What I’m Watching: The Muppets

The Muppets: Season 1, Episode 8 “Too Hot to Handler” (B+)

This episode deviated from the ones before it because it barely featured Miss Piggy, save for the opening segment which introduced the main guest star, Chelsea Handler. There was still plenty of relationship drama without the infamously egotistical pig. Scooter falling head over heels for Chelsea and then realizing that she was looking for a good-natured sweetheart of a guy just like him was fun, and I like that the reason it didn’t work out was that she was moving much too fast for him, constantly trying to kiss him and push the relationship forward. This was a fun PG-rated opportunity for Chelsea to send up her raunchy persona. Another human girlfriend, Becky, threatened to pose some major problems when Fozzie told Kermit that he was going to ask her to move in with him. Kermit trying to get to prod Becky for information backfired as he discovered Denise’s horrendously low credit score, and he did even worse when he tried to test Becky’s trivia knowledge in the hallway after catching her apparently cheating on her phone. Confronting her with the accusation went poorly, but fortunately Fozzie realized on his own that twelve weeks isn’t nearly enough time to make such a big decision. Getting the tassels of his hat caught in a fan immediately after demonstrated just how right Kermit was to look out for his best friend. The multiple references to Kermit venting to other people when they thought he was just talking to the camera were amusing and an amusing nod to the show’s mockumentary format.