Goodbye MST3K Gizmoplex & yep, stick with hard-copy media

[brightknightie]

Yesterday, I got an email saying that the Gizmoplex is shutting down. Read it on their site.

Oversimplified, Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) is: a space castaway and two robots hilariously mock bad movies (usually old and always genre). Back in the day, my family would watch it on cable on Saturday nights. As an adult, my sister and I went together to a handful of live touring performances. MST3K sits at the rare and invaluable intersection of her tastes and mine; it's also something best shared in real time.

I've supported every "Bring Back MST3K" effort, including the one that failed disastrously because people were still really mad about the expensive, slow shipping of the cheap plastic bonus knick-knacks from the previous one (because: pandemic). I own ("own") digital copies of everything on the Gizmoplex. Now, I have until June to stream it on my TV as I always have, and until September to download as many files as I want to keep.

My sister paid the extra to get DVDs instead of streaming, so in that sense she's definitely wiser than me. I didn't expect the Roku and other integrations to last forever, but I did expect the website to last... a little longer than this. On the other hand, I watched every new episode as it became available, especially during the pandemic, making a Saturday-night event out of it, reminiscent of those childhood family viewings, while I know my sister instead put her DVDs away on a shelf and still hasn't watched them all, though it's been years. So in that sense I'm the winner. They're downloaded to my brain, though not my shelf.

But of course I would rather have had more seasons, more years, more tours. And especially more sharing with my sister.

Comments

[batdina]

This news, coupled with the Star Trek news of a week or two ago reinforces my "hard copy media" instincts.

(My main story about this is convoluted, but it goes like this: a number of years ago, someone whose name I no longer remember, wrote a very comprehensive biography of Philip Roth. I bought the ebook, my father bought the book book. A month or so after initial publication, the author was discovered to be a sex pest, and the publishing company pulled the book from the shelves. My ebook went POOF. My father still has the book. The moral for me is that if it's something I know I'm going to want to keep, I buy the hard copy now. I even now sometimes go to the hyperbolic extreme of buying the hard copy if I like the ebook enough to want to lend it to people.)

[teratornis]

I don't have the nostalgia factor with MST3K that so many do, and I haven't seen much, but I've always had such a good time with what I have seen. This is such a shame, I'm sorry to hear it. :c I'm glad your sister has the DVD copies, and hopefully you can download as much as you want before it vanishes.

[thefruitbat]

I remember making our own MSTs with my sister in our teens. It's sad to see another platform go. We don't share fandoms, so it was cool to have something in common. There are not many shows I have physical copies of, but I think with sites closing down and the streaming sites always changing, it's a good idea to have at least the faves on Blu-ray/DVD/hard drive.