6A — Monday, September 28, 2015
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

By ALEX INTNER

Daily Arts Writer

Over the past several years, 

the 
Muppets 

have become 
increasingly 
prevalent 
in 
culture. 

Starting 
with the 2011 
film 
“The 

Muppets,” 
which 
was 

a 
modest 

success 
for 
Disney, 

they’ve 
been 

making 
appearances in a wide array 
of talk and variety shows. 
Their 
renaissance-of-sorts 

continues with a new television 
show on ABC. At its core, 
“The Muppets” is a workplace 
sitcom that happens to star 
the Muppets instead of human 
actors; it has the same beats 
and humor as a conventional 
sitcom. These characters have 
jumped between genres (from 
children’s television to heist 
movies), but this show crosses 
into 
more 
standard, 
adult 

fare. It strips away some of 
the energy of the recent film 
iterations of the characters, but 
once it settles into its rhythms 
and style, it could become one of 
the better sitcoms on network 
television.

“The Muppets” takes place 

behind 
the 
scenes 
of 
the 

fictional late night show “Up 
Late with Miss Piggy.” Her 

ex-boyfriend, Kermit the Frog, 
is 
the 
executive 
producer. 

Other Muppets fill various 
roles throughout the show, 
including Gonzo and Pepe the 
Prawn as staff writers, Fozzie 
as the warm-up comedian and 
announcer and Animal as, of 
course, the drummer in the 
band, to name a few.

“The Muppets” ’s weirdest 

aspect is how it puts these 
adored 
characters 
into 

conventional 
sitcom 
roles, 

using 
the 
mockumentary 

format popularized by “The 
Office” and “Modern Family.” 
The most prominent of these 
tropes involves the relationship 
between 
Kermit 
and 
Miss 

Piggy, who are presented as 
fighting exes, having broken 
up a few months before the 
pilot. The romance between 
the characters has been a key 
part of their shared history, 
but the show chooses to go in 
a different direction (in fact, 
Kermit is porking a new pig, 
Denise). Yet, the way the two 
characters interact is identical 
to most “will-they-won’t-they” 
couples who are in a lull. There’s 
a coolness to every scene they 
share.

It’s not just the romance 

subplot that relies on sitcom 
conventions; “The Muppets,” 
developed by Bill Prady (who 
co-created 
“The 
Big 
Bang 

Theory”) 
and 
Bob 
Kushell 

(“3rd Rock from the Sun”), uses 
other sitcom tropes to middling 
effects. The Muppets universe 
has utilized a wide array of 

Hollywood talent. The first 
episode guest stars Elizabeth 
Banks (“The Hunger Games”) 
and Tom Bergeron (“Dancing 
with 
the 
Stars”), 
both 
of 

whom earn laughs by playing 
themselves. Plus, Jere Burns 
(“Justified”) 
continues 
his 

streak of giving the best reaction 
shots on television, playing the 
father of Fozzie Bear’s human 
girlfriend. However, the show 
uses the sitcom trope of trying 
to keep two people separated at 
all costs (in this case, Banks and 
Piggy) only to have them meet 
each other in a big blowout. 
It’s no fault of Banks’s, but 
the seven-minute sequence is 
awkward and humorless.

It’s a little disappointing that 

this show is a different version 
from other stories with the 
characters, because the scene 
like the powerful closing of the 
2011 film (with the characters 
getting together and singing 
“Rainbow Connection”) can’t 
exist in this world. (Though 
a 
performance 
by 
Imagine 

Dragons did add a necessary 
musical 
element.) 
However, 

it’s hard to knock the show for 
not doing something it’s not 
trying to do. “The Muppets” 
attempts to be something more 
conventional and adult, but it’s 
doing a shaky job of achieving 
those 
goals. 
The 
executive 

producers of this show are 
seasoned 
veterans 
in 
the 

comedy world, so it’s not hard to 
imagine it growing and finding 
its distinct voice. However, it’s 
just not there yet.

ALBUM REVIEW
Drake and Future 
don’t deserve hype

Buzzy mixtape 
doesn’t bring fire

by RACHEL KERR

Daily Arts Writer

The diamond emoji found its way 

into every phone’s “recently used” 
section on Sunday night, when 
Drake and Future dropped their 
collaborative 
mixtape, What A 
Time To Be Alive. 
The cover image, 
a 
stock 
photo 

of some bright-
ass 
diamonds, 

seems an unusu-
al choice for the 
artists’ collabo-
ration – until you 
remember 
that 

it’s 2015. Oh, and 
what a time it is 
to be alive — a time of Vines and 
memes, hashtags and retweets. 
And so the diamond emoji littered 
my Twitter feed — and the com-
ment section of Meek Mill’s Insta-
gram — because that’s exactly what 
Drake and Future intended for it to 
do.

