I'm starting to see what The Muppets are becoming, a 90's sitcom with two stories. I'm okay with that except for the fact that it's not as funny as the good 90's sitcoms like Friends, Seinfeld, Married with Children, Fresh Prince, or Mad About You. The rhythm is more empty and blah like Grace Under Fire, Webster, or Empty Nest. The 2 main story lines this week were pretty cliché, Gonzo's buddies miss him as a wingman now that he has his girlfriend back and Tony and Angela have to pretend they're together and then comically hide from a bunch of people and then finally bring themselves even closer to the conclusion that it would be great if they really were together. Err, I mean Kermit and Piggy.
The ancientness of these stories would be more bearable, however, if the jokes that surrounded them were more nonstop, as featured on Muppets Tonight and The Muppet Show. You can see that the writers do try here and there to sprinkle their Muppet dose of comedy, but it seems like they're toning the jokes down a tad in favor of the drama. I disagree with this approach as I strongly believe you can have both hilarious nonstop laughter along with deep meaningful drama, that's how Friends became the top show in the world.
Some of the humor missed the mark completely, like Zoot saying he didn't leave the building last night because, "The sign said 'Fire Door.' I didn't want to risk it." Ugh. Some of the jokes were decent, like Zoot saying, "Nothing fixes a broken home like a chair." Wise words indeed. And two times I caught myself chuckling out loud. The first was when the entire crew ran away when Robin (who it was nice to see!) said hello. And the second was Robin's line on understanding that his parents broke up due to them being so different: "My mom likes quiet nights indoors and my dad likes my teacher."
Nice to see Fozzy mentioning having a girlfriend and Scooter remembering his nemesis Ken, the little consistency meant something. Sam Eagle still has yet to acknowledge his crush, though. I guess that's over.
I'm still not comfortable with how Piggy is now super nice. The nauseous smiling opener is back to set the tone and the mood of the series contains deliberately less tension now than it did before, a shame because more stress has an ability to make jokes funnier when applied correctly.
Despite my gripes, I really enjoy watching my favorite characters interact in novel ways and in this reality-esque setting. Because of that, this episode was still intriguing and held my interest, though there's so much greater potential for this style of series and I do hope they get it right. In the very least, tons more puns, please!
The ancientness of these stories would be more bearable, however, if the jokes that surrounded them were more nonstop, as featured on Muppets Tonight and The Muppet Show. You can see that the writers do try here and there to sprinkle their Muppet dose of comedy, but it seems like they're toning the jokes down a tad in favor of the drama. I disagree with this approach as I strongly believe you can have both hilarious nonstop laughter along with deep meaningful drama, that's how Friends became the top show in the world.
Some of the humor missed the mark completely, like Zoot saying he didn't leave the building last night because, "The sign said 'Fire Door.' I didn't want to risk it." Ugh. Some of the jokes were decent, like Zoot saying, "Nothing fixes a broken home like a chair." Wise words indeed. And two times I caught myself chuckling out loud. The first was when the entire crew ran away when Robin (who it was nice to see!) said hello. And the second was Robin's line on understanding that his parents broke up due to them being so different: "My mom likes quiet nights indoors and my dad likes my teacher."
Nice to see Fozzy mentioning having a girlfriend and Scooter remembering his nemesis Ken, the little consistency meant something. Sam Eagle still has yet to acknowledge his crush, though. I guess that's over.
I'm still not comfortable with how Piggy is now super nice. The nauseous smiling opener is back to set the tone and the mood of the series contains deliberately less tension now than it did before, a shame because more stress has an ability to make jokes funnier when applied correctly.
Despite my gripes, I really enjoy watching my favorite characters interact in novel ways and in this reality-esque setting. Because of that, this episode was still intriguing and held my interest, though there's so much greater potential for this style of series and I do hope they get it right. In the very least, tons more puns, please!
