So with the new season just weeks away — so close we can almost touch it — what plans do you have for the premier of MST3K Season 11? Party like it’s 1999 with a few hundred of your closest MISTIE friends? A quiet viewing with family? Just you, locked up by yourself, shades drawn, a case of Cheetos and a cooler full of beer within arms reach of the couch?
And while we are on the topic, will you binge on the whole season, or, like an exquisite meal, savor it slowly, letting each cheesy-good episode melt in your cranium, then cleansing your mental palate before moving on to the next one some hours/days/weeks later?
Me, I plan to invite a few of the “right people” over for pizza, hot wings, beer, and Minnesota Cheese, to join me and my four boys for the premier. Sure, I’ll go crazy and watch the 1st two episodes, but from there it will be weekly until the season is done.
I’ll be in my easy chair with several boxes of wine, taking frantic notes.
And I’ll probably watch two or three, but then I’ll probably do only one or two a weekend.
You?
) to help our users cope with "trolls" and other commenters whom they find annoying. Go to our
Only MSTies I know are my husband and mom so maybe we will have a little viewing party for the first one and my husband and I will watch the rest trying as hard as we can not to binge all at once.
I am very optimistic that they will be great. A lot of talent involved here and Joel is still at the helm :)
Probably “refusing” was a poor choice of words on my part. For whatever reason(s), Netflix simply did not have enough content I was interested in watching, and even though it was just a few dollars a month, cancelling gave me those dollars to spend elsewhere, like at Rifftrax.
After thinking about it today — thanks, Steve & Sampo, for a good topic to ponder — I believe I’ll wait on the reboot episodes.
What you probably meant was, they’re being loaded down with indies, micro-horror, conspiracy-activist documentaries, gay-cinema, telenovelas, K-drama, and Bollywood.
Which, if you’ve checked Amazon Prime lately (even just for the free RT that had nowhere else to go either), is pretty much what all most subscription streaming is LEFT with after the studios started the Siege of starving them out.
Don’t worry, they’re not doing it on purpose. No one humanly would, if they had any choice in the matter.
There is. It’s called “downloading” which is what I’ll be doing since I hate streaming.
Even though I do “download” most everything, I still have Netflix because it’s just an easier way to have at hand a TON of great, great TV shows (leaving movies completely aside, although they do have a few of those still worth seeing). I don’t have the disk space on my network to store all the stuff I watch routinely on Netflix (and I have 20+ TBs worth of NAS).
Leaving aside all that even, they have a firm policy of making some of the best original programming on any platform, and I see them as the new broadcast networks in this regard. Their Marvel stuff blows away ALL such genre things on network television, and they have some of the best new comedies as well. I see adding MST3K as just another plus and while my Kickstarter will give me the show digitally beforehand (and will then be placed on my network) I think I’ll still just watch the episodes on Netflix to support them (oddly enough they do keep track of this, although they jealously and secretively never reveal their “ratings”).
That would make another great Weekend Discussion topic (assuming we haven’t done it already and I just forgot). What’s your theory on how the Bots ended up back on the Satellite of Love? While I have my own, I’ll wait to see if Sampo uses it next weekend.
As an oldie oldster I have an ambivalence for binge watching. I used to love waiting for my favorite show to come on each week and thought binge watching would dilute the fun. But I have binge watched things because they were so good I couldn’t stop! So to summarize, speak audibly so you may be heard… oops drifted off there… I plan to watch one or two the first day, and if I get into it who knows?
As for food I’m going down to the local diner and have Kerry wait on me. Hopefully that creepy guy won’t show up, and the hooker won’t bother me while I’m watching. :-P If they are too busy I’ll get some hamburger sammiches and french fried potatoes to go.
#57 (hint)
Why not drop by Al Frazier’s diner. He makes great hamburger sammiches, and
if you’re short of funds he’ll trust you to pay for them later (he claims to
never lose by doing so) so no need to threaten him—although you may have to
go to services on Sunday.
Back when the Great Drought started, I rationed myself to one show per week, with three or four on Turkey Day. I’ve done that ever since, so I’ll stick to the routine for the relaunch. I’ll probably wait until Monday to watch the first episode, then go back to my usual Sunday night viewing for the rest. As for food, pizza rolls, probably. It seems appropriate.
