1114 - At the Earth’s Core - Spoiler Thread

[Edward J Grug III]

[ihavemyreasons]

On vacation for a few days and the wife is out of town, so I binge watched the last 6 episodes yesterday and today. My overall take after watching all 14 new episodes is that the return is mostly a success, but I won't consider it a total success unless there is a season 12. But I do want a season 12.
What I liked-thought the writing and riffing overall was very good as were the selection of movies-I laughed the most at episodes 2, 7, and 13. Don't think there was a single episode I would consider bad.
Where I thought there was room for improvement-mads not evil enough, Jonah and the bots not frustrated enough at their situation. Because of the way the season was written and filmed, there was no real improvement from start to finish and every episode had at least one riff delivered slightly early- just prior to what was being riffed appearing in the movie. While there wasn't what I would consider a bad episode, there also wasn't what I would consider to be a great episode either.
The wife's take after watching 2 episodes with me (she likes Rifftrax a lot more than MST3K) is that it's the same as the old shows only with new voices and better video.
Episode specific-thought the cameo was the most successful cameo-on par and maybe slightly better than the cameos by Pearl, Bobs, and Brain Guy. (And the Pearl clone needed a bigger role throughout.)

OK...I wrote the above with 15 minutes left in episode 14...I sure hope the ending of episode 14 doesn't mean that season 12 (if there is a season 12) will have yet another host and another set of bot voices. Only reason I have that concern is some of Joel's comments about hoping the show continues for years and years with new hosts and new bot voices when warranted. While I'm no where near as sold on Jonah as I was on Joel and Mike, he was OK and I'd hope he's be given a shot for at least a few seasons (if a few seasons happen) before a change.

[Millercv]

 I've been looking online for more information/feelings about the twist at the end there.  I mean I'm sure they can read retcon it easily but I'm surprised they killed him off in a cliffhanger like that.

[Tripe]

Season 12, the all robot riffing season....

[Lemming Howard]

Maybe they killed him so he doesn't demand more money.  And on another subject will there be more money for a season 12?

[Darth Geek]

With this being the second Doug McClure movie, I was hoping they would have him visit, and...man was I disappointed when he did. I don't know who that guy is that played him (he also cameoed as a character in Episode 2, I think), but he wasn't very good. He just came off like a kid who hadn't practiced his lines and was just trying to get through it as quickly as he could because he was nervous.

[Long Tall Jodie]

I really hope it's a fake out, if only because I thought Jonah was great, both in the host segments and the theater.  I hope he returns if S12 is a thing.

[Darth Geek]

Jonah was one of the better things about this season, so I think they will bring him back.

[Quirk]

With this being the second Doug McClure movie, I was hoping they would have him visit, and...man was I disappointed when he did. I don't know who that guy is that played him (he also cameoed as a character in Episode 2, I think), but he wasn't very good. He just came off like a kid who hadn't practiced his lines and was just trying to get through it as quickly as he could because he was nervous.

That was Joel McHale, who is great on Community, but this appearance was not very good. Part of that is the difficulty of acting on a green screen, doing half of a conversation alone. The only one of these appearances that I found entertaining at all was Mark Hamill.

Any time they're cutting back and forth between locations, the editing needs to be tighter. Although, in this episode, even the skits that take place on one set have excruciatingly slow pacing. The ending on the moon dragged on and on and it was frankly embarrassing. The Reptilicus would have been really cool if I wasn't just wanting somebody to put the episode out of its misery at that point.

Plus, I liked Jonah, so I'm not sure how I feel about that.

Notes for next season: keep up the good riffing, bring Jonah back, and make everything outside of the theater much snappier.

[Darth Geek]

With this being the second Doug McClure movie, I was hoping they would have him visit, and...man was I disappointed when he did. I don't know who that guy is that played him (he also cameoed as a character in Episode 2, I think), but he wasn't very good. He just came off like a kid who hadn't practiced his lines and was just trying to get through it as quickly as he could because he was nervous.

That was Joel McHale, who is great on Community, but this appearance was not very good. Part of that is the difficulty of acting on a green screen, doing half of a conversation alone. The only one of these appearances that I found entertaining at all was Mark Hamill.

I agree, Mark Hamill was the best cameo. Maybe because he has a lot of voice work experience, he is used to working on his own without direct feedback from other actors in the scene.
I do think in Season 12 they should make more of an effort to have the guests on the set with the other people. I had kind of begrudgingly gotten used to guests all being on greenscreen, and then when Pearl, Bobo and Observer all showed up at Moon 13 it felt like a breath of fresh air.

[Johnny Unusual]

Pretty solid finale, though the movie, despite having some crazy monsters, was a bit of a snooze.  Not terrible like a lot of them this season, but despite being filled with crazy monsters, it just wasn't all that interesting.

[linszoid]

The best part of this movie was seeing Grand Moff Tarkin being played by C-3PO

[Iron Curtain]

Notes for next season: keep up the good riffing, bring Jonah back, and make everything outside of the theater much snappier.

[Ed: Emphasis mine]

I have had the opposite response to the host segments: I thought they were over too quickly. It's just that it's a huge change from seasons 1-10 (or 11 if you count the KTMA episodes) where there were commercial breaks. That being said, the wedding segment did drag on and on. However, I did like seeing Pearl, Observer (that is, Brain Guy) and Professor Bobo interact with Kinga, Max and Jonah on the same set (along with about 40 other Observers).

[Quirk]

I have had the opposite response to the host segments: I thought they were over too quickly.

I'll clarify. I don't want the segments to be over faster, per say, but I want them paced better. This is mostly in reference to any segment where people on two different sets are talking to each other. Every single one of those needed faster cuts between locations. In general, though, characters wait too long to begin their lines after the last person finished theirs. Host segments with great energy from the original run have no gaps except those intentionally left for effect.

And, yes, some host segments were VERY short. Those I want WRITTEN longer, performed snappier.

[Darth Geek]

I have had the opposite response to the host segments: I thought they were over too quickly.

I'll clarify. I don't want the segments to be over faster, per say, but I want them paced better. This is mostly in reference to any segment where people on two different sets are talking to each other. Every single one of those needed faster cuts between locations. In general, though, characters wait too long to begin their lines after the last person finished theirs. Host segments with great energy from the original run have no gaps except those intentionally left for effect.

I think that would be solved by just putting the hexfield back, and having those people (even if they are greenscreened) in the same shot.

On Joel's twitter he showed this picture of Mark Hamill at the studio when they filmed MST3K:

So if he was actually there, why the hell did they just do cutaways to him on greenscreen?! They should have had him on set interacting with the Mads.