‘Mystery Science’ gang encouraging fans to binge
Fans of “Mystery Science Theater 3000” are being challenged to survive
“The Gauntlet” when the new season launches today on Netflix.
They aren’t being asked to watch one cheesy movie given new humorous life by a barrage of insults, comments and observations made by show host Jonah Heston (Jonah Ray) and space pals Gypsy (voiced by Rebecca Hanson),
Tom Servo (Las Vegas Academy graduate Baron Vaughn) and Crow T. Robot (Hampton Yount). The test is to power through all six new episodes.
Ray says “The Gauntlet” is the show’s take on binge culture.
“When our first season came out, we had 14 episodes come out,” he says. “We heard a lot of people talking how they were going to watch all 14 in a row. Everyone involved kept saying they should not do that because it would be very unhealthy to watch that much TV. This isn’t an episode of ‘Stranger Things,’ but feature-length movies we are doing.
“But, we can’t deny that this is the culture now of how people want their entertainment. So, since we are doing six episodes, it’s actually something that is watchable that way.”
The new season picks up where last year ended with Kinga Forrester (Felicia Day) and her loyal henchman, Max (Patton Oswalt), making life miserable for Jonah by making him watch horrible movies. The plan is to drive Jonah mad with cinematic assault, but he survives by rapid-fire commentary.
Today marks the 30th anniversary of “MST 3000,” which debuted on KTMA in Minneapolis with series creator Joel Hodgson as the host on the local TV station and later aired on Comedy Central. Hodgson hosted for the first five seasons with Michael J. Nelson taking over through the end of the original run in 1999. The series was revived in April 2017 for a 14-episode run with Ray as the host. Hodgson is an executive producer and a co-director, supervising and participating in all facets of production.
Heading into his second season, Ray found the process of repeatedly watching the bad movies, writing comic jabs and then recording the commentary didn’t get any easier, but something changed.
“I got more confident with what my skills are for this show,” he says. “Watching the new season, I can see in my performance that I was a lot more comfortable than I was last year. It wasn’t easier because you are always pushing to try make it as funny as it can be. We wanted this season to be a lot better than last season.”