Pre-flight calzones need to be a thing!
By Matt Fowler
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
The Muppets closed out their first season with two connected episodes that worked to bring Piggy and Kermit back together. As if to massively course correct the entire premise/hook of this new Muppets reboot-quel that so many fans objected to back in September. Basically, the fact that these two were no longer a couple.
A twist that was coddled because it felt more “modern.” And edgy. The back half of the season, however, basically vilified that “2016 update” mindset by creating he character of Utkarsh Ambudkar’s “Pizza” – a brand expert who meta-represented all the needless tinkering that went into bringing these characters back to TV in the first place.
Okay, so Kermit and Piggy didn’t fully become a couple here. We got a cliffhanger. Because…well, I don’t know. Reasons. But there it was. Piggy passed out from Ambien and never gave Kermit her answer. And now they’re on a flight to Thailand. Because apparently it was Up Late’s season finale too. Though I’ve never known a late night show to operate on a schedule like that. Plus, didn’t they all just get back from break?
But I’ll applaud the fact that the show didn’t fully make them a couple in the end. It was more or less headed there, but we didn’t get that closure. No, this show did not need to leave things dangling, but since I was rolling my eyes quite a bit during the second episode – the one mostly about Kermit trying to decide whether or not to go after Piggy again – I liked the eleventh hour swerve.
I guess I expected more of a closed resolution at the end because The Muppets is one of ABC’s middle-performers right now. It may not come back. So I assumed we’d get more of an all’s well button-ending. But they clearly want to play with fire, so more power to them.
The first episode, “Generally Inhospitable,” was the stronger of the two. It didn’t focus solely on Kermit and Piggy like the second chapter and it featured a better overall premise. Piggy broke her foot (making everyone in the study sick and woozy – very funny) and wound up hosting Up Late via satellite. And via morphine drip. Plus, the problem of Pizza’s constant intrusion was taken care of by a collection of staffers (including a particularly hungry Carl) and thusly, the arch villain role was squashed.
The second half was ALL about Piggy and Kermit. A way less funny affair. Save for Piggy discovering that Kermit was behind her entire belief that there was such a thing as an in-plane/pre-flight calzone. Oh, and Pepe’s “Team Love” rhetoric (complete with abrasive cologne spray to the face). Speaking of Pepe, his snapdragon impersonation in the first episode was awesome. So, as usual, there were occasional chuckles. And we got a couple musical guests to help add a little bounce to the proceedings. Willie Nelson in the first half, Jack White in the second. White, however, playing more of an active role in the story.
Oh, and I guess I’ll count the “ManaMana” singers as musical guests too.
The Muppets devoted a ton of time to Kermit and Piggy on the way out of Season 1. I’m sure those who were upset that the show had these two broken up at the start of the season were happy to watch them find their way back to one another. But did they care this much? Essentially, the show broke something just so it could fix it.
