Muppet News Flash and Other Updates!

Man I love those things....

Okay, so yes, I've been slagging off on the blog. It's Life, the Universe and Everything Busy around the Stressfactor Secret Lair so the blog has gone begging.

A few things though...

No, I haven't seen the Thor movie yet. Yes I intend to. When I do I'll post my thoughts.

I am currently working on a project in which I watch every single Mystery Science Theatre 3000 episode in order. I have finished the so-called "Zero Season" with the KTMA episodes and really don't have much to add to my previous post on the KTMA eps. About the only things I would add is that I might no longer say that I like those episodes "best" but I so still stand by my assessment that I actually enjoy them and I think people slag off on them a little too much because they saw the polished, later stuff first and it spoiled them. I really enjoy internet reviewers like Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall (see my "Links of Geek" over in the sidebar), Noah Antwieler A.K.A. The Spoony One of The Spoony Experiment and Doug Walker, A.K.A. The Nostalgia Critic, of That Guy with the Glasses (Please be advised that "The Spoony Experiment" and "The Nostalgia Critic" reviews may not be suitable for all ages) and these internet reviewers, like the early MST3K days, are operating on shoestring budgets and work with hilariously lousy green screen effects, bad wigs and sometimes even worse costumes. It's all part of the charm. So what I'm getting at is that I don't *need* "polished" to enjoy something. Polished is good but there are good things to be found in the 'diamonds in the rough' as well.

The other thing I would add to my KTMA review is that I think the one area where the show could have improved would have been if they had taken things a little more seriously a little sooner. If they had scripted a bit more and rehersed a bit more I think it would have put them in a stronger position when they started doing the show for actual money on cable instead of working for peanuts.

And if I had a couple of episodes I would actually recommend to people to watch from that era I would say...

Watch the opening host segment and the first host segment from K 07 "Gamera vs. Zigra". The unthawing of Crow, who was frozen to be the Satellite's Christmas tree, is actually pretty funny and then the first host segment which follows is the first appearance of Trace Beaulieu and Josh Weinstein as the Mad Scientists. It's, honestly, not so funny in a deliberate way but it is unintentially funny to see how far the two came with the characters from their humble beginnings here.

Also K 20 "The Last Chase" and K 21 "The Legend of Dinosaurs" (A.K.A. "Legend of the Dinosaurs"). Both of these are still rough but they were the last two episodes done before the series moved to the 'big time' on cable. As such the MST3K team had very nearly perfected all the familiar elements. The riffing, while still ad-libbed and somewhat sparse by later standards, is still pretty good.

So, there's that.

In my future plans for this 'project' I'm not going to do reviews of each individual episode because: A) it would take too long and B) others have done it elsewhere and better than me. Instead, when I finish a season I'll do a post where I take an overall look at the season and then maybe nominate one or two episodes as my own, personal favorites.

I also do intend to get back to my reviews of the Flash TV series as well. Things are about to take a turn for the... well... that would be telling wouldn't it?

In the meantime....

"Keep watching the skies!"