Not you father’s Muppets-well, not MY muppets.
I think the most cringe worthy moment in this first show filled to the gills with cringe worthy moments was when Kermit’s new pig Denise is shown bobbing her head while she sucks a straw. ‘What can I say, I like pigs.’ says Kermit as he turns and watches Denise. At least the straw wasn’t green.
Modeled on [easyazon_link identifier=”B00LTO342M” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]The Office[/easyazon_link] or [easyazon_link identifier=”B0000E2PVR” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]Curb Your Enthusiasm[/easyazon_link], The Muppets is filled with a lot of camera zooms and shaky movements. Our heroes are nothing but angst ridden muppets who bear only a passing resemble to the characters we knew back in the glory days before Jim Henson bit the big one. I’ve always been of the opinion that Kermit should have been in the coffin next to Jim. Whoever is doing Kermit’s voice doesn’t sound like Kermit and sure as hell doesn’t act like him.
One of the band members stands up and starts to recite the Alcoholics Anonymous greeting before his band mates tell him this a different kind of meeting. Fozzy Bear gets punched across the stage. Scooter gets thrown out of a moving golf cart, twice. Pepe the shrimp talks about how it’s hard to find a wedding dress when your pregnant with oh, 5000 babies. Rizo the rat spends most of the show trying to get laid. I think I laughed once, and mostly spent the show yelling NOOOOOooo like Darth Vader.
When your online profile says you’re a ‘passionate bear looking for love,’ you get a lot of wrong responses. -Fozzie
Turning The Muppets into horny and miserable adults is an odd choice. This is kind of like stumbling across fan art of your favorite cartoon characters having sex. It’s not really what I expect from Disney. Jim Henson wanted to use his puppetry for adult projects, but he wanted to make serious films, not cynical and bitter puppets that love nothing better than a nice double entendre and jokes about drug addiction and groupies.
A couple of running gags are nothing but cruelty toward Fozzy Bear and Tom Bergeron. I never liked this kind of stuff. I like Fozzy and Tom and don’t find their crestfallen faces humorous.
This is just the first episode, but I’m not at all sure I’ll be watching any more. I loved [easyazon_link identifier=”B001R123WE” locale=”US” tag=”londonthoug-20″]The Muppet Show[/easyazon_link] and I was expecting this to be a bit more like that. I guess I should have picked up a few more hints from the trailer.
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