By the way, that’s a busy week. In addition to the live RT show and the relaunch premiere, there’s also a big “Star Wars” Celebration in Orlando, where they’ll presumably premiere the official TLJ trailer. I had a ticket for it, but when I realized it conflicted with Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when I had other commitments, I had to back out. Just as well; I’d have missed RT and the relaunch premiere.
I’m thinking I’ll watch one at a time, maybe two on premiere day if I can swing it. I’m not much of a “binger;” I’m more of a “snacker,” as a survey I took once put it.
And I’ll probably watch alone, unless my brother insists we watch one together or something.
I’m going to binge and watch all 14 in one sitting, with a nap halfway thru. Even looking forward to watching episode 1101 even though I’ve already seen it!
After all these years, it seems hardly possible that we’re getting new episodes. I started watching in 1989 and lost touch with the show during the Sci-Fi years as a new parent, so the cancellation of the show in 1999 was bittersweet but not entirely devastating to me. Then I found the reruns still showing on Sci-Fi in 2001 and reconnected to my favorite show. After the reruns stopped in 2004, I was sad, but I was nto torn up over it because Sci-Fi had only been showing the same dozen or so shows. I thought I would just have to content myself with the VHS copies I had and whatever Rhino put out. I figured that was the end. It wasn’t until Cinematic Titanic started that I began really watching the “new” shows and realizing I did not have to stay stuck in the 90’s; the Film Crew and Rifftrax helped fill the void when CT stopped putting out material. I truly got spoiled with 2 CT shows in Dallas, a Joel appearance in Riffing Myself, and all the Rifftrax shows. Now we get Frank and Trace coming to Dallas in a couple of months, and this tops them all. My cup runneth over. I am truly a blessed fan.
That said, I am just going to enjoy this for what it is. No preconceived notions, no comparing it to past shows or the works of other MST3K artists, nothing. Just as with the other episodes, I will them one at a time and savor it, because who knows if there will be another season and how long it might be before we get more?
I’m gonna binge-watch all the episodes in one sitting if possible and go full-on 90’s Loser Nerd with all the bad snacks and Coca Cola I can afford and take breaks to play Super Nintendo and Playstation games then I will die happily afterwards!
Holy shinola, that’s far earlier than I expected!
As for me, I pledged enough for the livestream premiere and bought the DVD set as an add-on, but skipped the digital copies. Luckily, my brother put me on his Netflix account as a birthday gift last year, so I’ll probably do what I usually do and watch two episodes a night.
I’m taking the day off of work and watching as many as I can Fri-Sun.
I don’t have Netflix, so I’ll be waiting for the DVD releases. It’s probably just as well, since right now I’m following along the weekly Episode Guide entries (with occasional daily bonus episodes when I buy a new Shout! release) for my viewing routine. By the time we get to Diabolik, I’m guessing Season 11 will be out on disc and I’ll be able to roll right into it.
I plan on watching these the way Cod intended: 1 episode a week, re-watching that episode 3-4 times that week, then finding out that next week’s episode has been replaced by another screening of The Giant Gila Monster. Also, I’ve downloaded an app that places the Netflix logo on the bottom right of the screen — should land right over Crow in the theater. AND I’ve hired Penn Jillette to talk over the last 5 minutes of each episode! Should be a blast! Can’t wait!!
Hmmmm….
I’m hoping to watch them “at all.” I don’t have Netflix, but I might be tempted for this…. IF I can get them on Netflix here in Canada. I’d very much prefer disks, but I’m not entirely sure those will be available. (Things happen, and DVD/Bluray are essentially dead technology at this point….)
I’d love to see the “lost” episodes too. Any chance those will get a general release?
Don C.
I plan to have all the episodes remastered and augmented into subliminal audio versions by motivational speaker Tony Robbins and I will listen to them while sleeping to achieve maximum programming.
The same way I “watch” seasons 1 thru 10 right now.
Ok, so here’s where I landed…call it a bit of a compromise. :/
On the Friday, the 14th, I think I’ll watch the 1st episode (by candlelight & in a deeply contemplative mood) just with family.
