I rarely bother 'following' new shows per episode, but this new Muppet show is absolutely hilarious. I liked the original show when I was little-- I was born the year it began, saw all of it and all the movies through late '80s-- but after not seeing it for twenty years or so, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that I find the Muppets a lot funnier now than I ever found them as a child, both the old show and the newer movie and this TV show. For those who say they need a show they can watch with their kids, that show is called Sesame Street. Let the grown-ups have our Muppets too. It's said to be receiving a 'reboot' this spring, and I hope that's a massive overstatement because it's seriously funny as hell and I'll buy the blu-ray and the t-shirt if it stays this way. If it turns toward banal, obvious humor for the kiddies, I'm out.

This was the most titanic failure of a franchise reboot since the Jem and the Holograms movie. The Muppets was nothing more than a crappy daytime soap opera centered around a mopey middle-aged loser, his Mean Girl diva ex, and the bumbling idiots he works with. It would make for a completely and utterly forgettable TV show if it were populated completely with real humans, and making it The Muppets that are delivering these horrible, soul-withering lines just makes it the blackest of befoulments. Jim Henson would be projectile vomiting all over the inside of his coffin if he still had access to his material body, and quite rightly. Don't expose your kids to this trite tripe. Don't expose yourself to it, either. The best thing that could possibly happen to this show is that it could die a quiet, ignominious death somewhere far, far away.

The four episodes I've seen so far are as close to torture as I'm ever likely to come and I have no desire for more.See, I haven't watched the Muppet Show for many, many years, so I reasoned that, with this new show, I would have no real nostalgic bias against it. Boy was I wrong! The Muppets utterly misses the point of what made the Muppet Show good. In an effort to try and make the show more adult-themed, it forgot that the adults that would be watching it are likely all fans of the Muppet Show from years ago. Those fans would have certain expectations. Expectations that, as it turns out, are completely ignored.Now, I like Bill Prady's work, so I think the intent was a good one. But he has clearly missed the mark. As I watched the pseudo-reality show take on the Muppets, all I felt was sadness and depression. The new show, with its Muppets updated and more adult-oriented, is just direly boring to watch. All of the fun has been sucked out of them and what is left are cynical shells of the original characters.Still, I persevered through the first three episodes, struggling to find a root cause for lack of enjoyment. It wasn't until the fourth show, however, that I understood what it was that was so wrong with the new version.See, in episode four, the Muppets goes to a bar and there is a karaoke night going on. The Muppets join in and.......suddenly they were fun again. The simple addition of music and singing totally transformed the dreary behind-the-scenes reality nature of the cast and made them fun once more. Of course, the karaoke was short lived, and likewise so was the fun. Soon enough it was back to the tedium.Intrigued, I got hold of some of the original show episodes and watched one at random. As well as being immediately familiar to my old memories, it was indeed the music that made the show. Very little of the original series was without music of some sort and each episode had several music and dance numbers. Seeing Sylvester Stallone sing and dance "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" with a giant Muppet lion is not to be missed! That, then, is what the new show lacks. Fun. Sure, there are jokes, some adult humour and the occasional smile to be raised. But there is no actual fun in the series.So, apart from missing the point completely, is there anything good about The Muppets? Well, I can honestly see what they thought they were doing. This isn't a remake of the Muppet Show. It's a reboot. Same characters, different script and a totally different feel. However, without the fun element, which was what the Muppets were all about, it is a hollow effort.If you then add in the slightly-off voice work (still very good) and the reality, shaky cam shots, this is like watching a Bluray extra on the making of the Muppets.All they need to do is stop trying so hard. The Muppets could be good, if they add in some more music routines, stop making Kermit such a depressive sad case and remember that fun doesn't have to be edgy.SUMMARY: Totally misses the point of the Muppets. Little singing, little dancing, depressive reality-based nature. No damn fun! Not a good direction to take the Muppets in. Jim Henson is probably spinning in his grave.

I watched the first three episodes and got nothing but disappointment, one after another. The creators of this series managed to take one of the best shows ever and make something not worth watching. This has absolutely nothing to do with the original series. It has no true sense of humor in it. It is just full of sexual innuendos. And that even is not anywhere close to being funny. Certainly not fit for kids under 15. The muppets voices are mediocre, the scenario and direction all fall short compared to the original show. If you want your kids to watch something really good, just let them watch the original show or the movies. There is simply no comparison.