Anyhoot, I am far from writing this show off and from the looks of everyone else's comments it seems like its found it's audience. I just feel that there is a whole lot of nostalgic love for the Muppets and the media in general seem to be constantly poised to welcome the Muppets back into the limelight and all I want to see is everyones patience rewarded with the best possible post-Jim Muppets material there is. I think MMW was one of the most enjoyable Muppet productions to date since the world lost Jim Henson and I'd like to see more of the irreverent humour, more anarchic wit and way more absurdity!! Not re-hash material that the fans have seen before, not re-heated jokes, just brand new awesome Muppet material. With the characters they have, the writers already have gold to be mined!!
Hopefully, come September, these trivial concerns will be laid to rest.
Actually, that's a pretty fair reaction to the show. No over the top "They're doing something they never did, except they did that" or "Only Jim does it right, except for MCC because Christmas." I disagree, but not fully. I enjoyed it more than you did, but maybe I'm thinking in terms of this being a pilot and everything being a little establish-y and playing to the execs to show them they can be hip. We can only wonder until September how much of this pilot translates into a series. The Piggy not wanting to do the show this does seem a little too close to her role in TM, I must admit. Seems like that would play again in the first episode, unless the writers feel that now that the public saw the pilot and they can just go on from there.
I don't mind the soon to be dated references much, but I hope they're not that integral as a fixture. Certainly a lot less dated and hip than certain other Muppet productions prior. I doubt this is going to be anything close to timeless, but it's tough to pick out a Muppet production that's not a project of its time. Maybe MCC and MTI to an extent if you ignore some of the end credits music (it's so 90's). I'd say the reference to Uber is kinda unnecessary, but TMZ is
unfortunately not going away anytime soon. Other than that, I like the style and tone and they had some strong concepts in this series I can't wait to see play out with more depth. Plus, I kinda hope come series proper there's a little more 30 Rock-ness to it. Maybe a soundtrack and a little more exaggeration?
Though I agree with the title. Yeah. The Office ended years ago, and I know minimalism is the new thing (all kid's movie posters look exactly the same with the same fershluggener white backdrop), but it only barely works with a tie in to being their name on a script. Even then, it's a typewriter looking font that's like it's trying to be retro, but not. I dunno.