It was three years ago today that our last new series of experiments were unleashed upon the world (until next year). What were your favorite moments of The Gauntlet?
I absolutely loved them doing Mac and Me. I watched that one as a kid and even then I knew it was bad. So I don’t know if it’s that or the top notch riffing that made me laugh so hard.
I also think that Atlantic Rim was a great proof of concept of them being able to tackle a Mockbuster for the first time to great effect. I know Rifftrax has done some of the Sharknadoes, but that can be tricky to do something that is knowingly cheesy and low budget, but I really think it worked very well.
I know some fans have mixed feelings on the format change of The Gauntlet, but I wasn’t bothered. I won’t say I preferred it, but on my first watch I did appreciate them trying something new to acknowledge how the times, they are a-changin’ for TV watching. It was very “on-brand” for this incarnation of the Mads. Plus the episodes were solid. I’m happy this was my first time seeing Mac & Me all the way through, and “Concepts” is one of my all-time favorite host segment songs!
I liked it more. The jokes weren’t so rapid-fire that you couldn’t pay attention to the movie, and, unlike the previous season, they recorded the riffs together instead of separately. It was smoother and, to me, funnier.
Atlantic Rim is my favorite from The Gauntlet. It was a jaw-droppingly terrible movie, which for me makes me love it even more
But also it is absolutely surreal to me that The Gauntlet is already three years old. It really doesn’t seem like that long ago. Of course pandemic-time totally messed up my internal clock so that could have something to do with it lol. That means the previous Netflix season is, what, five? six years old?? (I don’t remember the exact year, I just know it came out before my nephew was born )
CRAZY that it was three years ago already- that can’t be right, hahah!
I actually really like the Gauntlet. I think “The Day Time End” and the musical number Concepts are instant classics.
Really liked “Mac and Me” as well as “Ator”.
I appreciate that as an experiment, they tried tightening each episode (removing a host segment) to make them shorter to make the season flow.
That said, I’m glad they’re returning to the regular format length for season 13.
I wish they’d been able to record each Gauntlet episode at full length, with the extra movie scene and host segment back in, and that we had a way to watch them as and option (such as on the DVD or Blu-ray, digital download or on the Gizmoplex).
“I loved making me, I can see why they were hesitant to do it when it 1st released, Hi Aria let me get the grilled cheese burrito Box some Gretchen’s breed of oxygen Baja sauce thank you”
This is why you don’t use voice to text at the drive-thru window…
But man, I loved ‘Mac and Me’. That flop was destined for MST3K the moment it released!
My feeling was that the host segments were too short, making it feel less like MST3K, but hey, it was the nature of the challenge, so it couldn’t really ruin the show if it was never going to stick around. In fact, I would say making an experimental season fits, because the whole show is framed as an experiment.
Yeah, my sense of time has definitely felt a bit wonky lately, but I’m pretty sure those came out in 2017 (based on my memory of where I was living when I first watched them)
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