If I were to put a grade on this season, it's a solid B-.
Pros:
1) The new Mads are not terrible. Neither is Jonah. That pixie Felicia can actually pull off being devilish. Patton does imbue the TV spirit of TV's Frankness. And Jonah is lummox-y enough to follow in the footsteps of Joel and Mike.
2) Some of the invention exchanges have been outright hilarious. Todd Hitler, you are a victim of circumstance.
3) The theater riffing is where the season shines because it is fairly reminiscent of the previous seasons. Jonah and the bots have far more personality and intonation doing impressions and voices while talking in the theater than they do during the host segments. But it still all seems slightly off. I can see edits and unsynced overdubs throughout the episodes.
The Meh:
1) The film selection process has the same issue that the MST3K movie did. The films have to be widescreen, feature length and of better-than-atrocious A/V quality. Gone are the barely-lit 4:3 clunkers with wax-cylinder soundtracks. And forget about those off-the-hook shorts. There will be no Manoses and Mr B Naturals this time around.
2) The songs are hit or miss. The Kaiju song from the first episode was brilliant. The Dougie Howser duet was not.
3) I am still not seeing Tom and Crow as fully fleshed out yet.
Cons:
1) The puppeteering is dreadful. Trace, Kevin, Bill, Patrick and even Mallon didn't need assistants to bring the bots to life. The new bots are just off because there are too many people operating them. There is no single person giving each their own personality. Gypsy is practically ruined by the new mechanics. She's essentially dubbed - and the whole hilarity of her falsetto voicing by men is gone. And so what if she hangs from the ceiling, or that Crow and Tom's arms can slightly point.
2) The guest spots are jarring and unnecessary. I guess people might have forgotten who Jerry Seinfeld was, or he had to keep his SAG membership active or something. But I saw no point in him or the over-exposed Neil Patrick Harris just popping in. And, sadly, the appearances by the previous season characters also seemed like complete wastes. Pearl, Bobo and Brain Guy had no decent material because Mary Jo, Kevin and Bill need to write all their own stuff. They were just kitschy afterthoughts this time around.
3) It's just too elaborate. From the digital Jetscreen, to the 700-piece Bonehead house band, to Pearl's clone, to the extra puppet crap. Everything is just overblown. Honestly, Tom hovering around the theater ogling women is tiresome and pointless. So is Gypsy descending with a cooler and making one riff an episode. Even the art direction for props during the host segments is just too fancy.
4) The wedding subplot. This seemed like Netflix telling them - like SciFi did - that they needed a story arc and season cliffhanger. But moreover, it was an excuse to give extra perks to the biggest Kickstarter donors. Either way, it was lame.
Final thoughts: It bothers me that 15 penniless people in Minnesota could put together an amazing production twenty years ago but hundreds of people with a budget in LA couldn't recreate that magic seamlessly.
Yes I do want to see more MST3K but I do hope some of these issues are refined in the future. Pare down the premise and extraneous stuff, have the voice actors do their puppetry, get the show more tightly knit and it will flow much better.
33 out of 53 found this helpful