Makeover

So apparently The Muppets is getting a retool. There's a new showrunner, and it will be relaunched in the spring. I hope this retool will not be as disastrous as the Up All Night fiasco. I read so many people complaining that the Muppets shouldn't do adult humor, in clear defiance of Jim Henson's wishes. Or people want to go back to a variety show format. Personally I think the "Up Late with Miss Piggy" format could work better if they stopped repeating the "Piggy has a feud with female celebrities" bit. Perhaps a woman showrunner would actually focus on how fucking rare it is for a woman to host a late night show. (I don't have cable, but I think Samantha Bee's show hasn't premiered yet.) Piggy could have been giving monologues all this time about how special she is for this achievement, and yay girl power! She could have mentioned that she got an award as a feminist recently. Being a diva, she could have decked out her studio to look like Colbert's cathedral of Stephen. We could have seen Piggy do more musical numbers, comedy skits, or interact with her sidekick and band. They are criminally underusing the late show to focus on behind the scene office manipulations. I hope this retool actually accomplishes something instead of fixing the wrong things.

As for Empire, I was totally right to abandon ship. From reading the recap, the kidnapping was just a cheap cliffhanger stunt that was resolved quickly. There were consequences in the form of Hakeem sleeping with Anika and having PTSD, but I can't believe how ridiculous it was for Cookie to take Laz's advice on hiring the thugs for security. I also don't appreciate reading that Laura, the singer who rejected Hakeem's sexual harassment, is suddenly falling for him now. Way to forget you have a career and aren't that kind of girl! (And I know that Camilla's going to come back eventually, so why do we need this crap?) Anika's treatment is all wrong too; it's like she's the new Vernon that the writers don't know what to do with. Now Anika's reduced to love triangles with Hakeem, when she should have been teaming up with Cookie to take Lucious down. In my opinion, Empire could do with a feminist makeover too. I give up on this absurd soap.