I think we have to come to terms with the fact that won't have a critically successful Muppet production again unless it's sickeningly sweet, all of the Muppets are nice to each other, and they sing Rainbow Connection and Mahna Mahna. Sorry, everybody. The Muppets apparently aren't allowed to experiment and *gasp* develop the characters in new ways. Nononono, the Muppets should be doomed to repeat everything that they're done from a show that premiered 40 years ago.
We've all the seen the headlines of those cheeky articles written by people with an over inflated sense of self worth. "When I turned on "The Muppets", Kermit wasn't sitting on a log and strumming his banjo. What the heck?" or "The Muppets isn't anything like the Muppet Show. Where's all muh nostalgia? I can't come to terms with change" or, even better "Why "The Muppets" sucks despite the fact that I stopped watching after the first episode".
I've said it so many times before, but seriously *&%^$ Nostalgia. Look at how nostalgia fans act like spoiled little children when they bring back something they grew up with that
somehow was so important to them that the slightest change is worthy of sending death threats to the crew. And even when everything's
exactly the freaking same they can't be happy because now things are either
not exactly the same (but are, totally are) or too the same and offering nothing different. I'm not talking about the fan fic writers who get up in arms when characters are interpreted slightly different than their fan fic interpretations who then hypocritically turn on
their critics for interpreting things differently (is this a specific burn? No...probably no).
I can agree there was a problem with the format and the writers trying to go for a feel that was more grounded (not realistic, but not arm flailingly wacky either). The show did need a little more wackiness and a little more song and dance, and we got that
three episodes in. The show was slowly and naturally growing and turning into a show that had a good compromise between mockumentary and Muppet. But by then, the instant gratification culture of casual nostalgia Muppet fandom set in and they refused to give the show a second chance. You know what? When IDW relaunched the TMNT, I was incredibly dissatisfied with the first issue. I thought,
hey I'll give this
one more shot and found all the weird set ups from the first issue started to be rewarding, and overall vast improvement on their part
and context on mine. I have every issue, maybe not all the mini series, but I went nuts tracking some issues down.
I've ranted about this with the new Powerpuff Girls "reboot" (screw that! It's a long awaited seventh season). Everything I hear about how incredibly terrible about it falls on deaf ears for me. Not just the fact the show is not that bad (just not as good as the chunk of seasons 2-early 5 to be generous when the show hit its stride), but it's the
least awful reboot I've ever seen. Keep in mind, I saw George of the Jungle turned into a spazzy doofus devoid of any humor, Pink Panther having talentless sons with stock 1980's kid's cartoon tropes as friends, and of course the dreaded Yo Yogi. Yo Yogi is a project so bad, even the poorly cast, absolutely pointless, sloppily slapped together, snoozefest of a live action movie was
still a huge improvement. I even got on an argument with some little twerp on DA about how they thought that Lola Bunny on The Looney Tunes Show was a travesty to the personality devoid, cynically thrown in by the studio, token girl appeal character introduced in Space Jam.
Actually, if there's anything that
really honks me off, it's the fact that the same nostalgia that refuses to see the Muppets try something completely different (you know, because doing what they normally do worked so well for MMW) actually
wants a doggone Space Jam 2! That's the power of nostalgia. A film drastically hated by the Looney Tunes fan community....who come to think of it hates everything done after the 50's, and there's even a segment that despises Chuck Jones for what he did to Daffy. But a film adored by 90's children...
ironically!!!!