MST3K Returns!

[Psycho Soldier]

Those films were supposedly leaked on the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) page for Season 12, but ("The Gauntlet," BTW, is supposed to be Season 12's subtitle.) Others claim to have seen the list while it was live, though, so it may be authentic. It's probable the listing was incomplete anyway: you'll notice there's no Episode 5 in the spoilers Henry provided.

I have no strong feelings about those movies, if that's the selection we're really getting, but part of me hopes we see another rumoured film:

[O.Supreme]

[Henry88]

[Psycho Soldier]

Well, it's time to gird up your loins.

[lhb412]

And the annual Turkey Day Marathon will be done on the 18th, so as not to compete with people wanting to binge watch the new season on Thanksgiving Day!

[O.Supreme]

1 Mac and Me
2 Atlantic Rim
3 Lords of the Deep
4 The Day Time Ended
5 Killer Fish
6 Ator

Well, the film choices could have been better, but I'm still looking forward to this. Mac& Me is notoriously just bad, but is also out of the spectrum of what MST3K typically does (I give Pod People a pass because it was just so uniquely bad, and was never Main Stream like Mac & Me was). Also doing an Asylum film is just not worth the effort. I know Rifftrax does them a lot, but I could only get through about 15 minuets of the first Sharknado on RT. Sometimes films are just so awful, riffing them wont help, they are best left to be ignored. I'm not excited about Atlantic Rim.

There are still so many great Sci-Fi/Horror/Fantasy films to cull form the 50's-70's. Hopefully their next choices will represent these era's more.

[jellydonut25]

Any chance the Turkey Day marathon moved either in fear of or deference to Joe Bob's return on Thanksgiving on Shudder?

[lhb412]

^ I'm sure it's just a coincidence.

... but the reemergence of both of them probably means the past is attacking us Sapphire and Steele style.

[Psycho Soldier]

I haven't seen any of the movies they're riffing, but I'm eager to watch their riff of Ator. I'm always up for sword and sorcery cheese. Mac and Me and Atlantic Rim both seem dreadful, which could work in favour of or against those episodes.* I'm not bothered by the presence of an Asylum flick per se: if they think it makes for a good riff, I'll give them a chance to prove it. I enjoyed Rifftrax's take on Sharknado, after all.

* As long as they're more tolerable than Carnival Magic. I almost gave up on that episode: it felt unclean, and so did I for watching it.

[lhb412]

I rewatched some of my favorite season 11 episodes, and I'm just really pumped for the new season! Glad to hear the early reviews saying that the riffs are given more time to breathe, my main complaint with the first rebooted season.

[O.Supreme]

[O.Supreme]

Watched Mac & Me. This is one of very few 80's films I can honestly say I've never seen whether I chose to consciously avoid it or not, I cannot say. I saw trailers for it in the theaters, and I've always known about it. Watching it now, with my kids, I found it both horrific, and hilarious, of course the riffs did help. Honestly the best part was seeing 1987 Sears and MOTU & Voltron toys on the shelves...good times...also 1987 McDonald's wasn't bad either, aside form the stupid dance number and BD party ruining the scenery.

Well time to break my promise to myself, that I'd never sit through an entire Asylum film. The MST crew better bring their A+ game to prevent me from just skipping this altogether.

[lhb412]

Halfway through the second episode, Atlantic Rim, and I have to say that any minor issues I had with the quality of season 11 have been dashed by season 12. The riffing has been refined and it's just MST at its best, the performers have all settled into the roles and are just that much better, everyone plays off each other better, it's just... Really good!

Also, just what the hell were the makers of Mac and Me thinking!?

[jellydonut25]

[Psycho Soldier]

So far, this season stands on firmer legs than the last one: the cast and crew seem more comfortable taking the classic approach to the riffs. The movies themselves are definitely, classically bad. Mac and Me would be a nothing E.T. ripoff if the aliens didn't look so weird and wretched.* Atlantic Rim was especially laughable during the climax, and Lords of the Deep was a little less mundane than I thought it would be.

I'm simultaneously eager to finish the season and lamenting the lack of episodes. Three or four more would leave me satisfied.

* Also, watch the alternate climax if you haven't before:

[XvGojira]

My initial viewing of The Gauntlent was a little lackluster feeling, but sometime it takes a few viewings for me to warm up to the new cast. I wasn't impressed with The Return at first either (except for Cry Wilderness, that was hilarious from the get go) but as I tossed episodes on while cleaning or just as background noise, the charm grew on me.

I still haven't fully warmed up to the new Tom voice. I get him and Jonah mixed up constantly during the riffs. New Crow is still great.

[lhb412]

I was put into a state of permanent shock by the newness of everybody in that first rebooted season. I mean, I've been watching the original show for over half my life and was so used to everyone in the original cast that I would have had the reaction with any new cast members. As time went on my barriers gradually crumbled and I do accept the new Satellite of Love crew. When I came to watch the first episode of this new season I had completely accepted everyone as being... who they say they were! Oh, that's Tom Servo. Oh, that's Crow T. Robot.

I was really hesitant about the idea of adding new robots, but after Mister Waverly and Growler I'm thinking, hell, sure, as many new robots as you want!

