Josh

I somehow feel that is not a spoiler.

Because of course he does.

That moment is even better in the full context, as there is zero mention of him (much less how he will be dressed) for at least a third of the movie. Legitimately one of the biggest laugh moments of the series.

For anyone who hasn't seen it and doesn't already know, "Samson" is El Santo. Great episode.

Should we rename this thread "General Movie/TV Thread"? People seem to feel that's its purpose anyway.

It is a bittersweet little tune. I think you're right about Frank's departure. Joel leaving was big, but once Mike settled in (and he did admirably quickly) it seemed this could go on twice as long (and it did.) When Frank left, it felt more like "you can't have this ensemble forever." That said, Season 7 (right after Frank left) is my absolute favorite season. It benefits from being the shortest season, but there's not a bad episode in there. All of the movies are their own kind of dumb/weird, the riffing is solid throughout, and the host segments were some of the most experimental of the Mike era.

"To have said goodbye to things" is always a tremendous line.

But consider Servo's Irish tenor!

I will say the Mike/Kevin/Trace combo era (halfway through Season 5-Season 7) is definitely the sweet spot for me. But I don't think Trace's departure hurt the show that much. There was a recovery period where Bill and Mary Jo were finding their feet as Crow and Pearl 2.0 respectively, but once they did the show was still excellent. Any other difference in quality during that time period I attribute to the restrictions SciFi put on the show.

I'm similar. There's a subtle difference in style, beyond the simple "I like Joel's riffing better than Mike's" or vice-versa. I've waxed philosophical on this way too many times before, but Joel had a more free-spirited approach to the show and had a more parental relationship with the bots. Mike, on the other hand, felt more like the bots' roughhousing sibling and the show during his era felt like it had a more rigid structure. Of course, 3 seasons of the Mike era were on SciFi - which initially insisted upon an overall story arc to the seasons, as well as "SCI-FI MOVIES ONLY" for the movies they riffed. Those edicts faded away toward the end though.

Yeah, and there obviously is some sort of divide. However, that made for the nice surprise of the 25th Anniversary Reunion panel at Comicon a few years ago, as well as the two panels that featured both Crows then both Servos. Bill Corbett and Trace Beaulieu's interaction was particularly interesting. Someone asked them if Trace would ever do RiffTrax and if Bill would ever do Cinematic Titanic, and they actually seemed relatively open to it. They did state it seemed like Trace on a RiffTrax would be a better fit than the other way around. Going back to the Anniversary panel, the biggest surprise was that Joel and Jim sat right next to each other and seemed to get along quite well. Theirs was the biggest rift of all, or so I thought.

Ha ha ha, what.

The story behind that was one of the old Rhino DVD sets included one of the Godzilla episodes. After its release, some legal trouble came up and they had to pull that set from the shelves. However, some people had already bought it. Rhino then released Giant Gila Monster as a replacement disc and that sketch was filmed to instruct people what to do. It was included on that DVD. And yes, the difference is staggering - especially since Frank is voicing Servo, which he never did in the series. He does a decent approximation of J. Elvis Weinstein's version though.

I completely forgot to share that. It really is the best thing. It even has all the major plot points from the series!

A lot of people liked "The Book Job" from this past season. I also enjoyed "A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again."

That actually goes several seasons back. It was almost 10 years ago, it appears.

Okay, I've been watching 12 to the Moon and it's totally even better than I remembered. It even has a crazy-ass short! Hey Srar! The short is one of those "future technology" things!

Yeah, I saw that. I think it will be the last of the returning shows that NBC premieres next season. On a different note, The AV Club did another season walkthrough this past week. This time it's Parks and Rec, Season 4! Here's part 5 of the 5-part series. Links to parts 1-4 are at the beginning. There's definitely some fun stuff in there. For one, I've only now realized that Michael Schur plays Mose on The Office!

It does still have it's really bad episodes (Donnie Fatso) every now and then, but more often than not the show is decent to great these days.

The Color Yellow and Coming to Homerica are other good examples of recent quality episodes.

Yeah, I've noticed they're leaning more toward odd, obscure titles these days and that's very promising.

Guys. Parts: The Clonus Horror is even better than I remembered.

"Can I discipline you?"

"Nice shooting, Xanthar!" "Thanks, Denise."

For long stretches, it is literally unwatchable. I'm not sure if they even had a budget for lighting instruments, or even the electric bill. I feel like Space Mutiny has come to be the single most popular gateway episode option for today's following. I have an odd relationship with it now, as I generally am not in the mood to watch it. However, the entire reason I'm generally not inclined to watch it is that I've seen it a zillion times now. I'm sure it'll go back into the rotation eventually. My current "familiar friend" episode is totally Laserblast. The shit with the aliens never fails to get me.