It feels like The Horror of Party Beach should have gotten a lot more love for being one of the best of a sensational Season 8. I may stand alone on this, but it feels like this episode should have been as celebrated as Space Mutiny, Time Chasers, and Overdrawn at the Memory Bank.
I also think that the similarly themed Daddy-O, The Beatniks, and Girls Town are incredibly underrated, too.
Squirm would get my vote for Season 10’s best. If it were streaming on Shout Factory’s 24/7 channel and Pluto TV, you’d probably see that get talked up a lot more. Personally, I love it.
The Deadly Bees has the feel and flavor of a lost episode due to how it’s not officially available on DVD or streaming. But it’s one of those episodes that would have a much better reception and reputation if it were seen more. Same deal with Attack of the the Eye Creatures.
The Incredible Melting Man is an absolute gem and the strongest argument for the excellence of Season 7. It’s an episode that’s endlessly rewatchable. If folks can look past the gore and gooey happenings, they’ll have a fantastic episode worth celebrating.
Good point! I think all the unreleased episodes would qualify as underrated to some extent because of this.
I quite like The Deadly Bees and return to it frequently. I think the movie is earnest and watchable, and the riffing is very strong. There’s a bleak/dour quality to a lot of British films, and this movie is bursting with it; it’s the cinematic equivalent to walking through muddy woods on a cold day when the water has leaked through your shoes and your socks are wet and freezing.
The riffing on the “tender love” between the husband and wife cracks me up every time.
I don’t know how I missed this but YES, The Girl in Lovers Lane is so underloved! I also love Girls Town but I think that might be less underappreciated and more just unavailable.
I think what really helps The Deadly Bees is that they put a full-fledged effort into it. Earlier that same season, we had The Projected Man, and it felt… off.
But The Deadly Bees brought it. It felt like a case where the dour quality of the movie that you speak of is complemented/offset by the fun of the riffs.
And it was all worth it for the Mrs. Hargrove material.
Feel the same way with Fire Maidens of Outer Space. The “Timmy” subplot should be much more well known.
Brilliant host segments too. Loved how they found a hilarious way to vent their frustrations with the process they had to put up with to make The Movie.
The only negative to Girls Town is that Mr. Daddy-O Contino (the Discourse system won’t let me say his first name) didn’t figure into the movie more than he did.
But as an episode, everything else was pure gold. It has an all-time classic moment when the nuns storm the hideout near the end of the moment: “Now there’s going to be some real asskicking!”
Side note: I’m always happy to hear Servo pay genuine praise to The Platters: “This is kinda good! It’s The Platters!”
I LOVE THE TIMMY HOST SEGMENTS. I’m just happy that they’re preserved to some degree on the Satellite Dishes disc in the last (so far) classic era box set.
But for the full experience, yeah, you really need that part of the theater segment where Timmy creeps up slowly (a startling effect when you realize what the hell is going on) and starts attacking Servo.
Those segments were needed. You could see them exorcising a lot of demons that day.
The movie is one of the better-made (and more actually watchable and enjoyable) films they’ve ever done.
And the episode around that is something special, too. It’s like they use dark humor to counterbalance a dark movie, and it never once feels overwhelming. That’s a real accomplishment.
Like @ArtCrow says, the beatnik boat guy gives them a LOT to work with.
I don’t know why, but I keep going back to this episode during my rewatch routine. It’s spot on! The riff “Rye Crisps…Sociables…ANYTHING!?” slays me every time.
I haven’t taken the time to do it yet, but I plan to watch Tormented unriffed because I genuinely like it. I love the little girl’s performance, it’s very believable, which is pretty impressive considering her age.
Another episode I plan to watch unriffed one day The Screaming Skull. Yes, it’s a low-rent Rebecca, but it’s an entertaining low-rent Rebecca.
Incidentally, that’s Susan Gordon, daughter of director/co-writer Bert I. Gordon!
But yeah, that would be one to watch unriffed, just to see how those moments and beats connect without the MST3K jokes. I’d imagine that it’d still work pretty well.
Precisely that. I rather like that comparison.
That would have to be a fun ride, too, I would have to think!