[O.Supreme]

Finished the Gauntlet on Friday, in terms of "fun factor", and ability to rematch them, I'd place them in this order:

The Day Time Stopped / Mac & Me definitely had the most laughs/best jokes
Ator & Killer Fish were mid range- had some good jokes but not quite ads hilarious as the top 2
Atlantic Rim (it had a few good jokes, but the film was just so bad)/ Lords of the Deep -I may just have been tired, but I actually fell asleep on this one.

As for the story of the MST3K show itself, I understand it doesn't want to take itself too seriously, the jokes are where the heart is, and the fact that Jonah's return from seeming death was barely hinted upon was fine. The end was a little odd though. The lack of guest star appearances was a little disappointing after mark Hamill and Jerry Seinfeld last season. It was nice to see J. Elvis Weinstein again(Though he had been on Cinematic Titanic a few times), but where do they go from here? I *assumed* that with only 6 episodes, we might get 6 or 7 more in Spring of 2019? (since Netflix new MO seems to be splitting up it's seasons), but...now I'm not so sure. I just hope we get more however.

It's odd because I've tried to watch the Rifftrax version of Ator a few times on Amazon Prime and never made it through. In fact I'm noticing now that between MST3K,Rifftrax, & CN, they've done a few of the same films over. It would be nice to get a critical comparison of which version was the best. I think all 3 have done Manos, but I hate that film so much, I cant bring myself to watch it ever again. Also- I never knew that Season 3's Cave Dwellers was actually the sequel to Ator! I'll have to go back and rewatch that now.

[Benjamin Haines]

I've watched the Mac and Me and Atlantic Rim episodes so far, both movies I had never seen before. The pace of the riffing is more refined from the previous season and having Jonah and the bots play off each other's riffs really makes the rhythm pop. Atlantic RIm is actually worse than I was expecting, somehow, while Mac and Me is just bizarre in its existence.

[O.Supreme]

[lhb412]

Saw MST3K live (Joel's "last time I'll ever riff" tour) a few weeks ago and if they were able to fill a larfe concert hall in a medium sized city like that I'd say the show/brand is in pretty good shape in terms of fanbase. I think it will return again in another venue.

I also think Netflix was an ill fit for the show because the way folks watch it is entirely at odds with how they measure success for their service. Shudder, or another more niche or specialized service would be a better fit. MST3K is served better by being the big fish in a modestly sized pond, as opposed to competing with the big dogs on their own turf.

[lhb412]

IFC has started showing classic episodes of MST late at night. It's the first time the series has aired on basic cable in 15 years!

[Benjamin Haines]

So, after Netflix unceremoniously cancelled their run of Mystery Science Theater 3000 at the end of 2019, Joel Hodgson organized another successful Kickstarter campaign to fund not just a new season of MST3K but a new independent platform for hosting it, fittingly called the Gizmoplex.

The new episodes started premiering earlier this year. Of particular note for us kaiju fans is that Gamera vs. Jiger is one of the movies that gets riffed this season! Of the three Showa Gamera films that didn't get imported by Sandy Frank and skewered by MST3K decades ago, Jiger is the only one that isn't rife with stock footage, so it's great that it's finally getting its due. All of the movies that get riffed in the new season are listed below.

Santo in the Treasure of Dracula (1969)
Robot Wars (1993)
Beyond Atlantis (1973)
Munchie (1992)
Doctor Mordrid (1992)
Demon Squad (2019)
Gamera vs. Jiger (1970)
The Batwoman (1968)
The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)
H.G. Wells' The Shape of Things to Come (1979)
The Mask 3D (1961)
The Bubble (1966)
The Christmas Dragon (2014)

New episodes are being released monthly up through December. If you have a Roku device or a smart TV set, you can download the Gizmoplex app and stream the new season on your TV. Unfortunately the Gizmoplex app is not available to download on any video game consoles, which is what I use for streaming services, so if you're like me and you don't want to watch things on your computer, Gizmoplex does offer options for downloading the new season and owning the digital files, DRM-free, so they can be transferred to a USB drive and played on a TV.

From the Gizmoplex website, these are the bundle options for purchasing the entire new season:

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NEW EPISODES + LIVESTREAMS

The GIZMOPLEX SEASON PASS ($150) lets you…

STREAM all 13 new episodes + shorts when they premiere

DOWNLOAD everything, DRM-free, two weeks after premiere

ATTEND up to 25 livestream premieres + special events!

REWATCH all livestream events on-demand until Feb 28, 2023!

STREAM each month's featured VAULT PICKS w/ new content

Own the new season FOREVER for just $7.99/episode and $1.99/short AND get access to all of our livestream premieres, special events, and monthly Vault Picks for just $20 more!

https://www.gizmoplex.com/products/gizmoplex-season-pass-2022-2023

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JUST THE NEW EPISODES

The SEASON 13 DIGITAL COLLECTION ($130) lets you…

STREAM all 13 new episodes + shorts when they premiere

DOWNLOAD everything, DRM-free, two weeks after premiere

Own the new season for just $7.99/episode and $1.99/short!

https://www.gizmoplex.com/products/mst3k-season-13-the-gizmoplex

[lhb412]

In an update Joel clarified that if you subscribed to the Gizmoplex/contributed to the Kickstarter for this year you'll still retain access to all the new stuff that was released during that time. You'll only have to re-up for new stuff.