The midseason finale is a time of togetherness.
What They Say:
Episode 1.10: “Single All the Way”
The gang is preparing for the annual “Up Late” live Christmas special with, special guest Mindy Kaling. Animal is in charge of tinsel, Sweetums hangs the lights, Sam Eagle strategically places the mistletoe – everything is in order. Or so it seems. Meanwhile, Miss Piggy offers relationship advice to Fozzie, which forces her to reevaluate her relationship with Kermit. Yolanda rigs the Secret Santa gift exchange, and Echosmith performs at the crew’s Christmas party.
The Review
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Muppets and holidays are something special. There’s a long history of Muppet Christmas specials (and a movie or two), ranging from the absolutely amazing Muppet Family Christmas down to the ‘relicts of their time’ John Denver and Lady Gaga specials. Kermit is preparing for Piggy’s holiday special this year, booking guests and trying to come up with skits, and frantically trying to cheer up Fozzie, to no avail. What can he say to a bear whose girlfriend broke up with him? As Kermit puts it, he’s never been dumped before.
Yup, this is a relationship episode, but the significant others are nowhere to be seen. Everyone is lonely and looking for love for the holiday, in the arms of a snuggle buddy or with a good friend or three. Piggy is able to give some amazingly good advice to Fozzie, who takes it to heart only to parrot it back to Piggy, much to Uncle Deadly’s horror. Piggy realizes she didn’t heed her own advice when Kermit broke up with her, she didn’t try to work things out and fight for him.
The B plot involves my favorite rat next to Rizzo, as Yolanda rigs the gift swap so that everyone draws her name. It’s revenge for the year before where she was left out. She knows at some point she’s going to get caught, but Rizzo and Pepe (sorta) figure out what happened and rather than everyone getting mad at her they still all give her gifts. The humor here is surprisingly subdued after the last few episodes which had a high level of slapstick happening. Sure, the Swedish Chef is still licking the craft table food and Chip is blocking Sam’s old-fashioned attempt to make a move on Janice. In a way it does feel very much in line with Muppet holidays of old, plenty of singing and warm fuzzies and very little bitterness.
There’s two guest spots this week, Mindy Kaling sings with Piggy, off key. It provides Kermit with another panic attack as he tries to figure out a way to keep her singing from wrecking the show. The second guests are Echosmith, who perform briefly during an end credit cameo at Rowlf’s. (I don’t know who these people are! I may have 30 plus years of Muppet knowledge, but I’m way out of the loop culturally.) These aren’t exactly stand-out performances, but they get the job done. Gonzo’s joke at the end of the episode nearly killed me, he’s quite out of the loop as well.
Overall, it’s a surprisingly cheerful episode that doesn’t suddenly fix Piggy and Kermit’s relationship. They aren’t back together when the credits roll, although I won’t be surprised if they end up back together by the end of the season as a whole. More uncertain is the future of the show in general. When it comes back from winter break in February it will have a new showrunner under Prady, with Bill Kushell pushed out of the picture. Time will tell what changes to the show it brings, but hopefully they don’t break what isn’t broken. Even as the Muppets have slipped back into an old familiar feeling, and a good one at that, the ratings have likewise slipped down. It seems everyone wants something different from the Muppets and I’m not sure there’s a way to make everyone happy. Overall, I have been happy with the new Muppet show, and I’d like it to find a steady audience and stick around for at least another season.
In Summary:
Holiday cheer sees Fozzie work his way through some bumps in the road in his relationship with Becky. The trouble with Fozzie shines the spotlight on Kermit and Piggy’s failed relationship, which has been treacherous ground. Yet Kermit remains the diplomat, leader, and caring frog we all know and love. Piggy’s heart grows three sizes and she actually shows her softer side, for once. It feels like a conclusion to the stressful conflicts which have broken out over the course of the season, without actually concluding anything, and there are no magical solutions to some of the very real life problems our favorite Muppets face. Just some nice warm Muppet moments to take with us for the holidays.
Episode Grade: B +
