Due Date

I was so excited when I found out that there was to be a new Muppets show. Then we got this horrible dreck. Who the heck thought this waste of money and production time was going to be entertaining? Certainly not anyone the same age as most of the Muppets' core fans, who are at least middle-aged at this point, and many older. Yet this first episode played like the most frenzied, low-budget Saturday morning show for the littlest of kids -- all zoomy, multi-colored fast frames with no plot or substance, and way too much yelling. Burn this pathetic garbage now before it contaminates our great memories of a great franchise. Just replay the classic previous shows. In addition, Kermit's voice is unrecognizable and should never have been accepted for this show -- it calls even more attention to how hideous this new production is.

From the company that brought you the worst star Wars sequels and a ton of bad real life remakes from their once so wonderful animation movies we present you Muppets Now. I hold the Muppets neer and dear to my hart so I was looking forward to see something fun and new on the lackluster Disney+ service and what we got was an almost 23 minuted disappointment. A Chinese knock off with no knowledge about why the Muppets where so amazing. Let me start with the positives, the Muppets look excellent. And there it ends. Sure they couldn't get the original voices but it sounded like they didn't even try to find voices that would come close. The writing is bad and misses both the sharpness and humor the Muppets are known for. Due to that, the characters are loosing their characteristics. Kermit is never in control where we know him to stay a leader even when everything goes wrong. Miss Piggy is only narcissistic and doesn't court Kermit or the guests. The list goes on and on with one dimensional characters who once had much more balance to them. The clips are painful unfunny to watch, the (camera) direction is rough and the whole thing is painful to watch. Even the guests rolle their eyes. It sounded like their role was improvised but non of the Muppets picked them up and let them shine. Just like Star Wars the Disney company doesn't understand the ip they bought and it shows in every single frame.

I understand the original voices are old or gone. But the magic that was the Muppets is also gone. Not sure what they are trying to do. The humor was lame. It had no edge. It was forced. Sometimes Disney needs to let things just be done in reruns. I lasted 15 minutes into it.

Kermit's new voice sounds off. It should get ironed out eventually, but it is VERY noticeable even to casual Muppet fans.

Scooter on his computer as the segue between skits is boring. There's little interaction between characters outside of the skits.

There should be two guest stars max per episode. It felt crowded and the guests didn't really get too much time to shine. RuPaul was amazing though.

I miss the performance pieces and songs of the older shows. They did a good job of letting you catch your breath in between skits and many verged on being art performances. I honestly think this is the biggest thing that has been missing the past few series.

My favorite skit was the one about Kermit photobombing. I prefer fast paced slapstick humor when it comes to my Muppets and this skit does it well. I hope there are more in this vein coming up.

It is fairly middle of the road. It doesn't really do anything different or better than what has come before. The rest of the season may get better, but as of right now it's just "okay".

Disney has done JACK with the Muppets in 20 years so I'm inclined to give them props for finally doing something with them. The formula of the show has the potential to properly present pure Muppet mayhem as it was in the 70s. That's my only compliment for this abysmal episode. It is without substance, painfully unfunny, and drags on to nauseam. That shouldn't be possible with the Muppets, yet this is the result Disney gives us once again. There is one part I laughed at. One part, so subtle it could've been missed if you turned your head for a second. The Muppets aren't subtle. They're BOMBASTIC. They're CHAOTIC. They're ANYTHING BUT THIS. I'm hardly motivated to watch the next episode, but I really hope the season improves, lest this be the last time we see the Muppets for another 20 years.