Posts tagged: the muppets

The Muppets S01E06 “The Ex Factor” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Bob Kushell, Steve Rudnick (teleplay); Nell Scovell, Emily Wilson (story)
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• It’s Denise’s birthday, but Kermit is hopeless at buying gifts. So, desperate and against his better judgement, he asks Miss Piggy to get something for her. An ex buying a gift for a new girlfriend?
• Hmm, not your wisest decision, Kermit… but actually, Miss Piggy (almost) does him proud.
• Kristin Chenoweth guests on the show and the band asks her to play at a party in the desert.
• Her presence in their camper van, however, soon kick-starts some fighting.
• Scooter’s secret hobby is revealed: he loves painting ceramics.

Review:

Ah, that old, “I don’t know what to buy this new person I’m dating for their birthday” trope, eh? Always guaranteed to touch a nerve, because let’s face it, we’ve all been through it. And when you’re as hopeless as Kermit, you ask your ex for advice: train wreck ahoy!

We all expect Miss Piggy to show her true diva colours and buy Denise something to end the relationship. But instead, she shows a softer side and buys a thoughtful gift instead (albeit with a secret message inside – the jewellery box plays the song her and Kermit used to say was their own… ouch!). Sometimes it’s hard to picture the inimitable Miss Piggy as anything other than a shrieking harridan, but moments like this go a long way towards explaining why she’s not just a figure you love to hate – there’s a squishy heart in there, too.

It’s also nice to see her chatting with Kristin Chenoweth at the show’s start, because the two seem to be firm friends – Miss Piggy actually is liked by other performers, and it’s not all a front. D’awwww, for a foam puppet, she’s actually fairly three-dimensional, isn’t she?

And speaking of foam puppets, when Denise first comes over to talk to Kristin, check out Miss Piggy’s face. How fabric can radiate such disgust is a mystery, but it does…

Elsewhere, we blessedly lose Fozzie this week in favour of a sub-plot about the band, who are as wonderfully stoned, spaced-out and ludicrous as we’d ever want them to be. Taking them out to the desert is a stroke of genius – somehow Animal’s hair looks fabulous blowing in the breeze – and their falling-out over who’s sleeping with who (and who’s paying who) is marvellously performed.

Is anyone else worrying now about how poor Kristin got home, mind you?

The Guests:

• Kristin Chenoweth

The Good:

• Miss Piggy and Kristin bonding. “You handled yourself beautifully!” says Kristin, after Denise walks away. “I am pretty good with kids,” nods Miss Piggy. BURN!
• Kermit’s assistant translates female speak to him – as in: when a woman says she doesn’t want a birthday present, she actually does. Is it any coincidence that week’s script was written by two women? It’s true, guys, it really is.
• Gonzo’s birthday present suggestions are priceless. “Girls are always asking if they look fat – with a scale, they can know for sure!”
• Kermit’s dresser, Dudley, seems to get more to say each week. And he’s hilarious. Look out, Pepe, he’s threatening to steal your crown of Funniest Muppet!

The Bad:

• What is the deal with Chip? Jokes about him stalking Denise’s emails are really creepy, as is Chip himself. He does get to deliver a funny line, though (see below).
• Miss Piggy and Kristin singing “I Could Have Danced All Night” is a crime against eardrums everywhere. But it’s nice to see Kristin, well-known for everything from Glee to Broadway shows, so cheerfully parodying her knack of hitting a screeching high note at the end of a song that really didn’t need one.

The Random:

• When the band drive out to the desert, Animal is in the back of the camper behind a grill, just like you’d use to section off a dog. Course, it turns out they’re just beads, but the illusion still works – and he behaves like a dog anyway, doesn’t he?

Best Quote:

• Kermit: “Chip, close the laptop!” Chip: “But then I don’t know what to do with my eyes.”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson

• Read more reviews of The Muppets

The Muppets S01E05 “Walk The Swine” REVIEW

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Gregg Mettler, Nell Scovell (teleplay); Dave Caplan, Steve Rudnick (story)
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• Reese Witherspoon guests on the show, much to Kermit’s horror because Miss Piggy has a grudge against her. True to form, things turn nasty between the Hollywood stars the following day at a charity house-build.
• To save her reputation, Miss Piggy has to (gasp!) apologise.
• Rizzo crashes into Scooter’s car, but Scooter’s attempts to help him repair the damage aren’t the greatest.
• Fozzie has worked his girlfriend into his stand-up routine. She is not amused.

