'The Muppets' Is Back, With A Much Better New Show

When The Muppets returns on Tuesday night, you’ll probably notice a change in tone from the show that premiered in the fall. At once lighter, more new-media-savvy, yet mindful of the old Muppet Show traditions, it marks a definite improvement in the revitalization of these beloved characters.

The first of the re-booted-season episodes finds the Up Late with Miss Piggy crew facing a new enemy — a network-approved advisor brought in to revamp the show and make it more “relevant.” He’s a slick smuggie named Pizza — that’s pronounced (PA-chay) — and played by non-Muppet human Utkarsh Ambudkar (The Mindy Project).

The character is there to unite the Muppets, who spent too much of the earlier part of the season squabbling among themselves, and also to comment on what many critics and viewers thought was the new Muppets’ biggest flaw: its frantic attempt to make the beloved characters hipper for a 2015-16 audience.
You don’t have to know that this week’s new, funny episode — guest stars Key and Peele are a riot — is the first one overseen by new showrunner Kristin Newman (Galavant), but it helps to explain the clever shift in tone.

The much-publicized romantic break-up of Kermit and Miss Piggy is softened here — the show now acknowledges what we all knew: that, deep down, they are made for each other. And any producer with the musical smarts to have that duo sing the great John Prine song “In Spite of Ourselves” is well on the way to making this series a delight. It’s no wonder Stephen Colbert had Kermit on his show Monday night to “think big thoughts.”

Next week’s show revolves around a Miss Piggy wardrobe malfunction (SPOILER ALERT!) involving her curly tail, a part of the Piggy anatomy that I’m not sure has ever been shown before. Certainly it causes concern from the show’s fictional network president, and escalates to an alarming instance of tail-shaming that is addressed in a touching, shot in black-and-white PSA with the hashtag #UnveilTheTail.

The new Muppet episodes are an improvement on every level. Not only are the jokes warmer and funnier, but there’s even a fresh visual style: The Muppets are shot in a subtly different way, with the camera placed lower and closer, framing them in two-shot close-ups that add a degree of intimacy and, dare I suggest it, verisimilitude.

Now the topical jokes (like the protests by the “One Million Angry Parents Association”) and the guest cameos (Ian Ziering surfaces in a pool, surrounded by Muppets who’ve made jokes about Sharknado) serve the plot rather than simply being tossed in there to make Kermit and company sound cool.
Because the Muppets aren’t cool — they’re our friends. Our jaunty, braggy, neurotic, lovable friends. This is as it should be.

The Muppets airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. on ABC.