SnoopyStyle The Muppets are back but not exactly in the way that everybody remembers them from their childhood. Kermit the Frog is the harried producer of Miss Piggy's late night talk show. The rest of the Muppets are the crew working to put together the show. Fozzie is dating Becky and Kermit may have a new love interest.What could have been? That's what haunts this show right from its inception. Everybody has memories of The Muppets from their childhood. The recent movies are good updates. This is such an obvious TV pitch of a Muppets' copy of 30 Rock that it actually annoyed my sensibilities. Then there is the problem that trying to copy 30 Rock would illicit. Kermit and Miss Piggy can fight but they can't seriously try to manufacture a love triangle. Then there is Fozzie dating a human girl. The humor is too adult which clashes with the innocence of the Muppets. Once the adjustment is made in the expectation, there are some minor laughs but this was doomed from the start.

debster-50293 It's too perverted for children and too childish for adults. Simply terrible! They gave a bad reputation to good characters. The previous version was for the whole family: kids and adults. Poor move to change it. It was actually sickening to watch. We stuck through the whole episode with an open mind hoping we just missed something, but unfortunately we didn't. The whole romantic relationship between humans and muppets, meeting the parents and acting as if it's something normal was just too weird and the extra hard edge on miss piggy, her reputation and character from before was so much better. In this show they jacked her up and it just isn't as smooth. The format of the show appears to be a 'copy' of The Office with characters narrarating in a office setting. Worked for The Office and their characters, but certainly not for The Muppets - not good!

makuribu Yes, I'm a grumpy old troll, but the new show exhibits none of the charm of the original. I get that they are trying for a more grown up feel, but adding sexual innuendo to the Muppets is kind of creepy. I mean, would you really want the cast of Leave it to Beaver to explore the double entendre? And there is an undercurrent of meanness to many of the jokes. The old show would centre around one human guest star, often somebody obscure or forgotten, which was part of the fun. I mean, who the heck is Wally Boag? Nowadays you pull out your iPad and look him up on, say IMDb, while you watch. Back in the day you had to call your dad or grandfather to find out! The new show also has an insider/star worshipper (there's a shorter word I'm not using, for obvious reasons)/name dropper thing which has been done ad nauseum. I don't want The Muppets Meet Entourage! I do like the joke hidden in the name of the fictitious show they all work on.

Rob_Taylor The four episodes I've seen so far are as close to torture as I'm ever likely to come and I have no desire for more.See, I haven't watched the Muppet Show for many, many years, so I reasoned that, with this new show, I would have no real nostalgic bias against it. Boy was I wrong! The Muppets utterly misses the point of what made the Muppet Show good. In an effort to try and make the show more adult-themed, it forgot that the adults that would be watching it are likely all fans of the Muppet Show from years ago. Those fans would have certain expectations. Expectations that, as it turns out, are completely ignored.Now, I like Bill Prady's work, so I think the intent was a good one. But he has clearly missed the mark. As I watched the pseudo-reality show take on the Muppets, all I felt was sadness and depression. The new show, with its Muppets updated and more adult-oriented, is just direly boring to watch. All of the fun has been sucked out of them and what is left are cynical shells of the original characters.Still, I persevered through the first three episodes, struggling to find a root cause for lack of enjoyment. It wasn't until the fourth show, however, that I understood what it was that was so wrong with the new version.See, in episode four, the Muppets goes to a bar and there is a karaoke night going on. The Muppets join in and.......suddenly they were fun again. The simple addition of music and singing totally transformed the dreary behind-the-scenes reality nature of the cast and made them fun once more. Of course, the karaoke was short lived, and likewise so was the fun. Soon enough it was back to the tedium.Intrigued, I got hold of some of the original show episodes and watched one at random. As well as being immediately familiar to my old memories, it was indeed the music that made the show. Very little of the original series was without music of some sort and each episode had several music and dance numbers. Seeing Sylvester Stallone sing and dance "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" with a giant Muppet lion is not to be missed! That, then, is what the new show lacks. Fun. Sure, there are jokes, some adult humour and the occasional smile to be raised. But there is no actual fun in the series.So, apart from missing the point completely, is there anything good about The Muppets? Well, I can honestly see what they thought they were doing. This isn't a remake of the Muppet Show. It's a reboot. Same characters, different script and a totally different feel. However, without the fun element, which was what the Muppets were all about, it is a hollow effort.If you then add in the slightly-off voice work (still very good) and the reality, shaky cam shots, this is like watching a Bluray extra on the making of the Muppets.All they need to do is stop trying so hard. The Muppets could be good, if they add in some more music routines, stop making Kermit such a depressive sad case and remember that fun doesn't have to be edgy.SUMMARY: Totally misses the point of the Muppets. Little singing, little dancing, depressive reality-based nature. No damn fun! Not a good direction to take the Muppets in. Jim Henson is probably spinning in his grave.