Things are busy at the studio this week and Up Late With Miss Piggy is hosting Reece Witherspoon… for better or for worse (obviously for worse). Scooter deals with a car crash… with Rizzo. And Fozzie struggles to balance a relationship with his girlfriend with efforts to become a better comic. This week has three main plot points that end up making for a very enjoyable episode of The Muppets.
Episode Description
Miss Piggy and Reese Witherspoon have a heated rivalry but when the two volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, their feud escalates to a whole new level. Meanwhile, Fozzie and his girlfriend hit a rough patch.
Review
Miss Piggy vs Reece Witherspoon
Miss Piggy is having Reece Witherspoon on Up Late With Miss Piggy. Piggy is jealous of Witherspoon’s Oscar and Kermit warns Witherspoon to not bring it up. She doesn’t but Piggy does. Witherspoon gracefully changes the topic to her work with Habitat for Humanity which leads to Piggy thinking there is a photo op and also an opportunity to one up Witherspoon. Piggy says she is going to a construction site as well and basically plays it so she will be at the same place as Witherspoon. Of course when Miss Piggy shows up the next day and discovers that it is all about work and making a difference and there isn’t any press… she has to sabotage both. In a partial moment of remorse after disastrous results on the work site when they both get aggressive and knock down a huge frame of a house, Miss Piggy decides to have Witherspoon back on her show. Once on the show Witherspoon apologizes. To the shock of Kermit, Miss Piggy does too… with a huge song and dance number. She ends it by saying she wins at the apology and drops the mic. Game over. This was a fun storyline that totally fit the character we know and love(?) of Miss Piggy. Reece Witherspoon was a perfect balance of sweetness to Miss Piggy’s sourness and it really was enjoyable watching them interact.
The Car Crash
Anytime you are in a car crash and the other person (who also happens to be at fault) says he knows a guy… run the other direction… especially if the other person happens to be a rat named Rizzo! This is a lesson that Scooter learned the hard way. After a massive parking lot debacle, Rizzo hits Scooters new car. Rather than dealing with insurance Rizzo says he has a family member that can take care of the car. It’s a shady deal but Scooter is naive and goes along with it. This begins a downward spiral of things not working out and Rizzo offering another solution with another family member with another business card. In the end, Scooter goes to insurance. While this storyline was entirely predictable, it was an enjoyable sub-plot to watching during this episode. It was entirely plausible and was honestly one of the better uses of Rizzo’s character that I’ve seen recently. While you felt bad for Scooter you also wanted to see who/what Rizzo was going to throw at him next.
Fozzie & Becky
Fozzie’s girlfriend Becky appears again this week and once again shows her value to the show. Fozzie clearly isn’t the funniest comic anywhere until he discovers that talking about Becky’s quirks gets laughs. Unfortunately, this also hurts her feelings. Later, Fozzie gets a taste of his own medicine when Becky uses some of his quirks agains him with his friends… which leads to Becky and crew singing True Colors and Fozzie getting overly emotional. This leads to an apparent truce as Fozzie agrees to no longer include Becky in his routine. The next time he performs he bombs… until Becky shouts for him to talk about his girlfriend. It goes great for Fozzie as he does. Afterwards during an interview, Fozzie notices her feet and starts a whole new routine which leads to Becky leaving and the conflict apparently renewed. This was a cute storyline and Becky is quite enjoyable on the show. It was great hearing her sing as well. To me, the biggest thing missing here was Waldorf and Statler. It was odd to have Fozzie doing standup without the heckling. Hopefully this will change in the future.
Final Thoughts
This week’s The Muppets definitely had some humorous moments. It had more of a feel that we are used to with The Muppets. The three main storylines were predictable but enjoyable. For the most part, those characters behaved in a way that one would expect them to. I wasn’t entirely sure what I thought of Kermit as he almost seemed overly dramatic at points. Other points, like the beginning of the show where he was behind the scenes protecting Reece Witherspoon, he seemed more like the Kermit I’m used to.
There were some genuinely funny moments in this episode with a few one liners that made me laugh. It was great seeing Sweetums a little bit more and I would love to see him be a supporting character in some episode. Overall, this was an enjoyable episode that I hope we see more of. One note: I would like to see Miss Piggy move on from just competing with her guests though in the future. I also would like to see Kermit take a more central role…. or just become the new host?
What did you think of this Walk the Swine?
