MST3K 514: Teen-age Strangler
Apr. 22nd, 2007 09:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
krpalmerAt last, I've got around to watching the fourth DVD out of the tenth set of Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, just in time, I suppose, to think about putting in an order for the eleventh set. I can also suppose that watching these episodes now amounts to rewatching them, which may make getting around to them a little less hurried. When I was previously watching them, though, I often tended to view them in chunks, from "host segment" to "host segment." Seeing them all at once helps the humour to be a little more cumulative.
"Teen-age Strangler" is only the second episode with Mike Nelson as host, but having only become aware of the show after its greatest change among many, I suppose the great debate over "having" to choose between Joel and Mike is more or less moot for me. I've seen some fans wondering if Mike was gradually "feeling his way" towards a character in his first season and a half or so, but maybe I just don't bother to think that much about it. In any case, even if I don't identify standout host segments, I focus on the movies themselves.
The episode contains a short, the first (as opposed to a serial, I suppose) that I've seen for a little while. "Is This Love?" contains much poking fun at antique attitudes more implied than expressed and a crack or two at how one of the "college students" looks a little old, but ends with a set of discussion questions instead of a definite statement of what seemed to have been implied up to that point. (I do have to wonder about the short's apparent audience of college students having to discuss those questions amongst themselves, though.) As for the movie itself, "Teen-age Strangler" continues the tradition of Joel's half of the fifth season for a little longer in tossing in a movie without fantastic elements. Instead, we can focus on the somewhat odd performances of a small-town production. It may not be as memorable as some episodes, but it does have its own amiable charm.
"Teen-age Strangler" is only the second episode with Mike Nelson as host, but having only become aware of the show after its greatest change among many, I suppose the great debate over "having" to choose between Joel and Mike is more or less moot for me. I've seen some fans wondering if Mike was gradually "feeling his way" towards a character in his first season and a half or so, but maybe I just don't bother to think that much about it. In any case, even if I don't identify standout host segments, I focus on the movies themselves.
The episode contains a short, the first (as opposed to a serial, I suppose) that I've seen for a little while. "Is This Love?" contains much poking fun at antique attitudes more implied than expressed and a crack or two at how one of the "college students" looks a little old, but ends with a set of discussion questions instead of a definite statement of what seemed to have been implied up to that point. (I do have to wonder about the short's apparent audience of college students having to discuss those questions amongst themselves, though.) As for the movie itself, "Teen-age Strangler" continues the tradition of Joel's half of the fifth season for a little longer in tossing in a movie without fantastic elements. Instead, we can focus on the somewhat odd performances of a small-town production. It may not be as memorable as some episodes, but it does have its own amiable charm.