Saturday I’ll “fast” entirely… though I will join you guys here for what I’m SURE will be an amazing and lively WDT.
Sunday afternoon/evening (Easter Sunday!!) will the the big party, wife and kids, friends, food galore, and adult beverages. We’ll rewatch 11-01 to let it sink in and then watch 11-02 — that’s about as close to “bingeing” as I can manage. ;-)
And then probably about one per week afterward. :clock:
I plan to watch the first episode with my eyes closed and the volume muted. I will watch every subsequent episode in brail.
Don’t know. It’s going to stream for backers before it goes up on Netflix, right? So, if time permits, I’ll watch that initial stream. Otherwise, well, I’ll watch when I get around to it, and watch the rest of the season as the mood strikes me. I’ll probably draw it out — I’ve waited this long, after all (and still haven’t seen a whole lot of the original series, come to that).
To Sitting Duck (#56): I would imagine that Gypsy’s company has gone bust and she’s broke and living with Servo and Crow so they are all in one place. Mike opened his own hot fish shop and got enough money to get his own place so the new Mads had to find a new guy to experiment on after they gathered the bots back up.
The wife, kiddos and I are checking everybody’s work and school schedules and trying to come up with one night and time a week to watch one episode together, my vote is Friday nights at 7pm, after dinner.
I have Satellite internet (all I can get) which means streaming is out.
Honestly, given the political makeup for hte new cast, the new show probably isn’t for me anyway.
What a wuss.
Why are people so convinced that the new season is going to be rife with political commentary? The majority of the old cast leaned pretty obviously left, but the show never felt particularly political to me. I doubt that’s going to change much just because the new cast also leans left. That’s never really been a big part of what makes MST3K great, and I highly doubt Joel brought Elliot Kalan on board to make it the Daily Show ver. 4.0. He’s a comedy writer, I’m sure he’s more than capable of being funny without getting political.
I mean, maybe I’m wrong, and that would be unfortunate, but some people seem to be writing it off completely already because of weird, unfounded assumptions.
@ #77: I suspect it has to do with having a former Daily Show writer on the staff. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and accept the possibility that he might be sick of writing on political topics.
Would it be OK if there were some far-right comedy writers on the staff? Can conservatives seriously not handle ANY barbs thrown their way? Does it hurt? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-kt69PaSE4
With my eyes!! But, seriously…. being a Revivalist I’ll have a myriad of avenues with which to watch the debut. C’mon movie sign!!
#79 — the problem is with being “balanced” — MST3K had some very conservative voices on the show, which did balance things out. I don’t see that here and, frankly, at this point in our country I don’t really think ANY of us need any more political humor regardless of which side it’s on.
So, yes, I am a *bit* worried but not enough to think about it… much. Joel was a pretty good hand at the helm through his years, and I trust him to understand now is not the time to get too topical (for a wide variety of reasons — my hunch is that in retrospect even the original MST3K would have removed a lot of very topical references had they been a bit more aware of their long-lasting history).
All the people saying “this isn’t the time to make political comments” … wonder who they all voted for …. wonder if they thought it was OK to make political comments 2009-2016 …
The conversations of the last eight posts is indicative of the concern.
We’ve been bonded together by our enjoyment of MST3K, and are proud to call ourselves Misties.
Aren’t we ALL burned out by this? Can’t we just enjoy a laugh?
#82 — you’ve obviously missed the point. MST3K wasn’t even on in the years 2009-2016. And even if it was, that has nothing to do with political comments, which can be made anytime. So can political humor. But MST3K isn’t a political humor show, Even when they did *some* of this (which was very little) it was very balanced and mostly so obscure a lot of folks weren’t even sure what was happening.
Fairly clearly even by your own comments there is a LOT of diviseness even on this thread about the state of the country. Do we REALLY want our cow-town puppet show to contribute to this in ANY way? I don’t think so, and folks suggesting otherwise worry me, because they may well represent the thoughts of this younger, newer generation. Heck, I’m scared as hell that even WITHOUT political humor the jokes may well be far too snarky for my tastes. (Rifftrax is a really good example of this). So we’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed (and we’ll know soon enough).
