I have to agree with the criticisms of this reboot of what was and is one of my all time favorite TV shows.
Everyone is drawn to different aspects of MST3K they prefer the most. For me, it was the movie and the riffing. That's why it survived through cast changes and even a different network during its original run. ALso, the movie itself is the show. The characters and the reason for the riffing are the excuses for what the show is and I brushed it off when I was a kid and still do. If Cinematic Titanic or Rifftrax can do movie riffing without an elaborate plot outlining a reason for the riffing, then that's fine with me but it wouldn't be fine for people drawn to characters and prefer the host segments.
It's the riffing and the attempts to update the format that bothers me. The series is over written. There's too many jokes. It's hard to follow the lousy movie and I kind of need to do that in order to appreciate the humor more. If they cut the jokes down and made what was happening in the theater during the movies less distracting then the show would be better for me. Some will complain about the jokes themselves but that's always been something irrelevant to me with this show because not every joke works for everyone and it doesn't try to do that. But having seemingly constant riffing and all the added things going on in the theater don't add to the enjoyment. As it is from what I've seen, it's something that needs a lot of work. The original series wasn't perfect and this reboot doesn't need to be. The show had improvised riffing when it was local and was underwritten in the first season because they didn't have as big a staff of writers, the riffing off the script didn't always co-relate to the action in the movie. Sometimes the joke came before the action that was suppose to prompt it. The illusion of spontaneity was lost. Over time, they improved on all of that. I hope this reboot improves, otherwise, it's almost as annoying (but not as depressing) as watching Starcrash without riffing.
Bringing the same robots back is a mistake too in my view. There's literally 185 examples of Kevin Murphy recreating the character of Tom Servo after Josh Weinstein did it for 36 episodes. Trace Beaulieu made Crow's character in 150 episodes, Bill Corbett made it his for 46 episodes. Will the reboot last long enough for Vaughn and Yount to make their marks on Tom Servo and Crow? We are talking about over 40 episodes at a minimum to accomplish that and these episodes would have to be as popular as Manos the Hands of Fate, The Final Sacrifice etc.
It's not like fans of the reboot aren't intimate with these characters as they always were either. It's made even worse that all but 4 of the original series can be seen over and over and over again by fans and they have been to the point where you see a countless number of memes of the jokes used. The re-creators of the show seemed to have forgotten that this show is not a relic of the past in the minds of their audience, the popularity of the DVD releases prove that.
Why not have new robots? Why must Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn be stuck feeling as though they have to honor the history of this puppet show? New robots in the same setting would have made them, their robots and the personality born from them would be theirs. Talk about screwing up a puppet show.
Literally any premise could work in this because it's the movie that's the show. Using the same premise over again even works but trying to make it so close to the original in other ways is setting it up for failure. Disappointed.
Everyone is drawn to different aspects of MST3K they prefer the most. For me, it was the movie and the riffing. That's why it survived through cast changes and even a different network during its original run. ALso, the movie itself is the show. The characters and the reason for the riffing are the excuses for what the show is and I brushed it off when I was a kid and still do. If Cinematic Titanic or Rifftrax can do movie riffing without an elaborate plot outlining a reason for the riffing, then that's fine with me but it wouldn't be fine for people drawn to characters and prefer the host segments.
It's the riffing and the attempts to update the format that bothers me. The series is over written. There's too many jokes. It's hard to follow the lousy movie and I kind of need to do that in order to appreciate the humor more. If they cut the jokes down and made what was happening in the theater during the movies less distracting then the show would be better for me. Some will complain about the jokes themselves but that's always been something irrelevant to me with this show because not every joke works for everyone and it doesn't try to do that. But having seemingly constant riffing and all the added things going on in the theater don't add to the enjoyment. As it is from what I've seen, it's something that needs a lot of work. The original series wasn't perfect and this reboot doesn't need to be. The show had improvised riffing when it was local and was underwritten in the first season because they didn't have as big a staff of writers, the riffing off the script didn't always co-relate to the action in the movie. Sometimes the joke came before the action that was suppose to prompt it. The illusion of spontaneity was lost. Over time, they improved on all of that. I hope this reboot improves, otherwise, it's almost as annoying (but not as depressing) as watching Starcrash without riffing.
Bringing the same robots back is a mistake too in my view. There's literally 185 examples of Kevin Murphy recreating the character of Tom Servo after Josh Weinstein did it for 36 episodes. Trace Beaulieu made Crow's character in 150 episodes, Bill Corbett made it his for 46 episodes. Will the reboot last long enough for Vaughn and Yount to make their marks on Tom Servo and Crow? We are talking about over 40 episodes at a minimum to accomplish that and these episodes would have to be as popular as Manos the Hands of Fate, The Final Sacrifice etc.
It's not like fans of the reboot aren't intimate with these characters as they always were either. It's made even worse that all but 4 of the original series can be seen over and over and over again by fans and they have been to the point where you see a countless number of memes of the jokes used. The re-creators of the show seemed to have forgotten that this show is not a relic of the past in the minds of their audience, the popularity of the DVD releases prove that.
Why not have new robots? Why must Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn be stuck feeling as though they have to honor the history of this puppet show? New robots in the same setting would have made them, their robots and the personality born from them would be theirs. Talk about screwing up a puppet show.
Literally any premise could work in this because it's the movie that's the show. Using the same premise over again even works but trying to make it so close to the original in other ways is setting it up for failure. Disappointed.