RedLetterMedia's Best of the Worst: Where to Start

BRIEFING

RedLetterMedia's Best of the Worst is, by this correspondent's assessment, the single most important ongoing contribution to bad movie culture on the internet. It has been running since 2013. It has produced over 200 episodes. It has reviewed more than 600 films that would otherwise have been forgotten by everyone except the person who made them and their immediate family.

The show is filmed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in a building that looks like a warehouse because it is a warehouse. The hosts — Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, and Rich Evans, with rotating guests including Jack Packard, Tim Higgins, and Josh Davis — sit at a table surrounded by VHS tapes and discuss terrible movies with a level of genuine affection that makes every episode feel like visiting friends who happen to have the world's worst video collection.

If you have never watched Best of the Worst, this guide will get you started. If you have watched it, this guide will help you find the episodes you missed.

How It Works

The Format

Three panelists. Three (or more) bad movies. One winner.

Standard format: Each panelist selects a film from the show's extensive VHS and DVD collection. They watch all three films (usually off-camera, though reactions are sometimes shown), then discuss each film at the table. At the end, they vote on which film is "Best of the Worst" — the most entertaining bad movie of the batch.

Wheel of the Worst: A giant wheel loaded with VHS tapes from the collection is spun. Whatever it lands on, they watch. This variant produces the show's most extreme episodes because the selection is random and the tapes are pulled from the darkest corners of direct-to-video obscurity.

Black Spine Edition: The hosts select tapes with no labels — "black spines" — from the collection. Nobody knows what they're watching until they press Play. This is the show's most chaotic variant.

Plinketto: A Plinko-style board drops a disc through pegs to randomly select from a grid of films. Similar to Wheel of the Worst but with more chaos and less control.

The Discussion

The post-viewing discussion is where the show earns its reputation. Mike typically leads with structural observations ("Why did the director choose to..."). Jay provides film history context ("This was made during the straight-to-video boom of..."). Rich laughs at things and occasionally makes the observation that reframes the entire film.

The dynamic works because all three genuinely enjoy bad movies. They are not performing superiority. They are expressing curiosity. When they encounter a film that is terrible in an unexpected way, their engagement increases rather than decreases. This is what separates BotW from lesser bad movie shows.

The Essential Starting Points

For Your First Episode

Best of the Worst: Wheel of the Worst #3 — The wheel format provides maximum variety, the films are memorably terrible, and the discussion hits every register from analytical to hysterical. If you watch one episode and don't want to watch another, BotW isn't for you. (It will be for you.)

For Maximum Chaos

Best of the Worst: Black Spine Edition #2 — Nobody knows what they're watching. The reveals — as each tape is inserted and the title card appears — produce genuine reactions that cannot be faked. One of the tapes turns out to be a corporate training video. The panelists watch it in its entirety.

For the Best Film Discoveries

Best of the Worst: Surviving Edged Weapons — The panel discovers a law enforcement training video about surviving knife attacks. The video features dramatic reenactments performed with a commitment level usually reserved for Oscar contenders. It becomes a beloved recurring reference.

Best of the Worst: Miami Connection — Before Drafthouse Films rediscovered and redistributed Miami Connection, Best of the Worst featured it. Their discussion helped launch the film's modern renaissance.

For the Best Discussions

Best of the Worst: The Room / Birdemic / Neil Breen — Any episode covering a well-known bad movie canon entry produces a discussion where the panelists' deep knowledge elevates the conversation beyond surface-level mockery.

For Newcomers to Bad Movies

Best of the Worst: Holiday Special (any year) — The holiday specials feature seasonal bad movies (Christmas-themed horror, holiday TV specials, religious films) that are accessible and festive. Low barrier to entry, high entertainment value.

How to Watch

The Platform

All episodes are free on YouTube. RedLetterMedia does not paywall their content. New episodes appear approximately twice a month.

The Time Commitment

Episodes average 60-80 minutes. This is longer than most podcasts. It is shorter than most films they discuss. The pacing justifies the length — editing is tight, tangents are productive, and dead air does not exist.

The Archive

200+ episodes means approximately 250 hours of content. You cannot watch it all in a week. You can watch it all in a month if you're committed, but this correspondent recommends spacing it out. Best of the Worst is better as a regular ritual than a binge.

The Chronology

Episodes can be watched in any order. There are no story arcs (except running jokes that develop organically — Rich Evans' laugh, Mike's drinking, the ongoing discussion of whether certain films "count" as bad enough). Starting with recent episodes and working backward is a valid approach.

The Impact

Best of the Worst has directly influenced bad movie culture in measurable ways:

• Films featured on the show see measurable increases in sales, rentals, and online discussion
• Several filmmakers whose work was covered have appeared on the show (some enthusiastically, others reluctantly)
• The show's terminology ("this is the most [BotW] movie we've ever watched") has entered bad movie community parlance
• The VHS collection — visible in every episode, stacked floor to ceiling — has become an icon of physical media preservation

The Verdict

If HDTGM is the stadium concert of bad movie content — big, loud, performative, and thrilling — Best of the Worst is the jazz club. Smaller. More intimate. More likely to take you somewhere unexpected. Both are excellent. BotW is the one this correspondent returns to most often.

Start anywhere. Watch anything. The warehouse is always open.

This is Janet Rewind, signing off from Milwaukee. The VHS collection grows.