

once CMT is in the house, there are foreboding occurrences: plants die flies die goldfish die. Other than that, the plot is perfectly clear. We don't know who the child is, we don't know what Susan is doing there, we don't know if she's a girlfriend, we don't know if she's a neighbor, we don't know who the guy is, we don't know if he's the dad of the kid, and we don't know who the other guy is either, and we don't know whose house it is. She goes to a birthday party where she gives the CMT to a child. The thief pawns the creepy monkey toy (hereafter, CMT) and a pleasant woman whose name seems like it should be Susan buys it. Out of all the useless stuff in Merlin's show, why the monkey toy? Maybe the other worthless crap had ink tags. When this story fails to satisfy the kid, Grandpa B spins another wonderful yarn which begins with a thief breaking into Merlin's shop after hours, and stealing the creepy little monkey toy. Or has she? This is upsetting and confusing.

#MERLIN ITHEATER REVIEW PLUS#
On the plus side, she's gotten rid of her husband. Voila! The woman finally has the baby she's always wanted! On the down side, she has to raise her husband. The formula de-oldens him so much so that he becomes an infant. The recipe calls for fresh blood, which he takes from his pinched and still barren wife. When the man realizes how close he suddenly is to retirement, he finds the rejuvenation spell to replenish his life force. We cut to Grandpa Borgnine who does some back-pedaling to explain that when you mess with magic it drains your life force and causes you to age. As all this is happening our friend is rapidly aging. He starts dabbling with the spells in the book and wreaks havoc right and left: he breathes fire, the cat levitates, and the devil visits him when he tries to turn the cat into a familiar. The man and his wife return home: she goes off to bed alone and he goes downstairs to do some officing in his garage.

To appease him, Merlin gives him a book of magic filled with spells and sorcery. The antagonistic boutique critic threatens to shut down Merlin's shop with a bad review. Merlin look at the barren woman knowingly and they give her a wishing stone that looks like malformed Jell-o. When the man asks Merlin why the hell the shop even exists, Merlin tells him he wants people "to experience their belief in magic again." Mr. He's anxious to blow the lid off little mom & pop shops in strip malls. The barren woman's husband follows them into the shop he's a store reviewer and a freelance asshole. After a standard "Hi-how-are-you", one of the women goes into graphic detail to the other woman about not being able to conceive. One day two women with pointy voices come into the shop. In Grandpa's tale, willowy Merlin now runs a little shop with his rubicund wife, Zurella, in a vague, Los Angeles-y kind of suburb. When the power goes out during a storm, Grandpa B is forced to talk to the boy and begins to tell him a story about magical Merlin. Ernest Borgnine, looking just as fresh and girlish as his Marty days, is a large grandpa who's babysitting his grandson and letting him watch whatever he wants on TV. Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders is a couple of movies sewn together with the flimsy thread of a recurring toy monkey. Mystical Wonders First broadcast 9-12-99 (it was a "lost" episode)
#MERLIN ITHEATER REVIEW MOVIE#
MST3000 Movie Review for Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders Mystery Science Theater 3000 Presents #1003: Merlin's Shop of
