Mystery Science Waypoint (and speculation)

The news Netflix would allow more episodes of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 revival to be made had seemed sufficient in itself, but an announcement from Joel Hodgson that taping of those new episodes was about to begin seemed a small but pleasant waypoint at first glance. At second glance, noticing his comment within the announcement that the new block of shows would have six episodes in it did get me wondering. I suppose I'm one part of "at least some Mystery Science Theater fans" who remember the seventh season of the original series had only six episodes, closing down the initial run of the show on Comedy Central.

Joel, though, did offer an update afterwards proclaiming "this is not a winding down; by making fewer episodes at a time, we'll have these blocks of new content showing up more often." I was able to contemplate how the blocks of Voltron Legendary Defender episodes on Netflix have become shorter with time (even with another new set of them approaching), and for that matter I've been watching a streaming series of documentaries about toy lines (which is often entertaining, even if it leaves me wondering about "being consumed by appropriative nostalgia, smirking and taking it too seriously all at once") that started with four episodes and then added another four. In any case, the additional announcement that Joel would be "riffing" in a new life show also got my attention even if I supposed I wouldn't be able to see this effort at "getting cash on the barrelhead from an assured audience."