Fozzie takes things a little too far when Kermit offers him advice and Nick Offerman steps in to help the gang. Christina Applegate guests on Up Late and brings Miss Piggy a sweet surprise that doesn't go over well. Pepe, Rizzo and Liam Hemsworth try to help Gonzo out with his online dating situation.
In these first three episodes, The Muppets has set out to explore the personal friendships, work dynamics and romantic lives of the Muppets in a way previously unseen. All three of those story ideas are apparent in "Bear Left Then Bear Write." It helps immensely that the show has such a huge cast of characters it can weave in and out effortlessly. Most of the Muppets only have one or two lines each week. But a clear effort is being made to paint the details of all of their personal lives in a truly engaging way. This episode does offer plenty of funny things. But its attention is also somewhat split amongst the three stories it has running throughout.First of which, Kermit has to figure out how to be a good friend to Fozzie Bear while still being a good producer for Up Late with Miss Piggy. He's not that great at either one of those jobs in this episode. The show opens with Gonzo being able to work behind Kermit's back in order to get an embarrassing clip of Miss Piggy onto the show. It doesn't immediately feel like the rest of the muppets respect the job that Kermit does. They just want to use the show in order to put out what's funny to them. They don't care if it puts Piggy in an unflattering light. In fact, they rather enjoy laughing at Piggy falling into a cake and then tripping. It is a really funny clip. But it's Kermit's job to make sure that that kind of video doesn't play because it can only make Piggy more furious at work. That fallout doesn't really impact Kermit all that much. But he still has quite a ways to go to actually being the world's best producer.
Kermit's friendship with Fozzie has been going strong for years. This episode suggests that Fozzie has always been there whenever Kermit is depressed. Kermit hasn't always done the same with Fozzie. In fact, this is apparently the first time he is faced with telling Fozzie that he's not a good writer. He wants to be honest but he doesn't want to hurt his friend's feelings. But feeding into Fozzie's delusions that he's good isn't the best thing to do either. Fozzie actually quits the show and goes on a writer's retreat just because Kermit says he could expand the sketch concept into a movie. There's no way that could have been done. And yet, Fozzie is optimistic that it is possible. Kermit has to share the truth eventually. But not before Fozzie gets hit by a tranquilizer gun. One little deceit created this outrageous series of events. It wasn't particularly funny and the message was telegraphed fairly early in the episode. But it is still nice that Kermit is now willing to help Fozzie rewrite the sketch.
Elsewhere, Miss Piggy wants to embarrass Christina Applegate after the clip she showed on the show humilated her. Of course, Piggy is the only person who didn't like how she came across in the clip. Yes, the people were laughing at her for what she unfortunately did. But no one ever pointed out that it shouldn't have been shown. It did and now Piggy wants revenge. Too bad she can't find any humiliating or compromising videos of Christina. So she sets out to produce one herself. She wants Scooter to go to Christina's house and throw a cake in her face. She orders him to do it as his boss. That's the only reason why Christina complies. She likes Scooter much more than Piggy. And yet, it's also important that Piggy doesn't get away with this massive prank. She ends up getting arrested. It's hilarious - even though any legal problems that might come from it probably won't be seen on the show in the next episode. But it's good that the show doesn't want to just reward Piggy for her diva behavior.
And lastly, Gonzo has started an online correspondence with a girl he really likes but she doesn't know his picture of Liam Hemsworth isn't him. He's basically catfishing her. And yet, he likes her more than anyone else he has ever met before. Too bad it doesn't work out for him in the end. The humor of this story comes from Liam wanting to help Gonzo out but then falling for Debbie as well. He likes that she responds to his inner personality and not his outer appearance or celebrity status. So despite his best effort, Gonzo doesn't get the girl. In fact, Rizzo and Pepe only take her away from him. It's the experience that's funny but the show doesn't really explore what all of this means personally for Gonzo. That's what makes it the weakest story of this episode. It just goes for the laughs hoping that the familiarity of the characters is enough to carry these new emotions for the show.
Some more thoughts:
- "Bear Left Then Bear Write" was written by Dave Caplan, Gregg Mettler, Nell Scovell & Steve Rudnick and directed by Randall Einhorn.
- Celebrity cameos are a fixture of the Muppets brand. It was to be expected that famous people would pop up in each episode playing versions of themselves. This episode does a better job of reaching beyond the ABC roster of talent. But it still plays for celebrity shock value. It's not really making sure that each of these cameos are worth it both story and comedy wise.
- Christina Applegate and Nick Offerman are fantastic comedians. And yet, they are barely used here. When they do pop up, it's largely to do some very one note joke. Liam Hemsworth fared slightly better, but it still wasn't that great or meaningful.
- It's always startling whenever the show does a full body shot of Fozzie. It's awkward with the rest of the muppets as well. But his especially stands out as weird. Like did the audience really need to see all of him as he was trying to get the food from the bag in the tree?
- Yolanda wants to be an ultrasound technician and is taking college classes for it though no one wants to know how they are going. Also, are both Yolanda and Scooter working as Kermit's assistants?
- Bobo and Fozzie aren't friends because they are both bears. They're friends because they swim together.
- Rowlf apparently owns a bar now. One where Fozzie and Kermit go to for their fateful conversation - as well as for Kermit to point out that he doesn't like pumpkin spice beer.
