Muppets Now: What the Must Watch reviewers think

Wednesday 5 August 2020, 11:26

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Every week, the Must Watch podcasters review the biggest TV and streaming shows.

This week, Hayley Campbell and Scott Bryan share their thoughts on Muppets Now.

The gang are back together in a new reboot for Disney+.

Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below...

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(Photo: Disney+)

Scott says: “It feels so clunky"

"I'm a huge Muppets fan. I absolutely adored the movie that came out in 2011 that relaunched it after Disney bought it. Then it felt like Disney didn't know what to do with The Muppets. They were focusing very much on Star Wars and Marvel and their huge brands.

"I think I was starting to worry it was losing its relevancy, with the new generation coming in. So I think if they didn't do something now, they were probably just going to go. In a way, I applaud the fact that they've given them the 1970s sketch show feel like they used to do.

"What The Muppets did back in the 1970s was a parody of The Tonight Show, the big talk shows, mixing in chat and A list cameos with a lot of chaos. Now they're doing spoofs of vlogs and internet culture. I get that they have to do that. Miss Piggy does her own beauty vlog channel called Lifesty. You've got Kermit doing photography stuff, you've got a food cooking channel with the Swedish chef. You get what they're going for, but it feels so clunky.

"The main thing I get frustrated about is that I don't necessarily know who this is aimed at. The thing that makes The Muppets great is that it had slight chaos for the kids making it anarchic, but real emotional punches with wry side-eye or satirical laughs for the parents. In this series, there’s an army of stars that feel only relevant to 11-year-olds. I thought, ‘ OK, it's purely a kids' show and nothing for the adults, fine'. But then RuPaul turns up and there's lots of Drag Race references. That's clearly for the adults - Drag Race is a great show, but it's not aimed at kids.

"I'm a bit confused what it is trying to do and who it is for, and that is why I think it doesn't really work."

(Photo: Disney+)

Hayley says: “Muppets don't need to be modernised. They were never modern"

"There's a whole saga about Kermit's voice. They fired Steve Whitmire a couple of years ago, he's the man that's voiced Kermit since the death of Jim Henson. The Henson family and Disney allege that he was hard to work with and threw his weight around. He disputes this and said he was fired unfairly.

"So that's the first thing that people are going to notice, the voice change. People didn't like the voice change when it went from Henson to Whitmire decades ago - if you look on YouTube, there are videos of fans comparing the two and arguing in the comments. Muppets people don't like changes. But this is a bad change.

"They've tried to make it relevant by integrating new technology into it with Zoom, YouTube and Instagram - and it jars. Muppets don't need to be modernised. They were never modern. The Muppet Show did vaudeville in the 1970s which was already old-fashioned by that point. It's never been a contemporary show. I think kids will understand what it means intrinsically, in the same way they can understand Asterix even if they're not from the Roman era. No kid ever said they didn't understand A Muppets Christmas Carol because they're not from Dickensian London.

"I don't think The Muppets need to be updated the way they are here. Watching The Muppets as a kid, you were invited into their mad, anarchic world. In this reboot, they're awkwardly elbowing their way into our world. It feels like they're coming to our party, when we're used to going to theirs."