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The Muppets TV Show


Dolfan in NYC

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Dammit Gonzo...that was Lea Thompson!

 

Yeah that even had me like "wow you cockblocking little bastard". I would have kicked him right out of the elevator.

 

I thought this weeks show was just as funny with some really good one liners. Most notably the hot stone massage scene with Miss Piggy. Sweedish Chef has the best deadpan in primetime.

 

"Someone's cooking the bacon". He also said a couple mins earlier "der piggy be gropin de Groban".

 

Fozzy continues to be gold. They should nominate him for a supporting actor in a comedy because why the hell not.

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I enjoyed this episode a lot more than last week.  Fozzy was gold, and loved the adult themes.  It's definitely not fully kid-friendly, but still enjoyable.  Loved the Electric Mayhem buying all the cookies because they're stoners.  And damn that Gonzo for his unintentional cock-blocking (c'mon, man, it's Lea Thompson!)  And yes, Swedish Chef was the star with his two lines, damn we were cracking up at that.

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I just watched the first episode on DVR and I was underwhelmed. I enjoyed Fozzy the most but I don't know if the tone of the show is something I want to see form the Muppets. 

 

I feel the same way regarding the tone.  I wish it had a little more of the warm, madcap tone of the Muppet Show and Movie, but with the single-camera format.  I'm still enjoying it, it's just a little... cynical for my tastes.

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Maybe it's just because the Muppets have just this tree-mendous amount of goodwill with me, having grown up with The Muppet Show, but I can't see how folks can not like stuff involving the Muppets. The two movies were perfectly fine for what they were, and this show's great for what it is. Could it all be better? Sure, absolutely. But I'd rather have a world with this Muppets in it than no Muppets at all.

 

The show's not laugh-your-ass-off funny, and it's over the heads of kids. But it's just sneaky funny - like I said, not gutbusting, but pretty damn smart, low-key humor. There's so much to like here - the staff being happier with a bad show if it means a less-divaesque star, the battle between bear and newscaster over cookie sales, Fozzie's "bless his heart" run-in with Jay Leno, Kermit laying the smack down on the problem and then dismissing Josh Groban with a proverbial "gotcha, bitch."

 

It still speaks back to my point about entertainment - people expect too much. If it's not exactly what they wanted it to be, it sucks. Sometimes, it's best to be OK with the fact that it even IS.

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Not much to this episode, other than Kermit admitting to licking a toad (his cousin)

 

But I feel a need to say that IT puppet needs to go.  And while they're at it shred the puppet into little pieces and destroy any concept art.  I hate IT stereotypes like that.

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They did beat him into the ground, but I thought that was kinda the point.

 

Another sneakily funny show. Loved Kermit's line about not wanting beer that tastes like pie, the Swedish Chef as Mee-gan, the band's line about losing touch with reality, the "you da man" off between Fozzie and Kermit, Nick Offerman's demands. This remains 30 minutes of Perfectly Acceptable Television.

 

The IT guy was probably more of a plot device - someone had to introduce the Gonzo subplot. We'll have to see next week.

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Does this mean Gonzo and Camilla broke up?

 

Spoilers for the next episode:

 

- Fozzie puts Statler in the hospital with a t-shirt gun.

 

- Miss Piggy is annoyed that the staff doesn't invite her to the bar after work.  She forces Kermit to get everyone to ask her so she can say no.  Piggy ends up saying yes and takes everyone out.  Oddly enough, everyone has a great time with her and Ed Helms, but it starts making them lazy and hung over for work.

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They did beat him into the ground, but I thought that was kinda the point.

 

Another sneakily funny show. Loved Kermit's line about not wanting beer that tastes like pie, the Swedish Chef as Mee-gan, the band's line about losing touch with reality, the "you da man" off between Fozzie and Kermit, Nick Offerman's demands. This remains 30 minutes of Perfectly Acceptable Television.