Review:

Every week we give The Muppets a high score. We’re not a soft touch, honest, it’s just that this really is a quite excellent little series; we’re still waiting for a duff episode. (Although not too eagerly, obviously.) Long may it continue to be this fine, despite the recently reported staffing changes going on behind the scenes over in the US. Fingers crossed!

The laugh-out-loud hit rate is definitely high this week, with some brilliant jokes delivered so casually you’d never think there were a team of writers behind them (such as Floyd ordering a coffee under the name John Q Public: “Never use your real name,” he tells Bobo, “they’ll have drones over your house by nightfall!”).

But the praise here really goes to Reese Witherspoon, who commits herself totally to playing the object of Miss Piggy’s hatred – while also giving a nice plug to charity Habitat For Humanity. You have to wonder how many other Hollywood superstars have ended up as rivals while working for a charity, actually…

And Miss Piggy’s grand finale dance routine is a stroke of genius. It’s odd, mind you, seeing her puppet continue to sing while being held aloft by the dancers…

The Guests:

• Reese Witherspoon

The Good:

• Discovering that Miss Piggy’s grudge against Natalie Portman for getting a role in Black Swan was just “a decoy grudge… it’s always been Witherspoon!”
• Miss Piggy taking so long to get out of her Spanx is amusing. And hey, so many of us ladies have been there…
• Reese Witherspoon, Oscar-winner, gets to deliver the line: “You’re banging on a Porta Potty with a pink bedazzled hammer!” Wow.

• Miss Piggy’s outfit when she heads to the building site (in her streeeeeeeetch limo) includes a leopard print toolbelt and “ultra suede stiletto work booties”. Details are important.

• Pepe and Rizzo having a mini face-off about the pronounciation of “Sean Penn” and “champagne” is a joy!
• For the very first time on the show, Miss Piggy gets to perform her trademark karate chop. “Hiyaaaaaaa!” Quintessential Piggy.

The Bad:

• It’s hard to pinpoint anything that doesn’t work this week, except perhaps that you want to slap Scooter upside the head for being so gullible. Oh, and the scene with the crew singing “True Colours” to Fozzie might be a tad too long.

The Random:

• In case you haven’t spotted it, the name of this episode – “Walk The Swine” – is a play on words on “Walk The Line”. This is the film Reese won an Oscar for, in a role Miss Piggy wanted for herself. Now picture her playing opposite Joaquin Phoenix’s Johnny Cash and try not to laugh.
• Best Quote: Kermit: “This thing with Reese is everywhere – it’s a PR nightmare!” Miss Piggy: “Not now, Kermit.” Kermit: “It’s the only video North Korea’s allowing its people to see!”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson

• Read more reviews of The Muppets

The Muppets S01E04 “Pig Out” Review

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Bob Kushell, Dave Caplan (teleplay); Gregg Mettler, Nell Scovell (story)
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• Miss Piggy finds out that the crew go for drinks after the show, and wants to go along too.
• Much to everybody’s surprise, the night ends up being a blast.
• Kermit has to trick Miss Piggy into never doing it again, as everybody is too hungover to work the next day.
• Fozzie puts Statler in hospital, then tries to make amends. Statler’s having none of it…
• Sam has a crush on Janice.

Review:

It’s good to see some of the supporting cast get some air time this week, as we learn not only that Sam likes Janice and the Chef likes to karaoke(!), but also that any attempt to humanise Statler is pointless. And thank heavens for that: everybody’s favourite grumpy curmudgeon is the one character (well, along with Waldorf) who doesn’t need any backstory or expanding at all, because he’s perfect just the way he is.

For a moment it looked as though he was going to be outed as a sad old guy in need of a friend, but even as Fozzie ran around trying to help him, it felt wrong. Hurrah for the writers knowing exactly where to back off!

Meanwhile Miss Piggy’s night out with the gang is an absolute blast – who knew watching Muppets singing karaoke could be so much fun? Although given how much fun we usually have watching them singing in their movies, it probably shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. The Chef in particular steals the entire episode with his gibberish rapping, although Scooter bouncing along to Don’t Stop Believin’ alongside Ed Helms is a hoot. (And how weird does he look the next morning without his glasses, eh?)

The Guests:

• Ed Helms

The Good:

• There are some brilliant one-liners this week, and Miss Piggy in particular proves that her voice performer (Eric Jacobson… incidentally, Piggy would probably die if she knew a man gave her a voice) can time a joke perfectly, as the pig swings from subject to subject with ease.

