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The New MST3K, An Unpopular Opinion
Oct. 31st, 2017 04:28 pmI’m... ambivalent ... about the MST3K reboot.
Like pretty much every other TV viewer on the planet, I was thrilled at the success of the MST3K Kickstarter back in 2015, and eager to finally see new episodes after a nearly 20 year hiatus consisting of illegal YouTube uploads and periodic Rhino Video and Shout Factory DVD releases of the old series. But I was also hesitant. Even with Joel Hodgson back on board, and the eventual backing of Netflix, which has a happy of back off kilter programming, I had doubts. Catching lightning in a bottle twice is always an iffy proposition.
Several months after the release of the new show on Netflix, I’m still on the fence about it. On an individual basis, the episodes are just fine. There are some standouts (“Reptilicus”, “Starcrash”, “Yongary”, “At the Earth’s Core” ), some that are just ok (“Cry Wilderness”, “Avalanche”, “The Land That Time Forgot”, “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom I & II”, “The Loves of Hercules”) and some I won’t watch again (“Cry Wilderness”, “Carnival Magic”, “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t”, “The Time Travellers”), but nothing that is outright unwatchable even with the a host and the bots (Stuff like “The Castle of Fu Manchu” from the old series). Riffing terrible (or at least *odd*) movies can rarely go badly, especially with a competent team writing the jokes, and they’ve got that. It’s the bits in between that bother me.
Honestly, I think the move from Minnesota to Los Angeles worked in the show’s disfavor. Even knowing it had to be spruced up a bit to accommodate moving from 4:3 video to 16:9 HD formatting, everything seems too *slick* now. The host segments remind me painfully of the first Wayne’s World movie, where our heroes move from filming on a camcorder in their parents ‘ basement to a professionally recreated set resembling their parents’ basement, and the results are as awkward and false as you can imagine. Instead of a handmade Midwestern charm, we’ve got a Hollywood recreation of handmade Midwestern charm.
On the previous show practically the entire cast consisted of the writing staff and whatever interns they could drag onto the set for bit parts. Now we have genuine actors Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the Mads, Internet personality Jonah Ray as our kidnap victim/test subject, and two Jim Henson veterans working the bots. And while previously the only Special Guest Stars were Leonard Maltin and a walk on by a Minnesota Vikings linebacker, we’ve got one appearing Every. Single. Episode. And it’s just as distracting as I feared when I realized it was going to be a thing.
On a more nitpicky basis I’m not fond of Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the Mads. Instead of the mildly goofy evil of Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank, or the cheerfully twisted family of Pearl, Prof. Bobo and Brain Guy, we’ve got Kinga and Max/Son of Frank. Kinga just comes across as desperate to be as evil as Grandma and Dad [1], and Max is just... kinda there, lacking either Frank Mk. 1’s mellow absurdity, or Brain Guy and Bobo’s outright insanity.
The host segments come across as scripted and lacking the occasional off the cuff improvisation of the original. Some of that can be probably chalked up to them, all of them, apparently being filmed in one really long shooting day, but they come across as having been scripted so tightly any spontaneity died in the writer’s room. [2]
Don’t get me wrong, I think the new MST3K is funny. It’s impossible for this show, rebooted or no, *not* to be funny. But the old MST3K was funny and *charming*. The new one... isn’t.
[1] Seriously, anybody who has a house band in their secret lab is just trying too hard.
[2] I’m trying, and failing, to imagine the new show doing anything as Only a Liberal Arts Major Will Get It absurd as Sci-Fi Channel Era Mike and the Bots doing a Sven and Ollie joke in the style of Ingmar Bergman.
Like pretty much every other TV viewer on the planet, I was thrilled at the success of the MST3K Kickstarter back in 2015, and eager to finally see new episodes after a nearly 20 year hiatus consisting of illegal YouTube uploads and periodic Rhino Video and Shout Factory DVD releases of the old series. But I was also hesitant. Even with Joel Hodgson back on board, and the eventual backing of Netflix, which has a happy of back off kilter programming, I had doubts. Catching lightning in a bottle twice is always an iffy proposition.
Several months after the release of the new show on Netflix, I’m still on the fence about it. On an individual basis, the episodes are just fine. There are some standouts (“Reptilicus”, “Starcrash”, “Yongary”, “At the Earth’s Core” ), some that are just ok (“Cry Wilderness”, “Avalanche”, “The Land That Time Forgot”, “Wizards of the Lost Kingdom I & II”, “The Loves of Hercules”) and some I won’t watch again (“Cry Wilderness”, “Carnival Magic”, “The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t”, “The Time Travellers”), but nothing that is outright unwatchable even with the a host and the bots (Stuff like “The Castle of Fu Manchu” from the old series). Riffing terrible (or at least *odd*) movies can rarely go badly, especially with a competent team writing the jokes, and they’ve got that. It’s the bits in between that bother me.
Honestly, I think the move from Minnesota to Los Angeles worked in the show’s disfavor. Even knowing it had to be spruced up a bit to accommodate moving from 4:3 video to 16:9 HD formatting, everything seems too *slick* now. The host segments remind me painfully of the first Wayne’s World movie, where our heroes move from filming on a camcorder in their parents ‘ basement to a professionally recreated set resembling their parents’ basement, and the results are as awkward and false as you can imagine. Instead of a handmade Midwestern charm, we’ve got a Hollywood recreation of handmade Midwestern charm.
On the previous show practically the entire cast consisted of the writing staff and whatever interns they could drag onto the set for bit parts. Now we have genuine actors Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the Mads, Internet personality Jonah Ray as our kidnap victim/test subject, and two Jim Henson veterans working the bots. And while previously the only Special Guest Stars were Leonard Maltin and a walk on by a Minnesota Vikings linebacker, we’ve got one appearing Every. Single. Episode. And it’s just as distracting as I feared when I realized it was going to be a thing.
On a more nitpicky basis I’m not fond of Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt as the Mads. Instead of the mildly goofy evil of Dr. Forrester and TV’s Frank, or the cheerfully twisted family of Pearl, Prof. Bobo and Brain Guy, we’ve got Kinga and Max/Son of Frank. Kinga just comes across as desperate to be as evil as Grandma and Dad [1], and Max is just... kinda there, lacking either Frank Mk. 1’s mellow absurdity, or Brain Guy and Bobo’s outright insanity.
The host segments come across as scripted and lacking the occasional off the cuff improvisation of the original. Some of that can be probably chalked up to them, all of them, apparently being filmed in one really long shooting day, but they come across as having been scripted so tightly any spontaneity died in the writer’s room. [2]
Don’t get me wrong, I think the new MST3K is funny. It’s impossible for this show, rebooted or no, *not* to be funny. But the old MST3K was funny and *charming*. The new one... isn’t.
[1] Seriously, anybody who has a house band in their secret lab is just trying too hard.
[2] I’m trying, and failing, to imagine the new show doing anything as Only a Liberal Arts Major Will Get It absurd as Sci-Fi Channel Era Mike and the Bots doing a Sven and Ollie joke in the style of Ingmar Bergman.
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