My favorite jokes from MST3k that have stood the test of time were non-topical. They’re artists, they can write their show however they want, but I hope that they don’t go for too many cheap political jokes. I’d feel the same way if the other candidate won. There’s a lot better and more clever ways of making people laugh than just snarkiness.
Hey folks, let’s all remember this: unless I have my timeline very much wrong, these shows were all recorded prior to the election. I don’t think you need to worry too much about political jokes(if for some reason your skin is so thin that you can’t bear to have your Fuhr… erm, I mean, your Great Leader mocked).
I don’t think any left-leaning fan is demanding more conservative/Republican bashing jokes on MST3k. The amount of political jabs, to all parties, on the original run of shows was fine to me. My issue is with people who can’t handle someone from The Daily Show even BEING on the writing staff, so they retreat into their bubble and cover their ears and go NO NO I WILL NOT WATCH THIS BECAUSE IT MAY OFFEND MY DELICATE SENSIBILITIES. Like, grow some thicker skin. I haven’t seen the new show but I am fairly confident the general makeup of the riffs will be similar to the original run. The show was always biting.
To get back to topic, I am going to watch one whenever I have time, which means maybe one a week. I’ve waited for years so I am going to savor them.
It’s sad to see that apparently everything has become politicized now but I guess I should expect this after even the Super Bowl became divisive. People should at least wait to see the new show before they complain about it. I really don’t think people need to worry about political humor being a part of the show. I saw Frank do standup before a CT show and don’t remember it being political and Frank is more politically outspoken than the rest of the cast combined. I would expect the occasional political joke and nothing more, just like the old show.
I will probably spread them out over a month or so. Seems like a happy medium in balancing other life priorities and not burning out too quickly on the new episodes.
I contributed to the Kickstarter and have digital/Bluray on the way eventually, but will watch my initial run on Netflix. I want to show my support by giving them the views so they renew for additional seasons and I recommend that everyone else do the same if you enjoy the show.
And yes, I agree that if you can’t handle political jabs if they are on the same level as the original show, it probably means that subconsciously you are aware that you might not have entirely reasonable views.
Everyone should be able to laugh at themselves no matter political affiliation, or whatever else you identify as in life. If you can’t laugh, that’s the road to joyless fascism.
As I said in a prior post, just be grateful that the past month or so has fallen in what is likely to be a lull between writing seasons for the show. MST3K has always been about pop culture observation, and well, there’s a lot to observe right now no matter how you choose to look at it.
I probably won’t deliberately binge-watch, but if I finish an episode and have more free time, I’m not going to say, “Gee, I better not do this thing I really like a lot, because then I might continue to have fun!” I’m sure I’ll rewatch them once I’ve gone through all 14, I’m not worried about ‘running out’, and MST3K is fun TV to have on. And I’ll have all day Saturday to enjoy it!
As to the political–the original show avoided topical humor (for the most part) because Joel thought it dated the series, and I doubt that’s going to change overmuch. I suspect we’ll get a few jokes, just like we got the occasional Clinton or Bush joke, but the individual writers like Frank tend to be a lot more political in their satire than the show was or will be.
#79
“Far right”, meaning I presume Altright nuts like Breitbart, would almost certainly
fail miserably at humor—look at how Fox attempt at a Daily Show type show bombed.
;0 a good ten years or so ago, i remember once coming across fox news late night upon their “red eye” program – their attempt at something humorous… something i would never consciously tune into it myself, but, in that one brief moment, i caught it at -just- the right moment… they had on a liberally-minded comic (i guess back then they were trying to prove they were “fair and balanced” for at least one half-hour a day!), and it was right before christmastime. they were showing off a picture of someone’s lawn and house, loaded to the gills with xmas lights and decoration… and the libby-comic gratefully joked, “c’mon, there’s no ‘war on christmas’… just look at that! it’s like the d-day of christmas!” i had to “LOL” at that… -no- points in the long run at all for “fux news!” but, i still remember that moment…
“real-life has a well-known liberal bias”… and those who want to give up by saying, “we’ve tried to fix that problem before and it didn’t work”… well, they didn’t try the right thing yet. -DON’T GIVE UP- … -KEEP- … -TRYING- …