• Pepe the prawn, again, proves he’s one of the show’s greatest assets. Not only does he get a fantastic line when Miss Piggy tells a boring story (“Somebody peel and eat me already!”), he also wears a t-shirt that appears to say “CrustaceanNation”. Oh, and he pops in Statler’s false teeth and declares, “Look at me! I’m Bradley Cooper!”

• Miss Piggy asks the Chef if everybody goes out without her. Chef simply says, “Duuuuuuurrrrrrr…” and lowers himself under the desk. Priceless!

The Bad:

• Fozzie gets a B-plot again. Thankfully it’s not a big one, but still. Give a story to someone else!
• The lady in the crowd who catches a t-shirt has a face like a slapped arse. It’s only a t-shirt, luv, but could you at least look amused that it was fired at you from a cannon held by a bear?

Best Quote:

• Miss Piggy: “Do these diamonds make me look relatable?”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson

• Read more reviews of The Muppets

The Muppets S01E01 “Pig Girls Don’t Cry” Review

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Bill Prady, Bob Kushell, Jordan Reddout, Gus Hickey
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• We meet the cast and crew of Up Late With Miss Piggy, a talk show hosted by the inimitable porcine diva.
• We learn what goes on behind the scenes (namely producer Kermit dealing with his ex-girlfriend being a pain in the ass).
• We discover Miss Piggy hates Elizabeth Banks because she reminds her of the night Kermit broke up with her.
• Fozzie Bear is introduced to his new girlfriend’s parents. It does not go well.

Review:

There’s no denying this first full-length episode of the updated, 21st-century Muppet Show is full of laughs, although they do die down as the story goes on – hopefully not an indicator of how the season itself will perform!

Right from the off, we know exactly what we’re going to get here: a cross between the groundbreaking Larry Sanders Show (which began in 1992) and 30 Rock (which ended two years ago), only with the cast filled out with felt Muppets rather than people. It’s also filmed in the hand-held camera, faux-documentary style of The Office (which began in 2001), a format that’s been reflected in countless sitcoms ever since, from Arrested Development (running since 2003) to Parks & Recreation (ended earlier this year). And yes, in case you’re wondering why I keep pumping all the dates into this, it’s to make a point: none of this is new.

And that’s the biggest problem with The Muppets: it should have been done ten years ago. Right now, it feels as if it’s hanging on the coat-tails of a style of television that’s breathing its last gasps, relying too heavily on the novelty value of its puppet cast to make an impact. But they’re not really a novelty, are they? Not when we’ve already seen them in the original Muppet Show way back in the ’70s, on the big screen and in our day-to-day lives ever since. Which means that the show isn’t original and has nothing new to offer… always a worry when you’re really rooting for it to do well (because, despite everything, everybody loves these Muppets).

There’s also the slight ‘ick’ factor that comes from the more adult tone of the series – Kermit actually says the word “sexy” and refers to sex at one point, which just feels wrong. However, the Muppets in general weren’t necessarily aimed entirely at kids (one look at the stoner band in the ’70s series should remind us of that), and so we’ll give The Muppets’ more mature tone a get-out-of-jail-free card for now. Just please, guys, never show us Muppets having sex, okay?

So, now we’ve got some rather necessary complaining out of the way, let’s look at some plus points:

The Good

• While we do think the “behind-the-scenes” on a talk show/variety show format has been done to death, it’s worth remembering that The Muppet Show did it too, back in 1976, so they deserve kudos for that.
• Beaker gets electrocuted. Beaker-baiting will never not be funny.
• The writers aren’t allowed to say the word “gesticulate” because it sounds rude. Brilliant!
• These guys:

• Miss Piggy brings the show right into the modern day by telling Kermit “walk with me” as they move down a corridor. Very West Wing/Aaron Sorkin. Who, of course, also made Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which The Muppets mimics here (only with more laughs, thankfully).
• Elizabeth Banks is glorious. But that’s because she’s Elizabeth Banks.

The Bad

• We’ll admit it made us laugh when Fozzie talked about how his online dating profile stating “passionate bear looking for love” was misconstrued, but it feels so weird to hear a joke like this in a kids’ show! However, there was also a “bear” joke in Inside Out, so it’s clearly a thing now.
• Someone can’t use apostrophes properly (or at all, in fact).

• Kermit makes a gag about “cross-promoting” and the camera zooms in on a shot of his girlfriend Denise sucking a straw suggestively. Oh my god, my childhood.

