Review: The Muppets – “Too Hot To Handler”

So, Fozzie. The bear has decided that, after 12 weeks of dating, he is ready for Becky to move in with him. When he tells Kermit, the frog isn’t sure his friend is ready for this step. Since Kermit doesn’t know a lot about Becky, he suggests that the three of them get together to learn more about each other. Fozzie, Becky, Kermit, and Denise all go to Rowlf’s bar to play the weekly trivia game. Throughout the game, Kermit is fishing for bad things about Becky. Unfortunately, all he is finding out is bad things about Denise. At one point during the game, Becky claims to have dropped her phone and bends under the table to “retrieve” it. Kermit leans down at the same time and sees Becky Googling the answer to the trivia question. He tells Denise about it but Denise tells him to keep his trap shut if he values his friendship with Fozzie.

The next day, Fozzie tells Kermit that he is taking Becky to lunch and that is where he will ask her to move in. When Becky arrives at the studio, Kermit tries to get her to admit that she was cheating. Every time he asks her a trivia question, other members of the staff answer for her. Finally, Kermit just comes out and says he saw her cheating. Becky tells him that she was on ebay buying a gift for Fozzie. Embarrassed, Kermit tries to apologize but the couple storms out.

Later, while Fozzie records some local television spots for the show, Kermit tries to apologize again. Fozzie admits that he ended up not asking Becky to move in because he wasn’t ready for it. The two friends come to terms with their new, more adult, friendship and they agree to treat each other with more respect. Of course, that means that Fozzie will screw things up and Kermit will have to rescue him. That is just how things are meant to be.

But Fozzie isn’t the only Muppet with love trouble. During a guest spot on Piggy’s show, Chelsea Handler admits that she has a terrible dating track record. She wants to date a nice, nerdy guy for a change. Scooter steps up to the challenge. He asks Chelsea out on a date and she accepts the invitation. Amazingly, their date went very well. After dinner (but before dessert), Chelsea kissed Scooter, which freaked him out. He ran out of the restaurant, leaving Chelsea to eat dessert by herself.

Scooter was so freaked out by Chelsea’s forwardness that he ignored her texts and phone calls. It wasn’t until he received the huge bouquet of flowers she sent to the studio that he agreed to talk with her. The couple met at a restaurant and Scooter confessed that she was moving too fast for him. Chelsea tells Scooter that she doesn’t want to lose him. She is going out of town for awhile so they agree to talk on the phone while she is away. Maybe Scooter will get himself a girlfriend soon. Maybe he’ll actually move out of his mother’s house and be an adult.

I was a little hesitant about this episode when I saw that it would be all about relationships. Specifically Fozzie’s relationship. The show doesn’t have a good history of Fozzie-based storylines. Surprisingly, this was a rather good episode. The Fozzie story didn’t rely on his terrible jokes or him being a complete failure. Instead, it was more about his best friend worrying about him making a bad life decision. That is something that everyone can relate to. No one wants their best friend to screw up their life. I guess this is where Fozzie shines – his friendship with Kermit. On the Scooter side of things, it was endearing to see him go out with a woman. However, we aren’t seeing a lot of growth with his character. In the past two episodes, it’s already been established that Scooter is basically a child in adult’s clothing. We didn’t really need another episode reminding us that he lives with his mother or that he doesn’t know how to handle relationships of any kind. Instead, we should have seen him grow at least a little. At minimum, he should have been trying to hold Chelsea’s hand or something. The characters need to grow or the show is going to get old real quick.