Review: The Muppets – “Swine Song”

“Swine Song” opens with the gang returning from their individual vacations. Kermit has decided to set some boundaries between his work and personal lives. Piggy has brought a penguin back from her trip. And the television executives have greeted everyone’s return with muffins and a new branding guru named Pachay. (OK, it’s spelled Pizza because you should build on an established brand!) The execs think Piggy’s talk show is too talky. Pizza will make the show more palatable for a younger audience.

Immediately, Kermit gets everyone together to brainstorm how to change the show to make the execs happy but get rid of Pizza at the same time. Piggy shows up in a Miley Cyrus-themed outfit, which horrifies pretty much everyone. The real magic happens when Kermit steps out of the room to help clean up the pig. Everyone starts kicking out an A capella version of the theme from The Muppet Show. It is awesome. This gives Kermit the idea to bring their friends into the talk show. FINALLY.

This is where one of the episode’s sub-plots truly begins. Kermit promised to leave work at 8PM so he could run a charity 5K with Denise. However, he worked late and ended up falling asleep entangled with Piggy. Needless to say, Denise is not happy when she shows up after the run. Kermit apologizes, which Denise accepts since she knew about Pizza and the pressure Kermit is under to change the show.

(For the record, the other sub-plot has to do with Uncle Deadly taking care of Piggy’s penguin, Gloria Estefan. All of their interactions are quite funny.)

When we get to Piggy’s show, the friends get worked into the show via skits, much like the current batch of late night talk shows. Pepe the Prawn is an Uber driver. Bobo does a dramatic reading of a scene from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Pizza, jealous of the success of the new show, arranges it so their guests, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, leave before their segment. In a last ditch attempt to fill the time, Kermit and Piggy sing a duet. Unfortunately, the song is basically about them being perfect for each other. Denise isn’t happy. Again.

In the end, the new show format is a hit but Denise thinks that she’s isn’t important to Kermit. So Denise breaks up with Kermit and Kermit sorta realizes that he might still love Piggy. Thus, the triangle ends.

I was a little hesitant about the new format of The Muppets. Granted, the old format grated on my nerves at times (read: Fozzy the Bear annoyed the crap out of me) but I didn’t hate the show. This new format shows me how right I was about the awfulness of the old format. More of the Muppet side characters were featured and they were funny. Even Fozzy got some actual jokes that were actually funny. I’m thinking that the departure of Denise might be a good thing too. While I liked seeing Piggy’s jealousy, it was making the whole show too messy. The pig and the frog don’t have to get back together but maybe we’ll see a few of those old sparks appear again. I’m excited to see what will be coming down the road later this season.