The Muppets Episode 16 - Because...Love

What did you think of "The Muppets" episode "Because...Love"?

  • Absolutely positively! This episode was great!

  • Bork bork! This episode was good.

  • Mee mee. This episode was so-so.

  • You're all weirdos! This episode was disappointing.


Results are only viewable after voting.

Mad Monty fan

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I hope we get to see Miss Poogy in an episode of the show eventually, as well as Blind Pew, One-Eyed Jack, Black Dog, and Walleye Pike. It was nice to see Zippity Zap back by the way after years of not being active.
 

Drtooth

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That's good, considering Agent Carter scored the lowest in its series. I'm sure that the Super Tuesday primaries probably hindered both, but they've picked a certainly slow enough moving story for Carter. Which stinks, since the first season was much stronger with its story, and there's always potential for a strong third season anyway. But good news I guess for the Muppets.
 

Pig'sSaysAdios

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That's good, considering Agent Carter scored the lowest in its series. I'm sure that the Super Tuesday primaries probably hindered both, but they've picked a certainly slow enough moving story for Carter. Which stinks, since the first season was much stronger with its story, and there's always potential for a strong third season anyway. But good news I guess for the Muppets.
Yeah,it's sad that audiences are so fickle.
 

Big Bird Fan

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Because... Love. aka Let's bring back almost every Muppet we possibly can (Shame there's no :fanatic: : ( Oh well. You can't have everything.)

I think one thing this show did really well was the Kermit/Piggy relationship. It added some much needed depth inserted of making their relationship one note. The beginning of the episode with Deadly is a great example of that. Being the shipper I am, at first I was a bit miffed that Deadly would ask Piggy if she wants to go through with it all again. But, like Piggy, once I thought about I realized he was right. Piggy shouldn't go back the second Kermit comes calling.

I'm not sure how many young viewers this show has, but Piggy sets a good example to girls in that A. You don't need a man in your life to feel complete and B. Think before you start a relationship or rekindle an old one. If you're not getting what you need from it, don't date the guy. Even though Piggy waffled :hungry: a few times, she stood her ground until the end. I was really proud of her for walking out when "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" started. You need more than a song to win her back Kermit.

And the ending was a great way for the two to begin again. (Except for the annoying cliffhanger.) Kermit showing how he's always cared for Piggy with the calzones and then his great line about how they should get away from everyone and everything and just see what they are. No promise that things will work out was VERY nice to hear. It feels like they're both treating the relationship like mature adults would.

Okay that went on way longer than I intended, but I've loved their relationship my entire life, and I'm just very happy to see it being handled so well. Whether season 2 or a new project is next, THIS is the Kermit/Piggy I want to see. Or at the very least this Piggy needs to stay for good.

Other quick highlights:
  • Seeing so many old Muppets was nice, as others have said.
  • Rowlf finally got some really good screen time. Better late than never. Loved his talk with Kermit and him acting like a dog is always fun.
  • Kermit singing in the car. I can't even begin to imagine how they pull it off, but I'd love to see more of this if there's another season.
  • :confused::eek: So great to see them again doing what they do best. I also loved that huge chart that showed Kermit/Piggy getting back together would mean the show is canceled. Felt like a very meta joke.
  • Rizzo finally gets somewhere with Yolanda. A very unexpected nice surprise.
  • You can buy that version of "You Are the Sunshine of my Life" on iTunes. I really loved that cover so I'm very glad I can listen to it anytime I want now.
  • If this is it for the show, then I want to make a special mention of Uncle Deadly. He went from being a Muppet you barely saw to feeling like one of the main ones. I absolutely LOVE him now, and I really hope some new merchandise gets made of him. And his friendship with Piggy was very sweet. I'll be sad if the show is canceled and we never see it again.

And that's it for who knows how long. It was nice they called this the season finale, but I know this is most likely the end. It's a shame the show couldn't have started in the same tone as the soft reboot. We probably wouldn't be worrying about the show getting renewed if that happened. But I did enjoy it overall, and really like how the show kept improving and went out on a high note. Hopefully the next Muppet project doesn't ignore this completely just because it was pretty much a bomb with the public. There are a lot of good elements that need to stick around.
 

MuppetsRule

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Okay, so see everybody? I'm not the only one who feels like this show could have and should have gone in a different direction. And thank you, finally somebody whoi agrees with me about the mockumentary angle. It doesn't work for television, it just doesn't: movies are okay, such as those old Christopher Guest films and all, but it comes off very awkward on TV and it really takes you out of the story and makes it difficult to try to relate to or even believe in the characters. It's become to TV sitcoms what 3D was to movies for a while: an overused gimmick - once they find something that works (in this case, the mockumentary style of THE OFFICE), then everybody had to jump on board with it - that, or the "narration" style, which is really similar. What's even worse is that there's now an unwritten rule that single camera sitcoms are not allowed to have any sounds of laughter - live or simulated - and this is now something the networks are wanting to apply to their multi-camera sitcoms now too: CBS is going to try to film all of their multi-camera sitcoms without studio audiences or laugh tracks altogether now (which is ironic, because they were the ones who forced M*A*S*H to have a laugh track against the producers' wishes bck in the 70s). Sitcoms without laughter fall flat, they seem so ghastly and awkward, and quite frankly, based on some of the promos for some of these shows, the "jokes" or "gags" are so unfunny you almost can't tell you're watching a comedy . . . matter of fact, I honestly had no idea shows like DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, GLEE, ANGIE TRIBECA, or even that godawful GIRLS were supposed to be comedies, they never came off as funny to me.

