That Muppet Rip-off!

“That Puppet Game show” is a new TV series for BBC One co-produced by the Jim Henson Company, the people behind The Muppets and Sesame Street. You can catch it Saturdays on BBC 1 or on BBC iPlayer.

The Muppets played a huge part in my childhood so I was thrilled the first time I saw the advertisement for “That Puppet Game show.” I could tell the puppets had been created by the Jim Henson Company with their classic felt-y style, distinctive colours and impressive individuality. I was so excited that I immediately put it on series link.

I should not have let my nostalgic longing overridden my usual scepticism at the re-imagination of a cherished memory.

The show draws on many of the structures of the original Muppet Show such as backstage plots and a range of quirky characters with different relationships, including family members and even a little romance. What I found lacking, however, was humour. It wasn’t in those extra plots, it wasn’t in the characters and it certainly was not in the Clyde the crabby crab. In fact, it wasn’t exactly present in many of the games, at least not directly. The way the celebrities embraced the tasks and the hilarity that ensued, largely from their mistakes, was the only thing that made it funny, and even then it often dragged.

That’s not the worst part though. No, the worst part has to be how much they have tried to emulate The Muppets, even down to the characters. You have Amber, the diva (AKA Miss Piggy); Dr Strabismus, the crazy scientist (AKA Dr Honeydew) and The Amazing Ian, the weird one (AKA Gonzo the Great) to name just a few. I can’t help but think that if they had started it as an entirely separate new show rather than desperately replicating a previously successful show, they could have created something great. Sadly, that’s simply not the case.

Let’s Get Out There And Review It!

I don’t care how much of a total nerd this makes me sound: Red Dwarf has totally taken over my life!

My most excellent parents bought me the box set for my birthday, and I’ve been putting off watching it ever since because I knew exactly this would happen, but a few days ago I gave into temptation to make myself feel less ill and generally happier. It worked; I felt much better by the end of the first two series though I had just spent over 5 hours of my life doing nothing but watching that, huddled in my blanket, eating noodle soup, so…

Anyway, as I’m thoroughly out of ideas at this precise moment in time (writing a blog a day is killing me a little bit), I thought I might as well make use of the 674 minutes I have spent of my life watching Red Dwarf over the past couple of days and write a bit of a review of series 1 – 4.

For those of you who have never seen Red Dwarf – Get off my blog! Joke, joke! Essentially, in deep space, a human (Dave Lister) was put in suspended animation before the rest of the crew was killed due to a radiation leak. He is now 3 million light years from Earth and is alone aside from Cat (a creature evolved from the ship’s cat), the hologram of his friend Arnold Rimmer who died, an android called Kryten and the ship’s computer (Holly). The show follows their (mis)adventures in space as they try to return to Earth.

Despite the fact that some of my favourite episodes are in Series 3 and 4, I have found watching Series 1 and 2 more enjoyable. I have a couple of theories on this, the major one being that the first series flows into the second one well – all the plots and characters make sense and have not changed at all between the two. I think if I wasn’t watching all the episodes in order, almost back-to-back, I might not care as much, however, I am and it annoys me that between Series 2 and 3:

1.       Kryten re-appears without warning or any sort of explanation and has once again is unable to rebel (plus he looks different, but, still – it’s an improvement, not a bad thing)

2.       Holly has changed face and gender

3.       Rimmer has suddenly had more/different girlfriends and sexual partners compared to before, or seemingly so

4.       The set has changed

5.       Lister is suddenly no longer pregnant (long story) and there’s no trace of him ever having been (i.e., no kids) and no explanation of what happened

6.       Rimmer’s uniform has changed

My other sort-of substantial theory is that I hadn’t seen much of series 1 and 2 but had already watched most of the episodes in 3 and 4. Not that this usually makes a difference; I can watch repeats of most shows and find them equally and entertaining and enjoyable.

Anyway, I can’t think of much else to say other than that I am loving watching Red Dwarf (and it's all in order for once)!

Until tomorrow...