My last 2 posts have been positive ones so I think you're trying flame an old post even after the subject has advanced because I have a different point of view , but I won't go down that road.
Muppet Central is a place for fans of all ages and not just a promotional tool to cheerlead all projects. There's a lot about this recent project I like and have voiced. Dissecting projects and voicing opinions are what this forum is all about, but personal attacks are not okay. Constructive criticism of an idea, program or character is not criticism of you, a performer or the Muppets in general and I've gone to great lengths to make that distinction. Please use the "ignore-member" feature instead of trying to single-out or censor posts that you disagree with that do follow forum guidelines.
Agreed. I don't want to pick on other members, but Duke and Mupp have been taking every little thing a bit too seriously. I understand there's some troll on some general movie site that gets them angry (we should sympathies, since said troll popped up on the site and belittled everyone on 3 separate occasions, going as far as keeping multiple accounts after the member was banned... the biggest no no in internet forums).... but this is CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. We're not belittling what you guys like, we're saying what personal things seem to be awkward. Every project has one.
There are a bunch of things that just don't mesh with this project, and I do appreciate what it is, and it seems like there's been mark improvement in the last 2 episodes... possibly because they wrote and filmed all at once, so things have to evolve further over time. Look at Muppets Tonight. The writers didn't know what direction they wanted to go in until it got canceled in the second season. Sometimes you know what you're doing right off the bat, sometimes it takes a while. There are clear and obvious reasons they went with a new chef character. They probably spent a lot of time structuring this show, and trying to figure out if going with a new character or an old one would work better. Maybe that's why it took some time to get out.
But for me, there are three things that I've had problems with...
1) The Cooking with Cat angle. FIXED: She seems to be a lot looser and more open to wackiness now. I agree the acting is not a strong suit, but I actually didn't expect that. And you gotta admit, She's MUCH better than Ashanti.
2) Angelo. FIXED or in the process of fixing: When a new character is added to anything, show, movie... whatever, there is ALWAYS an awkward period. How will they fit in with the others, will he seem organically there, will it seem like he was added for a certain focus group. How long will they last if they don't last at all. And most importantly, what is the character's personality? It seems like Tyler and the writers are trying to find a voice to make him a little more than the assistant that just asks dumb questions and makes bad jokes (again, a cooking show standby. I've seen it too many times on bad cooking shows) And I think he's starting to develop. Just... this isn't a medium I think he could develop in. I'll say this... I like him better than the two little kids (forget their names) from the Play Allong videos.
3) The site itself FIXED and DOUBLE FIXED: I can actually see the second parts of the episodes now.
Of course, here's what I like and want to see more of
1) The middle cutaway segments. Frankenfurterstein? The Snooggy? This is the highest Muppety content in the show. I almost want to see 2 in every episode.
2) Catastrophy. Unfortunately, there hasn't been enough of this. Just the exploding giant sandwich. We need more Muppets to throw the food around, or even eat up all the ingredients. I'D LOVE to see a monster in an episode just eating everything up when they mention it, leading to the "we already had something prepared." Come on... can't you see Big Mean Carl doing that?
3) Beau's return. Nuff said.
Overall, the only thing I think it's really lacking is more Muppets in the main program. I like when a bunch of rats are running around in the background, and at least want to see more of that. There is chaos, but not really enough, even for an instructional video series. Though I will say I love it a LOT more than the playalong videos from the 80's. I would say don't bother with them, but I think every Muppet fan needs to track down the "Wow! You're a cartoonist!" video somewhere if nothing else to see Carol Spinney performing his OWN characters and drawing at the same time.
You're as funny as Fozzie Bear, however... don't bother.