The mockumentary genre is responsible for some of my favourite film and television moments of all time, from The Blair Witch Project's terrifyingly snotty monologue to the moment that Tim unplugs his microphone and tells Dawn his feelings in The Office. Something in the erratic handheld camera felt raw, intimate and groundbreaking. This was, of course, now over a decade ago, so how does the same wry, mockumentary lens hold up when turned to a gang of puppets in 2015?
This is what TV2's new show The Muppets explores, documenting the everyday lives of Kermit, Fozzie Bear et al as they work together to produce the new late-night talk show "Up Late With Miss Piggy". Clearly inspired by 30 Rock, The Office and not unlike the backstage scenes of our own sketch comedy show Funny Girls, the show works to pull back the curtain on making television. We see a window into the "real lives" of our characters as they toil away in writers' rooms, warm up crowds and wrangle the difficult human talent.
Except, these are not fascinatingly banal office workers, or struggling, underappreciated TV staffers - they are some of the most recognisable characters on the planet. In removing their usual composed settings and allowing them confessional cameras, The Muppets has an opportunity to capture daily slip-ups and foibles. The observing camera makes these puppets seem strangely more human than ever before. Kermit even makes some squirmy allusions to his sex life, which feels about as jarring as when you see your school teacher at the supermarket.
I couldn't help but be reminded of The Office's David Brent in Fozzie Bear. Sharing his online dating woes, Fozzie reveals that he got a lot of hits from his "Passionate Bear Looking for Love" ad. "You get a lot of wrong responses ... not wrong, just wrong for me ... " he stumbles, desperately trying to balance not sounding homophobic with making it clear that he isn't gay. The camera captures him buffoonishly trying to defend his own masculinity to an audience that doesn't actually care. It's a sly take-down of this particular breed of bumbling bigot, almost imperceptible in its speed and subtlety - you can get away with a bit more when you are a puppet.
Like Fozzie Bear's confusion over "bear" terms, many of the jokes in The Muppets rely on the double entendre humour that has made this troupe so entertaining for children and adults alike. Allusions to alcoholics anonymous, shotgun weddings and casual sex all crop up, but part of me was left wanting slightly more edge from our soft, felt friends. Sam the Eagle works as chief censor on the show-within-a-show, banning words like "gesticulate" because they "lead to babies being made".
