The Muppets Mayhem is a recent Disney+ original tv show. It follows the band from The Muppets Show, The Electric Mayhem. I was going to go more into what the story was about but I honestly can't remember much more than that.

The best and most appealing part of this show was quite obviously the members of The Electric Mayhem. These six characters are each iconic in their own way. The puppeteers go all-out in their representation of some musician stereotype. Whether it be the hippy guitarist, the clueless saxophonist, or the crazy drummer; all the members of this band and how they interact is hilarious. 

As is commonplace for any Muppets movie or tv show and as you'd expect from this particular show, we are introduced to some original songs. Some of these songs are good. The theme song of the show, "Rock On", is very catchy. There are a couple of other nice songs but most are honestly quite forgettable.

I mentioned in my opening paragraph that I cannot recall much of the story. And this is because there wasn't much of one. The story that was there was quite strange and went to some very weird places (such as the Muppets getting high on out-of-date marshmallows). It also felt like the creators were struggling to extend a story for a whole tv show. I loved the idea of a show centred around the Electric Mayhem but I don't think the creators hit the mark in terms of a story. Perhaps the idea may have been better off as a single movie. Instead, we seemed to be recycling ideas, taking two steps forward and one step back, and (again) going to some very weird places to provide five hours' worth of content. It actually became somewhat of a chore to watch the show. The show was sitting in my 'Continue Watching' section in Disney+ for a long time because I really could never be bothered to watch an episode.

Another expected feature of any Muppets piece of media is celebrity cameos. I enjoyed these and I think that they were well-placed throughout the show. However, thinking back now, there was perhaps an overload of celebrity cameos. Unfortunately, I don't think this show displayed the best puppetry. I have definitely seen better from the other Muppets movies or tv shows which was a bit disappointing. Similarly, the human acting was the best either.

The Muppets (or Sesame Street) is generally something that is able to make me laugh the most. And I certainly did laugh watching The Muppets Mayhem. But I have definitely laughed more in other Muppets movies. I just rewatched the trailer for the show and laughed a bit even though I knew all the jokes. However, don't take that trailer as an indication of how funny the show actually is. They have five hours of content to pick out the funniest jokes to show you in the trailer.

My biggest question with this tv show is who is it for? It is a bit of a niche idea. I'd say the themes of the show are intended for children, but I'm not sure if the children of this age know of or would enjoy The Muppets. Perhaps this should be fixed. But I'm not sure if an eight-episode-long tv show about the band from The Muppets is the way to go about this.

I would have liked The Muppets Mayhem a lot more if it was just a single movie. I think this would have fixed many of its problems. Unfortunately, we're stuck with a tv show instead that lacks the humour of the original Muppets. I love the characters in the show and that was enough to make me watch the whole thing. But would I suggest you watch it? Probably not. Maybe just watch the original tv show. Or just watch the trailer of The Muppets Mayhem. That'll keep you entertained for two and a half minutes.

Creators: Bill Barretta, Adam F. Goldberg, Jeff Yorkes

Starring: Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Peter Linz, Bill Barretta, David Rudman, Matt Vogel

Year released: 2023

My rating: 6/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 17/03/2024