 

The IT guy was probably more of a plot device - someone had to introduce the Gonzo subplot. We'll have to see next week.

Somehow missed the line about the beer.  Sounds like something that was put in there by a guy who love Bud Light.  But the other lines were eye-openers for sure.  Fozzy trying to talk while using GPS was hilarious because my dad had a similar issue not that long ago.

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Atticus Finch was always a racist.

 

Honestly, Kermit's current portrayal on The Muppets doesn't seem far off from how I remember him on the original series.  He's like the long-suffering boss, a little on the wishy-washy side, always trying to make everyone happy and keep the train running.

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New Yorker article on tone of new show.

/www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/dirty-sexy-muppets

Thanks for posting this, as it seems to sum up my thoughts.

Yep, because Muppets have NEVER done any adult humor before. Never ever! They certainly didn't debut on fuckin' Saturday Night Live. And the very first episode of the original Muppet Show certainly wasn't titled "Sex and Violence".

And this following video is certainly NOT about Miss Piggy blatantly trying to date-rape Rudolph Nureyev in a sauna:

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My problem isn't the "adult" part of the humor, it's the world-weary cynicism. The old stuff has moments of that, but the overall mood always felt more cheerful and whimsical than this series.  "Perfectly acceptable television" is a good description, it's not bad but feels like it should be more.

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Is the new show really that cynical?  I'm not sure cynical is a word I would use to describe it.  Also, I feel like embracing self-deprecation has always been a part of the Muppets' charm.  Fozzie Bear's whole gimmick is basically that he's a bear who is a terrible comedian.

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It is oddly low-key compared to most Muppet properties. I do wish that the show's visual and narrative style wasn't such an obvious ripoff of The Office and every other "a documentary crew is filming these characters, and that's the show we're watching" mockumentary franchise out there. Especially since they completely break that style at times, with certain shots and scenes (like Fozzy jumping for the food-bag in the tree) which the theoretical crew never could've actually filmed.

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Sure. It's the Superman's Glasses rule. It's easier to buy a huge lie which is necessary to sell the entire story (these puppets are actually living beings that are fully integrated in human society; or, there's an alien from a distant planet who has superpowers that break every law of physics, plus he happens to look exactly like a human from Earth) than it is to buy one small moment of discontinuity that seems out of place in the overall story (the camera crew is suddenly standing in places where they couldn't possibly be standing; or, nobody recognizes this super-alien whenever he puts on a pair of glasses).

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"An eagle-eyed viewer might be able to see the wires. A pedant, might be able to see the wires. But I think if you're looking at the wires you're ignoring the story. If you go to a puppet show you can see the wires. But it's about the puppets, it's not about the string. If you go to a Punch And Judy show and you're only watching the wires, you're a freak." - Dean Lerner

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My problem isn't the "adult" part of the humor, it's the world-weary cynicism. The old stuff has moments of that, but the overall mood always felt more cheerful and whimsical than this series.  "Perfectly acceptable television" is a good description, it's not bad but feels like it should be more.

 

Yep.  I've probably said this ad nauseam at this point, but it seems like they took out the sense of joy/wonder and replaced it with cynicism.  Don't get me wrong, I watch it, because it is the Muppets, but at the same time, I expect more from the Muppets that merely being "perfectly acceptable television."  All that said, it is early and there is plenty of time to course correct if they need to.  Lots of good shows didn't hit their stride until season 2, including a lot of shows that inspired this, including Parks & Rec, the Office, and 30 Rock.

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I think the main reason why I have not and will not watch this show is because I can literally see the conversation the ABC execs had.

"We need a new hit. Modern Family was a hit. Let's find another Modern Family"

"Well we have nothing for The muppets. Let's do The muppets but like Modern Family."

"Brilliant. Sam, fetch me my vaporizer. We are gonna get high as shit."

I may be exaggerating a little, but you know what this show was all about. Companies are always looking for the Next "X" instead of the First "Y"

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