I love 'The Muppets'. The Henson era (both Jim and some of Brian), contain some of my favourite films ever, and 'The Muppet Show' is so ahead of its time with its satire, but since Disney purchased these iconic characters, they have been on a bit of a downward spiral, while I love the 2011 and 'Most Wanted' most of Disney's 'Muppet' production have felt empty, most of them aren't outright bad, but they feel somewhat passionless. Then, 'The Muppets Mayhem' arrived and it's the closes thing to classic 'Muppets' in years.
From Adam F. Goldberg, Bill Barretta and Jeff Yorkes, 'The Muppets Mayhem' follows the Muppets' band, The Electric Mayhem as a record assistant forces them to record an album they promised years ago.
Firstly, this series is by no means perfect; the human characters are underdeveloped and have too much screen time, some episodes' pop culture references feel forced and some episodes can be way too schmalzy. However, those issues don't bother me that much.
Writing wise it's the best since 'Most Wanted', there are some genuinely hysterical moments in this series and the emotional beats hit extremely hard. While, the human characters aren't great, pretty much everything with the Muppet characters is perfect, Dr. Teeth and Janice's arches felt particularly well done to me.
The direction, while nothing mind-blowing, and lacking in the same artistry as '79 original or 'Christmas Carol' feels a lot more passionate, which is something I can say about everything in this series and something it has above more recent 'Muppet' productions.
The puppetry is as great as always, as where the songs, 'Rock On' and 'Believe in Us' being my personal favourites.
So, while overall it is imperfect, 'Muppets Mayhem' is one of the best 'Muppet' productions in a while and definitely deserves a season two to (hopefully) work on some of these issues. If you are, or ever were a 'Muppets' fan this is more than worth your time.
From Adam F. Goldberg, Bill Barretta and Jeff Yorkes, 'The Muppets Mayhem' follows the Muppets' band, The Electric Mayhem as a record assistant forces them to record an album they promised years ago.
Firstly, this series is by no means perfect; the human characters are underdeveloped and have too much screen time, some episodes' pop culture references feel forced and some episodes can be way too schmalzy. However, those issues don't bother me that much.
Writing wise it's the best since 'Most Wanted', there are some genuinely hysterical moments in this series and the emotional beats hit extremely hard. While, the human characters aren't great, pretty much everything with the Muppet characters is perfect, Dr. Teeth and Janice's arches felt particularly well done to me.
The direction, while nothing mind-blowing, and lacking in the same artistry as '79 original or 'Christmas Carol' feels a lot more passionate, which is something I can say about everything in this series and something it has above more recent 'Muppet' productions.
The puppetry is as great as always, as where the songs, 'Rock On' and 'Believe in Us' being my personal favourites.
So, while overall it is imperfect, 'Muppets Mayhem' is one of the best 'Muppet' productions in a while and definitely deserves a season two to (hopefully) work on some of these issues. If you are, or ever were a 'Muppets' fan this is more than worth your time.