Should we have another season, are there any genres you actually want to see less of and if so, why? Just don’t like it? Just to prevalent? Just doesn’t work for the show?
For me, I liked the Atlantic Rim episode but I really don’t think mockbusters work for the show. I understand why; it’s nice to have a representative of what a modern b-movie looks like. But I think as bad as MST3k movies can be, the less cynical in design the better. I’m not saying it can’t work but I just think something like Demon Squad works better.
I agree. I feel that mockbusters are too self-aware that they are bad movies, and MST3K shines best when the movie is bad but made in earnest. For me, the show engages the films as a peer, not a critic, and any movie that doesn’t come to the table with dignity is participating in bad faith.
And that’s not to say that I’m advocating for the removal of cheapie 1950s and 1960s flicks. Yes those were knowingly made as bad movies and there probably wasn’t a whole lot of art to them. But post-modernism hadn’t set in yet, I guess, so the producers weren’t going in with the idea of “let’s make a bad movie that’s unintentionally funny” they were just saying “your budget is $40k and you have 10 days to shoot it.” Being a bad movie was a result of the process and limitations, not the driving purpose.
As film viewers, we can kind of tell the difference. In Attack of the the Eye Creatures the filmmakers’ “just didn’t care” attitude is way different from the not caring attitude of Atlantic Rim. I can’t put my finger on exactly why I can tell, but it’s there. I know some people can’t see it. Like, my family knows I enjoy “bad movies” but then they’ll gift me DVDs of films like Atlantic Rim and I’m all “ew no, that’s a bad movie” and they (reasonably) retort “but you like bad movies!” Yeah, but not BAD movies.
So for me, it’s not exactly the “mockbuster” genre, because I think someone could make the argument that Doctor Mordrid lands there or at least is a close cousin, and I think that episode is superb. It’s the feeling that not caring is the foundation instead of a side effect.
Pretty sure the main difference between The The Eyes and Atlantic Rim is the passage of time.
It’s more comforting to mock garbage that has 30+ years of dust and grime on it. You don’t have to think so hard about what you could’ve done with that money if you had it.
Also, you have to remember that whatever talent was wasted on the newer movie is likely still alive and unappreciated. Like Graham Greene.
I don’t think of Atlantic Rim as being in a genre all by itself. It’s a giant-robot movie. That’s its genre.
I admit I felt very nostalgic about Jiger. And I love the closing song. But wow. Having to do the entire movie. I hope they had plenty of fluids and a lot of sunscreen for that forced march.
Christmas movies. I would wager that there are now enough Christmas movies for a dedicated Christmas Movie channel rather than just Hallmark in December. I think we’ve got more than enough Christmas movies.
Edit: Sorry, should have read the first post and realized this was MST3K genres.
No strong opinions one way or the other, but gun to my head? Biker movies? Shrug.
Now, what I’d like to see more of? Shorts! I wouldn’t mind an entire season where each episode was two or three shorts! More Commando Cody! More safety training videos! And we need them to riff “Recipe for Seduction”!
Variety is the spice of riffing, so don’t lean so heavy into sci-fi-fantasy-horror - I like what seasons like 5 and 6 gave us, a nice mix of everything, from the fantastical to the grounded, even a couple of the westerns.
But as to a specific genre, not really. I can think of episodes or directors that didn’t fire me up, I can think of episodes they scrubbed free of nastiness, but I’ve seen them uncut and I know those scenes exist and that turns me off of these eps, but I can’t think of a genre where they’re all a downer or a wrong fit and I never want to see them. Even the season 2 biker trilogy has an exception (Wild Rebels makes me laugh).
I know “grim” isn’t a genre, but I agree about fewer of those. Downer movies (like The Girl in Lovers’ Lane) turn me off. I don’t want all the movies to end with sunshine and footie pajamas, but I don’t want to feel icky or depressed after watching it.
The one genre I really dislike from the earlier seasons is the late 60s and 70s biker stuff, but as @Vader said, they haven’t done those in forever. I’m also not a big fan of the 50’s and early 60’s movies whose whole point is “look at how beatniks are a bunch of amoral, criminal sleazebags”.
What is the the eye creatures ripping off? It certainly feels like it’s its own thing. It’s genre trope heavy junk, but it’s not an rip off of The The Nose Creatures.
To me, that’s the defining difference. Atlantic Rim sets out to do the least possible work needed to get someone to accidentally pick it up instead of Pacific Rim.
But wow. Having to do the entire movie. I hope they had plenty of fluids and a lot of sunscreen for that forced march. 
I think it’d be hilarious if they could get hold of that bargain-basement Scrooge that RT did at least pieces of at some point.
