Muppets Now Lands on Disney Plus – Wocka Wocka or Not?

The Muppets are back and I’ve seen the new show, Muppets Now! But do the Muppets still fit in 2020? Apologies in advance if that seems like too philosophical a question for the latest series featuring our felt friends who have been entertaining and educating us for more than 50 years. But given Disney’s recent struggles with the franchise, I know many of you are wondering if this one is a hit or a miss. 

When a familiar character or intellectual property is revived, it’s always worth wondering whether it’s just a blatant cash-in or if an intellectual property still has something to offer current audiences. The last time Disney showcased the Muppets was the short-lived 2015 ABC series The Muppets, which didn’t showcase the beloved characters in a way that resonated with the audience. 

So, does Muppets Now comfortably fit with what the Muppets truly are, or is it another strained attempt to shoehorn the Muppets into a modern construct?

The answer turns out to be a resounding “a little bit of both.” Fittingly for our time, Muppets Now turns each 22-minute episode into a series of videos uploaded online, as though many of the characters had their own dedicated YouTube channels – with Scooter serving as the de facto producer.

Miss Piggy, for example, hosts a lifestyle vlog with tips on self-care, relationships and such; the Swedish Chef goes into cooking battle with various celebrity chefs on “Okey Dokey Kookin;” and Professor Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker go full Bill Nye the Science Guy with humorous “Muppet Labs Field Test” segments dedicated to actual scientific principles including velocity, sound and fire.

Muppets A La Carte

On one level, the premise works by re-visiting a lot of what was so appealing about the original Muppet Show. Rather than attempting to develop a plot of any kind, Muppets Now opts for five-minute sketches that often allow the characters to do what they do best without overstaying their welcome.

Some of them even manage to capture the anarchic silliness of the vintage Muppet Show—most appealingly in the “Unbelievable Game Show” hosted by Pepe the Prawn, where he basically makes up the competition as he goes along, whether that means asking contestants to put on makeup or engage in a staring contest.

Cue the Celebrities

There are celebrity guest stars as well, and while they’re often reduced to incredulous reaction takes on what’s going on around them—Aubrey Plaza seems particularly lost in the bit where she’s interviewed by Miss Piggy—they generally carry on the tradition of stars gamely willing to play straight-man (or -woman) to their Muppet hosts.

Updating the Format With The Style of Digital Media

It’s also true that Muppets Now feels a little like a needy attempt to seem hip to 21st-century youngsters by mimicking the style of YouTube videos. The editing is often frantic and busy, cutting to quick reaction shots rather than giving gags a chance to breathe.

The cooking segments get particularly frustrating, somehow attempting to be both variations on the old-school pun-filled bits where the Swedish Chef flails at making something, and demonstrations by the celebrity guests making an actual recipe.

Plenty of previous Muppet features and TV appearances kept the jokes coming at a rapid pace, but this feels like the producers think those watching the Muppets have too short an attention span to keep up.

Looking At The Past To Define The Present

Perhaps inevitably, the Muppets of 2020 are going to seem a bit off in all the ways that they’re least like the original incarnation. In this case, Kermit and Fozzie seem to be inexplicably sidelined. There are parts of Muppets Now that work well, but it still feels like the current Muppet creative team is trying too hard to figure out how to keep the old magic alive.

In the Muppets’ heyday during the 1970s and 1980s, Jim Henson’s mischievous spirit made their sensibility a unique mix of witty and corny. Muppets Now finds bits and flashes of that spirit, while never quite overcoming the sense that these characters are still searching for relevance to modern audiences.