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Thread: Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot on Netflix

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Mystery Science Theater 3000 reboot on Netflix

    Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back, and I'm not sure what to think. I haven't watched it yet.

    Strangely, it was funded by Kickstarter, and raised 5.8 million dollars. The new version was created by Joel Hodgson -- the creator of the original series, who was fired in the early '90s after creative disagreements.

    I'm happy with Hodgson's involvement, but the trailer looks like they're trying too hard to appeal to the middle-aged geek fanbase:



    The pilot episode just dropped on Netflix on April 14.

    The original show simply tried (and usually succeeded) to be funny.

    This version looks like it's bending over backwards to relate to the geeks they expect to watch it, even going as far to hire geek goddess Felicia Day to be one of its stars.

    That already makes me skeptical regarding whether it will be any good, but I'll reserve judgment until I actually watch it.

    Has anyone seen it yet?

    I was a big fan of the original.

     
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      lewfather: you dont deserve this but had no idea they rebooted.

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    so based off the trailer you're saying this is catering more so towards geeks and nerds? like have you seen the actual show before? I'm kind of lost here, is it just me yall?

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    also had no idea they rebooted this for netflix so ill green you for that todd, I even grinded those Rifftrax episodes.

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    Quote Originally Posted by lewfather View Post
    so based off the trailer you're saying this is catering more so towards geeks and nerds? like have you seen the actual show before? I'm kind of lost here, is it just me yall?
    The original show definitely appealed mostly to geeks and nerds, but what I liked about it was the fact that they weren't pandering specifically to that audience.

    The jokes and references ranged from mainstream to obscure, but they drew from a wide range of subject matter. The writers weren't out to make the geeks and nerds think, "Hey, this is for us!" They just riffed on bad movies, and we enjoyed it.

    In general, I don't like when movies or TV shows try too hard to pander to their audience.

    It doesn't help that I also despite modern "geek" culture. And this comes from a guy who was big into the '80s computer/phone hacking scene.

    Anyway, I shouldn't assume too much about this particular series until I watch it. I've seen some crappy trailers before where I reluctantly watch the show and really enjoy it, so perhaps this will be one of those situations.

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    I saw the tail end of a magnificent piece of shit film this weekend while waiting for the desired film to start. Immediately thought this film could be on MST3. Downtown Ajo, AZ makes it film debut, best thing going outside of Bones from ST.
    https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/night_of_the_lepus
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    “I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.”
    Stephen Hawking

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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DirtyB View Post
    That is a good review.

    I guess one good thing MST3K has going for it is the fact that the non-human characters (Servo, Crow, Gypsy) retain the identical look, so that already gives a familiarity to viewers of the original. I will definitely miss Kevin Murphy's Tom Servo, though.

    The review mentions Patton Oswalt's "TV's Son of TV's Frank" character, which is supposed to be the son of Frank Conniff's "TV's Frank" character.

    Back in college, one of my friends told me that he had found a Frank Conniff listed in the phone book in the Minneapolis area. This was after MST3K had been on the air for several years. Could it really be the same guy? Did he really keep his number listed?

    We called it, and yes, it was Frank Conniff. We actually felt kinda bad to be bothering him. We talked to him for a few minutes, then apologized for bugging him and hung up. Surprisingly, he told us that he hadn't received very many calls.

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    original show was lol great....

    many shows running currently today can be spoofed for lulz
    Quote Originally Posted by bottomset_69 View Post
    Johnny Manziel will be the 1st pick in the draft. I truly believe not only will Johnny Manziel be rookie of the year, quite possibly he will be MVP as his style will shock defensive coordinators. Manziel may only be 6 feet tall, but he has size 15 feet. And he has HUGE hands. I know some NFL scouts so I know what I am talking about.



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    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Well, I watched it.

    Was better than I expected, albeit somewhat flawed.

    The good:

    - Stayed very faithful to the original. Even kept the beloved theme song (though updated a bit). As noted in the review, it's the same show with better special effects. It even kept its cute little gimmicks such as the invention exchange and the occasional musical numbers during movie breaks. You can tell Joel Hodgson really had a lot of influence in its development, as this is actually closer to the original show than the original was after Joel left!

    - Jokes during the movie were relatively funny, and I legitimately LOL'd a number of times. Still not as good as the writing on the original, but this was Episode 1, so I'm willing to cut it some slack. But it's on the right track, and again, the humor is similar to the original.

    - Robots generally have maintained the personalities we got to know from the original.