I honestly don't see how THE OFFICE became as big a hit as it was: it was such a bland and boring series anyway, but as I said, once it did become a hit, suddenly everybody had to jump on the bandwagon . . . but that always happens in TV, and has for years: once something new and different becomes a raging success, suddenly everybody has to follow suit and try to capture that magic for themselves. In the 60s it was all about the fantasy sitcoms: MISTER ED, THE ADDAMS FAMILY, THE MUNSTERS, BEWITCHED, I DREAM OF JEANNIE, et al; in the 70s, once ALL IN THE FAMILY became a groundbreaking sitcom, soon most sitcoms were trying to become really edgy social commentaries on life; in the 90s, SEINFELD became the goldstandard of sitcom tropes and idioms that are still being used today: multiple storylines per episode (though really, it was M*A*S*H that pioneered that, but SEINFELD is often credited for it), unsympathetic characters that don't learn from their mistakes, reflections of real-life scenarios, and the almost obligatory relationship humor (something people on this very forum have been complaining about on this very show).

And again, although network interference has always been a problem with shows, back in those days it was miniscule compared to today, because networks had more trust in producers and studios in those days to turn out quality - now, there's a much more corporate approach to shows, and the work and the art suffer as a result. Again, supposedly FRIENDS is to blame for that, since that was the first time any sitcom that was actually a production of the network rather than a production company actually became a big success, and since then, networks feel like they can make shows themselves and bring in who they want to rather than letting producers or creators come to them with ideas, pitches, treatments, what have you. As I said, that's one of the problems with this show: rather than having faith in actual Muppet writers and producers to come up with a new show for the Muppets, ABC brought in people from other mainstream sitcoms in an attempt to create a mainstream-esque show for the Muppets to try to appeal to mainstream audiences and achieve mainstream success. This is one of the reasons why many people don't even watch TV anymore, because networks have no clue what people want to actually watch, they're only satisfied with fulfilling their own personal agendas and put out shows they only think people want to watch . . . and networks must be stuck in a rut, because for the last 10-15 years or so, they seem to think all people want to watch on TV are shows with deviant characters who are always getting themselves into reckless, selfish, and irresponisble sexual situations. . . . and to think 60 years ago, you couldn't show anything like that on TV . . . and notice how more and more people (not just myself, though I suppose I'm more vocal about it than others) keep actually begging for more of those kinds of shows today, but we just don't get any of them because networks don't care.

Well, that's all I have to say about that. I'll get off my high horse again.
But the difference between goldenstate5's critique and your critique is that goldenstate5 ACTUALLY WATCHED THE SHOW! and gave it a chance.
 

D'Snowth

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Mmhmm. I can see this is going to be something else that's going to keep being thrown back at me.

The only rebuttal I can offer is that I at least acknowledge this show exists and has at least given the Muppets further exposure, unlike some people who like to pretend certain movies don't even exist because how bad they thought they were.
 

Muppy

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Mmhmm. I can see this is going to be something else that's going to keep being thrown back at me.

The only rebuttal I can offer is that I at least acknowledge this show exists and has at least given the Muppets further exposure, unlike some people who like to pretend certain movies don't even exist because how bad they thought they were.
Don't judge a book by it's cover ... or in this case, don't judge a show by it's style and/or reviews? You should at least watch one episode before you dismiss it entirely. I understand you haven't, but you make it seem like you're never going to watch because it's borrows elements from other shows, that you don't like.
 

Muppet Master

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The ratings were promising, nothing to cheer about but it got a 0.95 and more than 3 million viewers for the first episode and like a 0.82 with 2.5 million viewers for the second episode, this all rounded to a 0.9 demo, so it went up, pretty good considering the competition and no leadin, so it's possible it's renewed as filler, but at least things are looking a little better.
 

Muppet Master

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Sitcoms without laughter fall flat, they seem so ghastly and awkward, and quite frankly, based on some of the promos for some of these shows, the "jokes" or "gags" are so unfunny you almost can't tell you're watching a comedy.
Have you seen any of these laugh track sitcoms recently, Dr. Ken, Last Man Standing, The Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls, those are awful sitcoms that rely on an annoying laugh track cranked up to the highest volume to make it even worse. Those sitcoms may have been good in the past, but now they are really bad. Compare them to quality single camera sitcoms like Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Middle, Galavant all good shows that are hilarous comedies that do not rely on laugh tracks cranked up to maximum volume. Single cam comedies actually develop good characters and have oppurtunity to have heartfelt moments without a laugh track interferring. Now, while laugh track sitcoms worked in the past, these days they rely on unfunny jabs at some other character followed by ten seconds of laughter as if that will make it good.
 
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