Kermit too is leaving me a bit cold. Strangely, this is more acceptable to me because it is the negative aspects of his character that I don't like, but it is fleshing out his character - if that makes any sense?? To me, there's no flaws to Kermit. He's the character that gets pushed to his limits but at the end of the day is the moral barometer for the group. To see him be mean(?), name call etc is taking some getting used to but it is a new aspect to his character.
If there's one thing I really hated in some of the first Post-Jim Muppet projects it's that Kermit was slowly becoming a Stepford Smiler which came to an obnoxious head in MFS where (and the trillionth time I said this) he could have been completely taken out of the movie and it still wouldn't have changed. There were a couple classically Kermit moments in some episodes of MT, but to me, real Kermit didn't return until VMX. It vanished again with the...ahem...
next project, only to see some interesting choices in TM and MMW.
I appreciate that they're trying to play the character different here. I like the idea of him being a nervous wreck, beaten down by years of having to deal with crazies and Piggy, all the while juggling feelings of working with someone who meant so much to him. It's the same way I appreciated how he was portrayed in TM, that he can't possibly keep up the Happy Go Lucky when he's feeling hopeless.
As with Piggy, it's pretty obvious that no matter
what the show or the project, they're just going to hammer home the "she's a diva" oversimplification. I mean, her signature song somehow turned into "Santa Baby" in the past 10 years. Singing it in one special is one thing, but it's on the soundtrack, another special... a
toy sang it. A Miss Piggy toy sang the darn thing. But I appreciate that they're
doing something with it here. I don't see any other Muppet programming choice doing anything but just flopping about with the same Piggy schtick. I'd just see the worst of the Reese Witherspoon episode without the brilliant payoff. All played painfully straight. I don't blame the performer for that, it just seems that the writers (even the ones that "get" them)
think that's what the public wants.
My issue with the show is, they're clearly building something up, but like most modern shows they had the difficult balancing act of not playing things out too quickly that you run out of tension and plot well before the season (and by extension, the ideas) concludes and not dragging things out so frustratingly slow that the audience ceases caring. Funny thing considering some of ABC's failed sitcoms. The Baseball series? Are we going to have the characters win early and thus risk losing their underdog status, or are they going to continuously lose for seasons to come? Super Fun Night? Were they going to come out of their shells early on in the series and risk the awkwardness that made the characters the way they were, or would they all suffer massive setbacks every weak, thus being repetitive? Selfie? Would the woman continue to be self centered and be repetitive, or would she be refined too soon? Those shows were all canned after one short season, and it became painfully obvious those shows would have worked
better as films. Then you have something like Heroes that depleted its concept midway through season 2, and that just couldn't get back to what was so special about season 1 to the point it was a joke by season 4.
That's the problem with the show right there. No doubt Piggy and Kermit are the way they are due to major character arcs that will have a satisfying payoff. Problem is, if that pay off comes too soon or too late, the show falls apart. We know that they're going to get back together at some point. That's how storytelling goes. There are hints here and there that they knew the break up was a mistake, and both of them are acting out as simple transference. And I think that if they let enough continuity creep back in (we had some last episode) the show will feel a bit sturdier. It's a delicate balance and we're only about 5 episodes in. They seem to be trying to make the show continuity heavy
yet episodic and they just don't have the perfect balance yet. At least we know there's 11 more episodes to get it right, and maybe if they find it soon enough, it'll get a renewal.
Other than that, my other issue is that they're trying to get too much into the series, and sometimes the A or B plot suffers due to not being fleshed out at the expense of a short C plot. There's too many characters to play with in this format, even with a streamlined cast. Plus, the nature of the show sees Piggy and Kermit being the focus A plot of the episode 4/5ths of the time (the only other time was the Fozzie writing plot line). I'd love to see other characters get the A-Plot, Maybe get Gonzo to be a little more Gonzo-y if he gets some more screen time. Have more of the story take place completely outside of the show and work setting. Those outside stories are the one thing I think this show actually has over the other Muppet TV shows (though, not for the lack of trying on MT's part, but it came too late for them). I really like this show and I think it has a lot of potential, it's just hard to catch that potential 5 episodes in of anything.
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