What I'm Watching: The Muppets

The Muppets: Season 1, Episode 9 “Going, Going, Gonzo” (B)

This episode was fun but not the greatest installment this show has delivered thus far. The celebrity guest star of the week, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who recently walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers in “The Walk,” didn’t have too much of a part, other than to show that he was clearly having fun playing a version of himself who pretended not to know how to play poker so that he could scam his way into a big win. He’s just the latest talent to appear on Miss Piggy’s show and do a sincere collaboration with her that allows her to be the star and not upstage her. The upstaging was left to the crew, whose slapstick antics nearly led to the moon collapsing on Miss Piggy and Gordon-Levitt. Most importantly, it inspired Gonzo to gear up for a big stunt that, based on all accounts, was quite dangerous and almost certain to injure him. But fortunately this is a comedy, and these Muppets are relatively unbreakable, easily able to bounce back from lighthearted injuries. I’m not a music guy and therefore don’t know much about Dave Grohl, but he was also featured in an appropriate way in the closing sequence that showed him engaging in a drum-off with Animal that resulted in lots of furious energy on both their parts and the total destruction of their drum sets. It’s definitely true that not everything on this show is meant to be taken literally, and it’s fun to see a full-on silly scene like that work pretty well.