerned.

-Being new while also calling back to the original series. For instance they brought back Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy a few times (although what was with Bobo's mask? Did they lose the original or get that on sale?)

-The movies riffed were a great selection. Definite favorites were Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II, Yongary, Starcrash and Cry Wilderness.

The Not Exactly Good, Not Exactly Bad But I Got Used To It:

-Moving the opening to before the credits instead of after. I guess with no commercials it makes that change necessary.

-The new opening credits in general. Why does Jonah apparently have to recreate it every time? Just roll the opening, it doesn't need an explanation too.

-The new door sequence.

-Baron Vaughn needs to distinguish himself more, at least in the theater because he sounds like Jonah a lot of the time.

-Speaking of Tom, the fact that his arms are stiff now instead of loose springs.

-The increased mobility of the bots in the theater, which seemed to be done just because they could rather than have it be organic.

-The increased amount of riffs with more pop culture based jokes. You can tell how young the writers room is, which isn't good or bad, just an observation.

-The lack of Minnesota based jokes.

-Gypsy's new voice, though she didn't actually show up a whole lot outside the "payload" bits.

What I Did Not Like:

-Speaking of Gypsy, the stupid nonsensical "payload" which served no other purpose then to get Gypsy in the theater. Why when that never had to be a thing before?

-The new SOL bridge. It's just so flat with no dimension to it and I miss the hexfield viewscreen. If the movie could make the bridge bigger while still maintaining it's distinctive look, there's no reason this shouldn't.

-The extra people in Moon 13. They never needed anything more than the main Mad and one or two sidekicks, everything else just seems like superfluous nonsense that again they added just because they could instead of stopping to think if they should (which is pretty much the main criticism I have of the season as a whole).

-No shorts. Given it's on a streaming platform instead of TV I can see why there aren't any but still, I think one could have been done.

-Like others have mentioned, the shear amount of riffs they have with this basic thought of filling every non-dialog second with a joke, some of it even being blurted out before whatever it is they're riffing actually appears on screen. It just makes it painfully obvious these guys are reading a script instead of supposedly watching the movie for the first time. The show (outside of KTMA) has always been written so why is it Joel, Mike, Trace, J, Kevin and Bill were able to make the riffing sound natural and these guys can't? The answer is there's too many jokes! Not everything on screen needs a joke. The pacing got better as the season went on, but they can afford to tone it down a bit. Hopefully with season 12 on the way they'll take this criticism to heart and find their groove so that it sounds more relaxed and natural. Also it's ok to speak over dialog occasionally.

-The "meta" ness of the whole thing. For example they make blatant references to Kickstarter, that this show is streaming, that it IS a show and that they're back from a previous show, the Mads have the MST3K logo on their sleeves, etc. I haven't seen every episode of the original series, but I don't remember them being so blatant about "this is a TV show" or even mentioning the title despite half the series had them reading fan mail. It was really off-putting.

-On that note, I miss the "homemade" aspect of the original show. The biggest concern I had when the Kickstarter to revive the show was first announced and Joel said it would be filmed in Hollywood with a new cast was that it would lose it's homemade charm. One of the things I liked most about the original series was how everything was done in house. Like all the songs were written and sung by the cast, the sets and props were done by Best Brains and if any other characters showed up they were always played by somebody from the crew. Unfortunately those fears were realized between the overabundance of Paul and Storm songs and guest stars, most of which had nothing to do with whatever else was happening in the episode, the more mobile bots, which aren't even controlled by their voice actors anymore, the aforementioned new sleek bridge set, and the overly produced miniature scenes, particularly the opening in episode 1. You can plainly tell those scenes were done by a professional stop motion studio instead of a bunch of guys with spray-painted crap found around the house. Again, it felt like they only did it because they had an abundance of new resources instead of asking if it should have been done at all. Less is more in this regard, especially with this show.

-This may be just me nitpicking, but I had this sense that they were deliberately not acknowledging Mike's time on the show. Not so much Mike's time as a whole since like mentioned earlier Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy showed up several times, but Mike himself. Like bringing back Gizmonics and the invention exchange, which was Joel's thing and having Jonah be more Joel-like in general. Like before MST3K Joel was a prop comic, that was his thing so the whole invention exchange was an extension of that. When Mike took over he started to do it but it was clear he wasn't a tinkerer like Joel so they dropped it. Why would Jonah be doing it? I don't know anything about Jonah's history before he joined the show but I know he's not a prop comic. I know there isn't the best history between Joel and Mike behind the scenes but still, with Jonah clearly doing Joel's stuff, it just felt like they wanted you to forget about whatever Mike did on the show. I'm hoping as time goes on Jonah becomes his own host with his own characteristics instead of just being a rehash of Joel.

Overall though, I did like the new season and I don't feel I wasted the money I kicked in, I mean I got a whole bunch of neat swag to go with the new episodes so it's all good on that front even without the new season itself. It had some good things, some bad things but ultimately I'm happy with it and I'm happy it's getting another season. Hopefully Joel et al read these reviews and take the criticisms to heart.

This is really good I was a big fan of the original mst3k and they have done a good job rebooting this. The movies are definitely more watchable than some of the originals. And the riffs and jokes are funny. I am thrilled Netflix decided to make this season. Some of the jokes are pretty obscure and maybe people won't get them all but honestly I really enjoyed watching this. If you like cheesy movies or are a fan of the original give this a try.

I'm a fan of the original release, the cast were quick, witty and hilarious (Space Mutiny being my absolute favourite). The 2017 version has been updated, but the much loved corny effects and movies are still there with more modern references. However, I find that there seems to be *too* much going on during the movie. The cast seem to jump in with a joke just slightly before it happens and they seem to comment on everything and anything. I know that MST3K has always been scripted, but the original felt like it was just some friends watching a movie, the jokes felt (mostly) natural and spontaneous. The new one, not so much. There are whole chunks of jokes and talking at times and it's a little off putting personally. I've also noticed that the little silhouette at the bottom seems to be slightly smaller than in the original series! However, the B movies are just as terrible, the actors and robots are funny, which is all you really need for MST3K, I'm sure it'll please new and old viewers alike.

I went into Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return with a positive outlook. I left wanting to hang myself. One of my major problems is the humor. No longer is it clever puns or jokes. Now MST3K:R is just a bunch of pop culture references because that is what sells. If this is your brand of humor, I get it. You'll probably enjoy this show more than I. However, you must admit that repeating the same brand of joke is lazy. My next major problem is the special effects. They all look terrible. I wouldn't have a problem with the effects if this were the old show. In the old show (MST3K) the effect were crappy because they barely had a budget. Now they have a budget and, should give a crap about the effects. Of course, there are some good things. The show is self aware and, knows it ridiculous. That is the one thing I could appreciate about Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return.