Muppets Now review – Disney+ reboot boasts wit, warmth and charm
For anyone lucky enough to have grown up with the original Muppets – arising from the collaborations of Jim Henson and Frank Oz who had great chemistry as a creative partnership and gathered round them a true company of like-minded souls – the iterations that have come since have been … lesser. Not necessarily bad but, even at their best, still unable to recapture that lightning in a bottle that so illuminated the 70s and 80s for children. And, of course, their parents, for the Muppets (and even Sesame Street) were an intergenerational joy.
It is immensely cheering to report, then – possibly even worthy of a small burst of Kermitty arm-waving enthusiasm – that new streaming service Disney+ has come splendidly close to reproducing the magic, with Muppets Now.
It’s the variety show of yore, but – and stay with me here – rebooted for the digital age. Erstwhile stage manager Scooter now clicks and drags files on a computer screen to bring the magic of the show to life via – yes, a streaming service – while dealing with torrents of text messages from disgruntled performers, incomprehensible emails from the Swedish Chef, notes from Kermit (still the producer but also doing serious interviews in Mup Close and Personal, and the subject of one Masterpiece Theatre spoof Muppet Masters) and voicemail pitches from the everenthusiastic Fozzie Bear. His cookerydating show Romaine-tic Evenings, I think, is a palpable hit-in-waiting.
The Swedish Chef is now paired with a different celebrity every week in Okey Dokey Kookin. He has human hands this time round, which is disconcerting, but apart from that everything is as it should be. “Swedish” writing has been added too, in the ingredient labels that appear on screen. I hope that in subscribing homes across the land the word pineapple will soon be wholly replaced by “de spikey froot” and popcorn ever after be known as “de poppity korn”. Hyperactive Pepe the King Prawn has his own game show (“Where are you from?” he asks. “Dallas, Texas,” says the contestant. “And why?” says Pepe), whose rules he promptly abandons in order to extemporise. Beaker is in danger of being replaced as Dr Honeydew’s assistant in the Muppet Labs by Beak-R, an Alexa-like contraption with a will to power. But Beaker has her number. No spoilers, but Honeydew’s exhortation “Let’s stop learning and start burning!” is put to good, Beaker 1.0-preserving, use.
Miss Piggy is – but of course – now an influencer (“Hashtag SendMeMakeUp”, she tags her Instagram stories). Her online lifestyle videos are overseen by a sardonic wardrobe and PR man, her exercise segments are done with Taye Diggs, for whom she has much time, and the fashion section with Linda Cardellini, for whom she has less. “Can a dandelion,” she asks Cardellini sweetly as they discuss their sartorial tastes, “become a rose?”
It’s got wit, warmth and charm in abundance, and although it includes adults in its fun it doesn’t cater to them, as so many children’s programmes – especially in rebooted form – fall into the trap of doing, by letting an underlying cynicism intrude. Not all the segments work all the time but it doesn’t matter. There will be another one along in a minute and there are always enough jokes to keep you going. Muppets Now has the good, pure, funny heart of the Muppets Then and that is phenomenon enough.