And The Random:

• A shorter, pilot version of this was aired at San Diego Comic-Con, from where it leaked onto YouTube. Which might explain why some of it feels familiar.
• Best Quote: Carl (father of Fozzie’s girlfriend): “Alright, I’m just gonna be blunt. What if you have children? How would you raise them? Where would they go to the bathroom? In the woods?” Fozzie: “Okay, that is an offensive stereotype!”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson

The Muppets S01E01 “Pig Girls Don’t Cry” Review

Airing in the UK on Sky One, Mondays, 8pm
Writers: Bill Prady, Bob Kushell, Jordan Reddout, Gus Hickey
Director: Randall Einhorn

Essential Plot Points:

• We meet the cast and crew of Up Late With Miss Piggy, a talk show hosted by the inimitable porcine diva.
• We learn what goes on behind the scenes (namely producer Kermit dealing with his ex-girlfriend being a pain in the ass).
• We discover Miss Piggy hates Elizabeth Banks because she reminds her of the night Kermit broke up with her.
• Fozzie Bear is introduced to his new girlfriend’s parents. It does not go well.

Review:

There’s no denying this first full-length episode of the updated, 21st-century Muppet Show is full of laughs, although they do die down as the story goes on – hopefully not an indicator of how the season itself will perform!

Right from the off, we know exactly what we’re going to get here: a cross between the groundbreaking Larry Sanders Show (which began in 1992) and 30 Rock (which ended two years ago), only with the cast filled out with felt Muppets rather than people. It’s also filmed in the hand-held camera, faux-documentary style of The Office (which began in 2001), a format that’s been reflected in countless sitcoms ever since, from Arrested Development (running since 2003) to Parks & Recreation (ended earlier this year). And yes, in case you’re wondering why I keep pumping all the dates into this, it’s to make a point: none of this is new.

And that’s the biggest problem with The Muppets: it should have been done ten years ago. Right now, it feels as if it’s hanging on the coat-tails of a style of television that’s breathing its last gasps, relying too heavily on the novelty value of its puppet cast to make an impact. But they’re not really a novelty, are they? Not when we’ve already seen them in the original Muppet Show way back in the ’70s, on the big screen and in our day-to-day lives ever since. Which means that the show isn’t original and has nothing new to offer… always a worry when you’re really rooting for it to do well (because, despite everything, everybody loves these Muppets).

There’s also the slight ‘ick’ factor that comes from the more adult tone of the series – Kermit actually says the word “sexy” and refers to sex at one point, which just feels wrong. However, the Muppets in general weren’t necessarily aimed entirely at kids (one look at the stoner band in the ’70s series should remind us of that), and so we’ll give The Muppets’ more mature tone a get-out-of-jail-free card for now. Just please, guys, never show us Muppets having sex, okay?

So, now we’ve got some rather necessary complaining out of the way, let’s look at some plus points:

The Good

• While we do think the “behind-the-scenes” on a talk show/variety show format has been done to death, it’s worth remembering that The Muppet Show did it too, back in 1976, so they deserve kudos for that.
• Beaker gets electrocuted. Beaker-baiting will never not be funny.
• The writers aren’t allowed to say the word “gesticulate” because it sounds rude. Brilliant!
• These guys:

• Miss Piggy brings the show right into the modern day by telling Kermit “walk with me” as they move down a corridor. Very West Wing/Aaron Sorkin. Who, of course, also made Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, which The Muppets mimics here (only with more laughs, thankfully).
• Elizabeth Banks is glorious. But that’s because she’s Elizabeth Banks.

The Bad

• We’ll admit it made us laugh when Fozzie talked about how his online dating profile stating “passionate bear looking for love” was misconstrued, but it feels so weird to hear a joke like this in a kids’ show! However, there was also a “bear” joke in Inside Out, so it’s clearly a thing now.
• Someone can’t use apostrophes properly (or at all, in fact).

• Kermit makes a gag about “cross-promoting” and the camera zooms in on a shot of his girlfriend Denise sucking a straw suggestively. Oh my god, my childhood.

And The Random:

• A shorter, pilot version of this was aired at San Diego Comic-Con, from where it leaked onto YouTube. Which might explain why some of it feels familiar.
• Best Quote: Carl (father of Fozzie’s girlfriend): “Alright, I’m just gonna be blunt. What if you have children? How would you raise them? Where would they go to the bathroom? In the woods?” Fozzie: “Okay, that is an offensive stereotype!”

Reviewed by Jayne Nelson