Rejoice, MiSTies! The Satellite of Love is back, and so is the Gizmonic Institute and all of those terrible movies we love to make fun of!
Under the guidance of Joel Hodgson, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return feels like old times. Sure, some things are different. Of course the cast is new, with Jonah Ray taking over command as Jonah Heston, this edition's poor hapless guy who's being tortured with bad movies. His companions are the same (primarily Crow and Tom Servo), but they're voiced by different people (Hampton Yount and Baron Vaughn, respectively). And the Mads (mad scientists) are new as well, with Dr. Forrester's daughter Kinga (Felicia Day) taking over, ineptly assisted by TV's son of TV's Frank (Patton Oswald).
You may need to adjust your set... just a little. We actually get to see poor Jonah's "origin" story...and amusingly, due to crappy recording technology, he has to literally act it out every episode. But at first it's a little jarring to hear the theme song grind to a halt right in the middle.
And whereas the old series used to show silly bits over the opening theme, the new one shows Jonah's kidnapping as a smug Kinga sings about how she'll send him cheesy movies, the worst she can find. Yes, with minor modifications, it's still the same catchy, loopy song. Cha-ching!
There are a few other things to get used to. Gypsy's throaty falsetto voice has been replaced by a midwest woman, and of course Tom and Crow sound different.
And the most important part, the movies? Well, they're actually improved. They're more recent and in color, but they're still B-movies. I have to admit being concerned that the series got off to a REALLY slow start with the first episode's riffs on "Reptilicus". I don't think I laughed once during Jonah and the 'bots' mockery, because the writing just was unfunny, weak, and frankly kind of desperate. Things improved in episode 2, and by episode 3 there were genuine belly laughs to be had. Guess it took them a while to get back into the groove of things.
So if you're still wondering how he eats and breathes and other science facts, repeat to yourselves it's just a show -- you should really just relax.
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is back!
