I was really disappointed in it.

I just worry that I'm being to critical considering this new season is closer to season one vs when mike and the gang took over hosting. Even before he became the host mike had been doing writing and acting in bit parts with the team for a while. will see once I finish up the season.

Thing is though, the seasons with mike and bill and kevin were the best imo, and this falls so so short of it, at least theres rift trax.

Yeah, the core of the show is still there but it feels too... new. Like its over produced and acted up than before. I wondered about the commercial breaks thing too, only thing I could guess was that its tradition or another callback to the original.

Ditto to the first half and maybe to the second?

I'm super glad their Kickstarter blew away expectations and they got picked up by Netflix but it does feel intensely packaged and that the older episodes made due with a lot less.

Isn't Joel still involved behind the scenes? Hopefully he'll be able to coach the new crew into a better rhythm.

Not only is he still pretty hands on with the show, but he is Phil, the member of the skeleton crew who sends them the movies.

Oh neat~

In all honesty I didn't have much confidence in the new cast, but I'm not above admitting I was wrong if they can hit their stride and improve. The whole thing felt like it was one of those projects that exists just to cater to nostalgia.

So far I've only seen the first episode (and just started the 2nd), but I'm enjoying it. Honestly, I like the slightly fresher feel the show has so far. The riffing hasn't felt too off to me yet, and I don't mind the commercial break bits - it's almost like a nostalgic reminder of how the show used to be. So far the only thing that has bugged me is when Tom Servo starts to float around on the screen. It didn't seem to add any humor to the show (and felt a little distracting).

Replying a month later to a journal with way too many words? It's what I do.

With the commercial bumpers and how the movies are edited for content and length, I'm convinced Joel wants to get MST3K on TV again, even if it's rerunning these episodes years from now and having Netflix always get the newest ones. Hell, they're rerunning old MST3K on Comet (it's one of those 'inbetween' networks like MeTV, but for sci-fi and horror).

The speed of the riffs doesn't bother me, mostly because I'm easily distracted and will take proper riffing over yelly YouTube "critics" who are just doing a low-rent MST3K coughcoughnostalgiacriticcough

I haven't finished all of them yet (I watch an episode or two a week with my folks, just like old times) ... but by episode 5, Beast of Hollow Mountain, it really starts to feel like MST3K and not just a tribute. No jokes or skits that made me cringe, there's a skit in Avalanche where it's more like Jonah lecturing the viewer bots on sexism than actually mocking the movie's creepy male lead. Whereas with Hollow Mountain, Star Crash and The Land That Time Forgot, I was having a good time and looking forwards to the next episode. Jonah also starts to feel like his own character and not just a Younger, Hipper Geek-Chic Joel.

TBH, I thought the early seasons with Joel were actually kind of boring for the most part, so the fact that I'm laughing at and quoting Jonah's first season is a good sign. Mike had the advantage of showing up previously on the show as a bit player, and already being part of the team behind-the-scenes.

They're starting from square one again with a fresh crew, so I hope it gets renewed for a second season and the new crew gets more time to improve the formula. I also try to keep in mind that in the old show, for every Final Sacrifice, there's a Red Zone Cuba or Manos (Manos is a fascinatingly weird movie, but even with riffing it's a hard sit).

tl;dr - It gets better after Episode 5 and starts to feel like MST3K, I want more seasons so these guys get into the groove.