Random Thoughts-The Muppets

If you haven’t watched the new Muppets TV series yet, spoilers below. Be warned.



I was kind of hyped about The Muppets coming back to TV. The last series they did was Muppets Tonight which, while I was not a big fan, wasn’t the worst thing in the world either. Tonight’s show might be. I just watched and had some random thoughts I decided I had to share, mostly to see if anyone else watched and what they think. So, here we go.




I can live with The Muppets being darker. I love The Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie and there are darker elements in that movie. But the Muppet charm still shines through. This show….I don’t know what the thought process was.



Ok, fairness time. The idea is good. Piggy hosts her own night time talk show and we see the behind the scenes antics (ala 30 Rock). Fine, but why did they have to go on step further and include the personal lives of The Muppets? It’s like, as another critic noted, The Larry Sanders Show minus the swearing.


Here is the big question. Why are The Muppets so mean? Kermit is a negative whiner, Piggy is just a bitch not to mention a huge egomaniac, Fozzie is…the same but his story about dating a human girl is just icky. Even Scooter has an attitude! What the hell, Scooter is one of the easiest going Muppets ever! Did I mention the adult jokes (which no kid would understand to be fair, but seriously an AA joke?)? And before everyone screams there have always been adult jokes with The Muppets, yes that’s true but they were accompanied by funny bits and I didn’t see anything funny in this.




What else? Let’s see, Kermit is dating a boring pig. Kermit and Piggy break up in a scene which is totally out of character for both. Heck is this really Kermit in this? That Christmas movie I mentioned he was depressed but with a reason, and at the end he was happy and is usual positive self. Here, he’s just so depressing. And the breakup with Piggy hurts more than helps. It’s forced conflict which these two characters never need.



The guest of the week is barely on it. Remember how in The Muppet Show the guest host would actually be featured? We hardly even saw Piggy’s talk show, more time was devoted to that awful story of Fozzie meeting his girlfriend’s parents. As I noted, they are all human. That is just wrong.  But that’s the whole show, just wrong. There is just not feeling of fun, all the characters are stressed or miserable, and the fast paced and silliness? The pacing was so awful I got bored and stopped watching. I once complained the The Muppet Show had a laugh track, man did I miss that here. The only thing resembling a joke was from Gonzo early on.



I get that times change and so The Muppets do too. How did Miss Piggy’s outbursts go from funny to physical abuse anyway?


A lot of people say that the old show was a spoof of Variety shows. Ok, this isn’t done as a spoof of docu-drama’s it just IS  a docu-drama. Or whatever it is they’re doing. Why couldn’t they just do the talk show, and then show behind the scenes stuff like before? Yeah that was kind of like Muppets Tonight but that show had no focus. But I’ll take that show in a heartbeat! Plus the old show worked because they had cool musical numbers between the character stuff, this was the Muppets talking to each other for thirty minutes!! I don’t want to hear Kermit bitch about his sad life, I want to hear him sing “The Rainbow Connection!”. I put a clip of Muppets Tonight on YouTube and what a difference! It’s the exact same setup, but the energy is there and excitement is there! It feels like The Muppets!




Yep, I said it. Muppets Tonight was better. Never thought I would say that.

So, what do you guys think? My track recod reviewing Muppet productions is shotty, so am I  just clinging to the old days of The Muppet Show? Is it possible I will get use and even like this show? Or is one of the worst things to ever carry the Muppet name? I may watch next week but my hopes are not high.