When Mystery Science Theater 3000 returned for its eleventh season, they had big shoes to fill. While the series has evolved over the decades, prior change only happened in pieces. When Mike Nelson replaced Joel Hodgson as MST3K host, everything else remained the same. With the jump from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel, it still just boiled down to losing Trace Beaulieu and having to cover for it. The eleventh season, on the other hand, was a total changeover. New host, new voices for the robots, new antagonists, new set, newer everything.

They did pretty damn well. The fourteen-episode season was well-received overall, even if it had some growing pains. The biggest issue was that the jokes were too rapid-fire and felt unnatural. Lines weren’t given time to breathe and things felt so overly scripted that you never got to hear the genuine laughter of the other riffers. Otherwise, the season had a lot to offer, including one of the all-time best episodes in Cry Wilderness.

Then comes the follow-up, Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Gauntlet. In order to get seasons out and done quicker, the count has gone from fourteen to a mere six. It’s not the first time we’ve had a six-episode season, as the seventh season had the same length, but even that was a double-edged sword as we got an incredibly solid season that was also the end of the Comedy Central run.

To make the quantity downgrade work, the gimmick is that the twelfth season is supposed to be binge-watched. Six episodes in one go, not only for the viewers (optional), but for Jonah and the bots (mandatory). There’s a continuity in there where our heroes feel a bit more tired and desperate in the opening segments, but thankfully it doesn’t show during the movies themselves.