Give them time. What they have done is give the distinct impression they can't tell the difference.
I'll say this again for the billionth time.
If there's a subtle nuance that this show hasn't managed to capture, it's something that's been gone for years. I wouldn't doubt that hypothetical scene you mentioned could fit into MT or VMX with no problem. The humor could be
way harsher and was in certain newer projects.
Yet, you look at LTS, and there's so much darn treacle. I'd rather see some rough humor here and there than full on syrup. We can't go around saying we want an edgier Muppet project and then freak the beak out when it is. Still, this seems a matter of taste more than anything else.
Maybe I watch way too many adult cartoons for the sake of giving everything a chance, but when it comes to things like Family Guy, Robot Chicken, and that painfully unfunny piece of garbage Mr. Pickles, those are writers that tend to push the unfunnier, louder, and easier jokes as much as possible (so much so in Mr. Pickles it
destroys an otherwise good concept) that anything even slightly less than that feels like refreshing nuance. That's why I like shows like Bob's Burgers and Rick and Morty better. They have their share of rough jokes from time to time, but it's tempered with delicate details and (in Rick and Morty's case) deep plotlines. I can take a couple off jokes in this series because instead of fawning over celebrities (which gets painfully awkward when the celebrities don't want to be there or just suck overall), they're building character. Maybe slowly with one character at a time. I would have
loved to have seen a Fozzie and Kermit plot this character driven in a previous Muppet installment.
I think it's that comparative context again. Are we comparing this new series to a 3-4 decades old series or are we comparing it to its contemporaries? I don't even bother comparing any new Muppet project to the older ones. But, as a current sitcom, it's one of the better shows out there. I really like ABC's Tuesday and Wednesday sitcoms. They're much better than the poorly written "family" drivel they had a decade ago. CBS sitcoms are a very mixed bag, and even the better ones there are showing signs of "should have been cancelled" (seriously. **&^% them for getting rid of The Millers because their
pwescious Scorpion show wasn't getting potential ratings and double *&^%$ for putting Sean Hayes in there when you had a perfectly good J.B. Smoov!). NBC...that's a joke. There's no NBC sitcoms.