    - For the most part, the geek pandering I feared would occur wasn't really an issue.

    - The bad movie lampooned ("Reptilicus") was very similar to what we would have seen in the original -- a bad, Danish 1961 Godzilla ripoff.

    - New main character Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray) is likable and very much in the everyman vein we saw in original characters Joel and Mike. The actor does a good job, too.


    The bad:

    - The robot voices suck. Servo and Crow sound too similar. I miss Servo's deep, confident voice done by Kevin Murphy. Now he just sounds like a slightly different version of Crow, who also sounds more generic than the nasally quality he had when voiced by Trace Beaulieu.

    - Servo can fly in the theater. No. Hate it. One interesting aspect of Servo in the original was that he was cool, confident, and sarcastic, yet was physically helpless. His arms didn't work, and his "hover skirt" was actually useless. Joel/Mike had to carry him into the theater. It gave the character a bit of depth. Now that's not a factor anymore. Besides, the flying is also pointless. It's meant to induce a form of physical comedy, but it just doesn't work.

    - Felicia Day's acting sucked.

    - I don't understand the little breaks they take where we see dancers in funny costumes, followed by some quick reference to something we just saw in the movie. They appear to be commercial break bumpers, but there are no commercials. So why have them?



    Overall I liked it, and will watch episode 2.

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    This got cancelled after 2 seasons, announced November 2019.

    I actually decided I liked it less than I thought I did after watching episode 1. Despite my decent review above, I found just about zero desire to watch episode 2. That was a bad sign. I couldn't get enough of the original MST3K when I was in college.

    I think the terrible Felicia Day character (and her bad acting) soured me on it, as did the super-bland new version of the robots.

    While the show got good critical reviews, the audience reviews seemed very mixed, with many huge original MST3K fans say they hated it. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it.

    Oh well. No great loss.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    BUMP

    This got cancelled after 2 seasons, announced November 2019.

    I actually decided I liked it less than I thought I did after watching episode 1. Despite my decent review above, I found just about zero desire to watch episode 2. That was a bad sign. I couldn't get enough of the original MST3K when I was in college.

    I think the terrible Felicia Day character (and her bad acting) soured me on it, as did the super-bland new version of the robots.

    While the show got good critical reviews, the audience reviews seemed very mixed, with many huge original MST3K fans say they hated it. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it.

    Oh well. No great loss.
    you should check out RiffTrax on Pluto Tv or I think they have episodes on Prime. I believe the original guys who did mst3k went on to do RiffTrax.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gauchojake View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    BUMP

    This got cancelled after 2 seasons, announced November 2019.

    I actually decided I liked it less than I thought I did after watching episode 1. Despite my decent review above, I found just about zero desire to watch episode 2. That was a bad sign. I couldn't get enough of the original MST3K when I was in college.

    I think the terrible Felicia Day character (and her bad acting) soured me on it, as did the super-bland new version of the robots.

    While the show got good critical reviews, the audience reviews seemed very mixed, with many huge original MST3K fans say they hated it. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it.

    Oh well. No great loss.
    you should check out RiffTrax on Pluto Tv or I think they have episodes on Prime. I believe the original guys who did mst3k went on to do RiffTrax.
    Yeah I heard about RiffTrax. Meant to check it out, but forgot.

    I think it's the original guys minus Joel Hodgson -- basically the original crew after Joel left.

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    Now they're resorting to begging.

    They are hammering Facebook with ads, begging for people to donate to their kickstarter:

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects.../makemoremst3k

    I really hate Kickstarter for things like this. They're expecting the fans to pay for a commercial project to sell back to them. What? If this thing is commercially viable, then get outside investors and sell DVDs or subscription streaming of it, or whatever.




    I really, really hate the voice of the robots. They're not even written well. The '90s robots were 10000000000000x better than the current ones.

    Basically they're going to make episodes based upon the funding they raise, and laughably want $5.5m to make 12 episodes. Seriously? Somehow the guys at RiffTrax (most of the previous cast) are doing it for free.

    Embarrassing all around.

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    Diamond Walter Sobchak's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    I really hate Kickstarter for things like this. They're expecting the fans to pay for a commercial project to sell back to them. What?
    That's basically everything on Kickstarter.

    SOBCHAK SECURITY 213-799-7798

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    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post

    I really hate Kickstarter for things like this. They're expecting the fans to pay for a commercial project to sell back to them. What?
    That's basically everything on Kickstarter.
    Oh I know. I just think it's ridiculous.

