Ode to Joy.
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
ABC’s update of The Muppets has…been rebooted!
Sort of. Not fully, but most everyone knew, heading into “Swine Song,” about executive producer Bob Mushell’s departure and Galavant’s Kristen Newman being brought in to replace him as co-showrunner. To inject a bit more joy into the show. And if you didn’t, now you do. So with the new year comes a bit of tweaking for The Muppets, on a rather “meta” episode that was all about rejiggering the format.
Was “Swine Song” vastly different? Not entirely, but I will start here by pointing out the biggest switch for me. Now, it was either in a written IGN review or over on our IGN TV podcast that I complained about the opening credits. And how Kermit’s depressed, defeated sigh of “It’s time to get things started” spoke volumes about the new series being just a sour workplace comedy that used The Muppets as fill-ins, rather than The Muppet characters themselves being the inspiration for the creative charge.
And – bam! – first big switch out of the gate was the way Kermit says that line. Now he’s happy. He wants to get things started. And Piggy even hand-delivers him a latte.
So then how was “Swine Song?” Well, it was good. Again, not an amazing recovery or an instant fix, but it did the job. And as a way of commenting on the show makeover from within, the story involved Kermit and Piggy having to deal with a branding guru named Pizza (pronounced “Pa-chay”) and his ideas to turn show into a social relevant/viral/tweet-worthy monstrosity with no soul. Perhaps a comment on what this series started out as back in September.
Key and Peele also popped in, as destitute versions of their canceled (Shadoink’d!) show selves – funny, desperate representations of those who attempted to go against the network grain and paid the ultimate price. Now struggling to get a hand-stitched oven mitt business off the ground.
And while the episode still leaned into the Kermit/Piggy/Denise love triangle, it effectively ended the Denise part. So while inter-Muppetory dating isn’t leaving the show completely, Denise might be. As that aspect of the new show seemed to rub a lot of Muppet fans the wrong way right out of the gate. Piggy and Kermit aren’t back together (yet), but for now – on the show – Kermit’s dating no one. Again, big shift.
So what did Kermit decide to do in order to update the show-within-a-show? Well, he decided to make it a family affair. Bringing in all the Muppet players as on-screen talent. From writers like Pepe to stage managers like Bobo. Which is interesting, because it’s not like most other real late night shows now.
The clincher here too, after Pizza tried to sabotage things, was the “In Spite Of Ourselves” duet between Piggy and Kermit. The moment that made Denise feel like she would never be able to compete with their chemistry.
There were a handful of other amusing and charming moments as well. Firstly, Piggy’s penguin, Gloria Estefan, was wonderful. As was Deadly, though I always love Deadly. Deadly PLUS Gloria Estefan though? Amazing. Also, other little moments were fun – like Big Mean Carl’s “I’m the youngest of nine!” line, Fozzie not being able to make a sound with his mouth, and Animal thinking his muffin was an iPhone.
“Swine Song” many have been a bit on-the-nose regarding the show makeover. Kermit even said, at one point, that bringing all the Muppets into the mix would add more joy to the series. Which was one of the buzz phrases/rhetoric pieces used in all the stories about the changeup. But, overall, there was a noticeable shift toward the better. If they can just keep everyone from being overworked and miserable, that’d be a huge leap in its own right.
