It’s Just A Show, So I Really Should Relax
After a successful Kickstarter campaign brought Mystery Science Theater 3000 back to find a new home on Netflix, a second season of the revival (and 12th for the series) will be released on November 22. The date commemorates the show’s debut on a local television station in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Thanksgiving Day in 1988, as well as the various “Turkey Day” Marathons that aired during its run on cable television.
There has been something of a controversy because the season will only be six episodes. This is even less than half of Season 11’s fourteen episodes. Fans were initially worried this may be like the last few seasons on Comedy Central where the seasons were reduced until the show was canceled.
According to Joel Hodgson, show creator and executive producer (as well as original host), this is to better fit with the Netflix platform. The host segments will all be part of one season arc, meant for binge viewing. Episodes will still be involve riffing a feature length film.
Watch Out For Snakes!
It will be interesting to see how this new format will play out. The host segments were not the strongest part of the revival, but it is very hard to compare to Season 10, where that cast was firing on all cylinders (and they still are with Rifftrax). Throughout MST3K’s history there have been some rough edges with cast changes or change in network, so it’s really par for course.
The first episode of Season 11 featured a really great skit/song, but unfortunately that ended up being the high-water mark and nothing else was very memorable.
Last season left room for improvement and here’s hoping the show can hit its stride again.
Robot Roll Call
Mystery Science Theater 3000 returns to Netflix on Thanksgiving Days. Starring Jonah Ray, as host Jonah Heston, with Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot (voiced by Baron Vaughn and Hampton Yount). It also stars Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt, as mad scientists Kinga Forrester and Max.
So what do you think of the six episode season? Did you like Season 11? Sound off in the comments below.