    I also find it obnoxious when it's a big production like this. It's a little more acceptable if it's just an individual trying to get some seed money to make some small project (like a book) worthwhile.

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    If anything, this flawed implemntation of the new MST3K is proof that the magic of the original came from a combination of talents, not one talent.

    Here creator Joel Hodgson is again in charge, which is great, and you can see some elements in the present version which made the original show cool. However, you can also see that there's a lot missing, because guys like Bill Corbett, Mike Nelson, Trace Beaulieu, Kevin Murphy, and Frank Conniff are absent. So it's just Joel and a bunch of n00bs, and it really has the look and feel of a sitcom where all the supporting actors left, and only the original star remains. Think "Archie Bunker's Place". It's just not the same.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Druff View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak View Post

    That's basically everything on Kickstarter.
    Oh I know. I just think it's ridiculous.

    I also find it obnoxious when it's a big production like this. It's a little more acceptable if it's just an individual trying to get some seed money to make some small project (like a book) worthwhile.
    I've donated to a couple of friends' projects but would never donate to something big like this that they're going to try to sell and make more money than me from it. But hey there's a sucker born every minute.

    SOBCHAK SECURITY 213-799-7798

    PRESIDENT JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., THE GREAT AND POWERFUL

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    Well, they raised $6.5m, so more episodes are coming. But you can still make a "LATE PLEDGE" if you want to donate more.

    Ugh.

    I guess there really is one born every minute.

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    BUMP again.

    Well, it sucks big time. Don't believe me? Look at this horrible, amateurish clip:




    It's been "unlisted" (not searchable on YouTube), perhaps because they realize it's embarrassingly bad. They are only releasing episodes to the suckers who paid for this Kickstarter effort. They are the "beta" viewers, so to speak. Probably beta in more ways than one. Everyone else will have to subscribe to see episodes.

    Yeah, good luck with that.

    Here's a mixed review from a Kickstarter guy, who seemed to be forcing himself to say some nice things among the criticism: https://www.pastemagazine.com/comedy...moplex-issues/


    As you probably noticed from the clip above, the audio is horrrrrrrible. The movie is quite soft, and the host/bots are incredibly loud. Terrible. While I realize that PFA Radio occasionally has audio issues like this, keep in mind that I'm one guy producing a free poker show for a niche audience, whereas these assholes collected $6.5 million from gullible fans. Any junior college student in a first year A/V course could have corrected these massive sound issues. How could they release it like this, even as a beta?

    Embarrassing.

    Further embarrassing is the "fancy play syndrome" attached to the project. They have developed a "Gizmoplex", which is supposed to be some weird virtual experience where you can put yourself "in the theater with them. This has the potential to be cool if it worked, but of course it doesn't, and was very maddening for Kickstarter subscribers to navigate.

    From the clip above, it also appears the writing sucks. There are two moderately funny lines (the one about cleaning the fan, and the one about the oysters), but those are sandwiched in between a lot of obnoxiously unfunny "comedy". It was rare I thought this when watching the original, and even the Netflix remake did okay with the riffing, albeit a bit too fast paced.

    The new female host also sucks. She just isn't much of an actress. I guess she was doing some live MST3K tour and riffing there, in front of some superfan geeks, but she comes off unnatural here. The three previous hosts (Joel, Mike, and most recently Jonah) all did a good job, and were fairly good actors.

    This just keeps getting worse and worse.

    Laughably, the current staff is dissing the previous two seasons, claiming that Netflix made their budget "too big", and that was the reason the show was mediocre. Producers always hate a big budget, amirite?

    Yeah. I was confused by the size. I remember walking onto those sets for the Netflix seasons: Gigantic sound stages. Which in itself is exciting, and you're going on to a lot — It's show biz! You're walking around and I'm in the jumpsuit, and you're in your costume. And you're like, "Oh, this is like in 'Pee-wee's Big Adventure.' When the centurions are walking by, and the spacemen and cowboys." And it feels like show biz, and it's super fun.

    But it's also antithetical to what the show is. We're not too dissimilar from the movies we're watching. We're just some scrappy people trying to make some entertainment, trying to make some people happy. And we're no better than the movies we're watching. We're just having fun with them. And we should embrace what they embraced, which is, a lack of major resources. And just swinging for the fences. And that's what it felt like this time. It did feel like how [the original cast] would make it.
    https://www.slashfilm.com/849789/fel...ots-interview/

    Awful.

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