Season Review: 9 Years to Neptune Season One

Welcome to an epic journey across the galaxy filled with adventure, excitement, and a lot of squabbles over whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher. This ragtag crew is headed for Neptune, and along the way, they’ll get to know each other, get on each other’s nerves, and hold a talent show. And a cooking competition. And a campout. And, yes, a court case over whose turn it is to unload the dishwasher.

Created by Peter & Tyler McKellar. This is a Muppet-styled show produced by BYUtv focuses on a ragtag team of Muppets (and one human) on a 9-year mission to reach planet Neptune funded by a grotesque silhouette of a boss named Mr. Bezusk while engaging in a series of mundane situations along the way and learning to get along with each other.

On the technical side, you can see in their behind the scenes “Youtube videos” how much effort was put into the show itself with many behind the scenes videos showing certain scenes utilizing green screen effects to give the illusion of movement even when you can’t even tell in places while many of the voice actors of these puppets are bringing their a-game from the exaggerated and ethnically diverse to the broad-borderline and cartoonishly grotesque with the stereotypical personalities you’d expect satire to conjure up with the exception of Stuart and Natalie who are so far the only known human characters in the entire show.

As previously stated in my past reviews, It’s almost structured in a documentary-style similar to shows like “The Office” where it often cuts to characters sharing their thought process on camera when nobody else is looking in combination with live-action actors at random thrown into the mix. and a good portion of the humor comes from situational comedy and meaningful lessons that are surprisingly less contrived than the season finale’s twist.

Overall, the show was watchable but not perfect. Many of the scenes felt contrived in places, with sometimes unfunny jokes at the expense of Stuart, or have foreshadowing plot points that anyone with a brain can come seeing from a mile away. And while I don’t know what to expect for Season Two, we can only hope that it doesn’t hurt its audience with a stinger of a cliffhanger like the season finale did…