Not Modern Nor Classic, Just Trying Too Hard

Every time Disney puts out something new starring the Muppets, I wonder if it really is such a good idea. The Muppets were clearly at their peak during the time that Jim Henson was the man in charge of the brand and the characters, and while many have tried to pick up the torch from Henson in the years since his death, nothing has quite had the magic of Henson’s own works. The best was certainly 2011’s The Muppets, which acted as a kind of sequel to everything that had come before, but just about everything else has been weak and watered down, a corporate version of the felt-covered creatures that Disney clearly prefers.

As Henson put it, a Muppet segment is supposed to end with one of the Muppets getting eaten or an explosion. If you go back and watch the early works, either from their days as commercial stars selling coffee, or their time on The Muppet Show (which ran from 1976 to 1981), you’ll see that in action. Chaos and carnage reigned supreme, and it gave everything the Muppets did a kind of manic energy. They’re fun and soft and kid-friendly, sure, but they were also little felty agents of chaos, and that brought a lot of fun and glee to everything they did.

That chaos and carnage is missing in the Disney era, but it’s especially notably absent in Disney’s revival of The Muppet Show, a 2026 special that just recently came out on Disney+ that seeks to bring the classic show back in new form. It certainly looks the part, with recreations of the old sets, all the familiar characters in their old roles, and even the original song playing once again. But when it comes to the all out chaos and carnage that is a hallmark not just of the characters but of The Muppet Show, everything feels sedate, soft, and safe. It’s barely the Muppets at all.

This one-off special, which the characters state might just be the start of a new era (and, clearly, Disney is hoping will be the case) features Sabrina Carpenter as the guest host. Carpenter is one of the executive producers on the special, alongside Seth Rogen (who also cameos in the special). In basic makeup, the special works about how you’d expect from a typical episode of the original series. Kermit frets backstage, trying to keep the show running, while various comedic acts and musical numbers take place on the main stage. The old men, Statler and Waldorf, throw comments between the acts, and various people cheer from the crow. Somehow, in the end, it all comes together and everyone has a great time. Or, at least, that’s what the show expects.

The first issue is that, by and large, the segments simply aren’t that entertaining. We get two musical numbers with Carpenter, along with a couple of backstage segments with her, and these are easily the worst parts of the show. Carpenter may be a fine performer (she’s a Disney channel performer with a decently long list of film and television credits to her name) but she seems pretty lost acting against Muppets. It never feels like she truly buys into the Muppets as real characters, and her acting feels forced and fake. If the host can’t get into the reality of the show she’s on, how is the audience supposed to buy into it.

But then we get to her music and, again, it just doesn’t work. Her musical styling (or her albums) shift from folk-pop to R&B and even some club jams, but what we get on the show feels like country music for old people. It lacks spark or fire, while also being a genre (I admit) I don’t care much about. Were the performances good I’d accept the music for what it is, but here, again, Carpenter feels lost. Her lip-synching to the music is bad and it never feels like she truly gets into the reality of the numbers. Things happen around her, but she never properly reacts to them.

There’s one other musical number in the special, performed by Rizo, where he sings “Blinding Lights” (by The Weeknd), and this has all the spark, chaos, and energy that Carpenter’s songs lacked. This was actually a really great number, with the rat performers really finding the spirit of the piece. Similarly, a segment for Miss Piggy, “Pigs in Wigs”, gets creatively chaotic when the pig that is supposed to be her lover in this Victorian-set farce is replaced by Pepé the Prawn. This skit goes awry in the best ways and shows that, when left to their own devices, the Muppet performers know how to bring the chaos.

And I think, really, that gets us right back to the main issue: this special lacks the chaos it needs. While we could debate the relative merits of the current cast of Muppet performers, how Kermit sounds off and doesn’t seem to have the same joie de vivre he once possessed, much of the talent working on the show is great. It’s not the fault of the Muppet cast that this current incarnation of The Muppet Show didn’t work. It’s the fact that, in this current Disney form, the Muppets simply can’t be the Muppets.

I don’t want to put all the blame on Carpenter, although I have to think that since she also executive produced the special she had some control over her image. She could certainly have her best foot forward and stay above the fray, which it feels like she does more often than not. Maybe she tipped the scales some, maybe she didn’t, but her part of the show feels safe and sanitized when it needed to be anything but.

No, I think the flaw is that Disney just doesn’t really know what to do with the Muppets, especially when it comes to furthering Disney’s own interests. The Mouse House wants all of its characters to be safe and easy to control, but the Muppets have always been anything but. When we go back to those days of them hocking coffee in commercials, the skits always ended with one of them getting eaten or one of them exploding. If we look at the YouTube skits the characters did over a decade again, singing the 1812 overture or performing science experiments, very often those skits ended with explosions. You know what we never got during this 2026 special: an explosion. A proper, over-the-top, fireball of doom. Its absence was felt.

I think there’s a way to make the Muppets work, and I even think that you could do a revival of The Muppet Show and have it be watchable. Certainly there are moments in this special that show life in the format, even if so much of it feels safe and corporatized. But the power to lead a series like these needs to not be in the corporate hands of Disney. The House of Mouse needs to give the reins to the Muppet performers with the specific instructions, “do what you want.” Until that happens the Muppets won’t feel like the Muppets, not really, and whatever they do is going to lack the chaos needed to be truly special.

It’s sad, because these characters are legends. This special, however, is not.