Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXXIII DVD Retrospective

Release Date:  July 28, 2015

Buy it here!

Episodes featured:

Daddy-O

Earth vs. the Spider

Teen-Age Crime Wave

Agent for H.A.R.M.

Thirty-three volumes into Mystery Science Theater 3000, and we still are getting some absolute bangers.  You would think they'd run out of great episodes at some point, but we have some great ones for the MSTies this time.  A couple of my all-time favorites grace this volume, with Teen-Age Crime Wave and Agent for H.A.R.M.  The Joel episodes are quite exceptional as well, with the very solid Daddy-O and Earth vs. the Spider.  My favorite of the set is easily Teen-Age Crime Wave, which is a riot.  The "loser" of the set?  My least favorite is Daddy-O on the basis of the weak short.  But there are no losers as far as MST Volume XXXIII is concerned.

One noteworthy thing about the episodes in this set is that it features the two episodes where the movie runs short and they fill up time by stopping and restarting the credits at various times due to a running gag, with the button being broken in Daddy-O and Frank getting maced over and over again in Teen-Age Crime Wave.  Bravo by putting both of these in one package!

Average Rating (out of 4):  3.5

Audio and video is exceptional across the board.  This box set's bonus features are mostly film related, so good news for people like me who like learning more about the movies.  There are making of features for both Daddy-O and Earth vs. the Spider, while Teen-Age Crime Wave and Agent for H.A.R.M. have interviews with their respective stars, Tommy Cook and the late Peter Mark Richman.  The highlight is a documentary on the career of Teen-Age Crime Wave producer Samuel Katzman called Film It Again, Sam.  Impressive stuff there!  Also included are Mystery Science Theater Hour wraps for Daddy-O and Earth vs. the Spider as well as theatrical trailers for Earth vs. the Spider and Teen-Age Crime Wave.

There is no changing it up for the cover art, which is Shout Factory's stock design featuring the theater seats at the bottom, the MST logo in the upper left corner, and the roman numerals XXXIII in the center in green.  As always, the real star of the show are the Steve Vance covers for the individual cases on the inside.  Daddy-O features Crow as our singing hero at the top, while Tom Servo cruises around below the logo in a convertible and a blonde wig.  Earth vs. the Spider features to two bots as the teenage heroes of the film, running in terror from the giant spider looming above them atop a building.  Teen-Age Crime Wave features Servo and Crow as outlaws Mike and Terry, pointing their revolvers at anyone who dares look at them.  Agent for H.A.R.M. features Servo as the desirable spy Adam Chance, while he holds his sexy bikini-clad co-star, played by Crow.  Disc art is traditional movie title logos against a starry backdrop.

The menus continue the weird mini-puppet aesthetic from the previous set, still using the same basic idea that the CG menus did...just with puppets.  Daddy-O has Crow and Servo having breakfast with the feisty female lead.  Earth vs. the Spider sees a giant spider entering the Satellite of Love bridge and spraying Crow and Servo with webs.  Teen-Age Crime wave has Mike and Terry busting in on Crow and Servo, pointing guns on them.  Agent for H.A.R.M. plays with the episode's host segment arc, and features Mike in a prison uniform as visions of accusations from the cast fly around him.

BUH DUH BAH DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

If one wants a healthy and reliable sampling of both the Joel and Mike eras of the series, Volume XXXIII is a must own.  The one slight down side is that the Mike episodes easily outweigh the Joel episodes, however with episodes this funny it doesn't really matter.  If you're a MSTies, this is one set that needs to be on your shelf.