Even before the tape debuted 

on Drake’s OVO Sound Radio, the 
Internet was already in a frenzy. 
For weeks, there were rumors of 
a mythical project in the works. 
Coming off of successful summers 

— Drake’s If You’re Reading This 
It’s Too Late went platinum and 
Future released the highly antici-
pated DS2 — there seemed to be a 
spark catching between the two. 
And then when Meek Mill, first, 
claimed Drake used a ghostwriter 
and, second, told a DJ to turn off a 
Future song at his Made In America 
Festival set, he ignited the fire.

Unfortunately, this fire is out-

shined by that now-relevant dia-
mond emoji; the tape’s Internet 
presence is stronger than the 
actual content on the tape. It’s 
already been memed, tweeted, Ins-
tagramed and whatever the fuck 
else you can do on the Internet. Its 
lyrics have already settled nicely 
under Instagrams because Drake 
and Future know their audience. 
They know we prefer sound bytes 
to full-length songs and emojis to 
actual words.

And when the two biggest rap-

pers in the game announce a col-
laboration, it almost goes without 
saying that it won’t live up to the 
hype (Watch the Throne, anyone?). 
They have radically different styles, 
making it hard to create a cohesive 
sound. The result: DS2 scraps with 
Drake features on them. Because of 
trap-heavy production by Future’s 
go-to guy, Metro Boomin, Drake 
sounds completely out of place. 
And, let’s be honest, can anyone 
understand what the fuck Future is 
saying? If you can make out words 

through his codeine-induced mum-
bling, you realize he’s actually rap-
ping about some serious shit. And 
then we get Drake, still just, like, 
talking about women. The tension 
between their chosen subject mat-
ter makes it, at times, almost awk-
ward to listen to. Like in “Live From 
the Gutter,” we feel like Future’s 
actually been there, and Drake — 
well — he definitely hasn’t.

Still, the tape is not without 

strengths. “Jumpman” is a straight 
banger — one of Future’s verses 
is just “NOBU, NOBU, NOBU, 
NOBU, NOBU, NOBU.” “Change 
Locations” gives us the Drake-iest 
Drake verse we’ll find on the tape 
— “2 in the morning, my mind is 
on you / 4 in the morning, it still 
hasn’t 
moved.” 
“Scholarships” 

finally manages to meld together 
Drake’s pop-like delivery and 
Future’s trap-like production per-
fectly.

And part of the appeal of the 

whole project, the initial reason 
the Internet exploded, was its 
unlikelihood. These two artists 
don’t need each other’s help. They 
didn’t need to collaborate, and see-
ing as they reportedly recorded in 
a mere six days, it doesn’t really 
seem like they had the time to 
either. They did it purely for us.

So it doesn’t matter if you find 

the diamond emoji luminous or 
lack-luster because, chances are, 
it’ll be around for a while.

B-

What a 
Time to 
Be Alive

Drake x Future

Cash Money/

Epic Records

TV REVIEW
‘Blindspot’ tries to 
elevate usual drama

By MATT BARNAUSKAS

Daily Arts Writer

A gray duffle bag rests in 

the middle of a crowded Times 
Square. Amid the mass of 
people, a sole police officer 
notices 
the 

bag and reads 
the 
red 
tag 

attached 
to 

it, 
“Call 
the 

FBI.” 
Cut 
to 

a 
now-empty 

metropolis, 
a 
lone 
bomb 

squad 
officer 

walks 
toward 

the bag through 
the 
desolate, 

LED 
screen-

lit streets. He feels for wires, 
but instead finds movement. 
Stumbling back, he watches a 
naked woman emerge, covered 
head-to-toe in ornate tattoos. 
Dazed, the woman looks out at 
the world, trying to cover her 
eyes from the harsh brightness 
of her new reality.

Taken into custody by the 

FBI, the woman, known only 
as Jane Doe (Jaimie Alexander, 
“Thor”), has no memory of who 
she is or what happened to her 

— completely lost in her own 
existence.

It’s a hell of a hook devised 

by creator Martin Gero (“L.A. 
Complex”) to introduce viewers 
to his latest series, “Blindspot.” 
Produced 
by 
the 
prolific 

Greg Berlanti (“The Flash”), 
“Blindspot” offers up a visually 
enticing concept for a series 
 
— tattoos containing clues to 
solve a crime — while remaining 
generally 
formulaic 
in 
its 

execution and structure.

Using the crime-solving duo 

trope that has been common 
since the days of Sherlock Holmes 
and John Watson, “Blindspot” 
pairs Jane with FBI agent Kurt 
Weller (Sullivan Stapleton, “300: 
Rise of an Empire”), whose name 
happens to be tattooed on Jane’s 
back. This pairing of an authority 
figure 
with 
an 
unknown 

wildcard is highly overused in 
this TV season — new shows like 
“Minority Report,” “Limitless” 
and 
“Rosewood,” 
which 
all 

incorporate 
variants 
of 
this 

formula. However, “Blindspot” 
allows itself to stand out from 
its contemporaries by giving the 
more intriguing maverick role to 
a woman.

Alexander is “Blindspot” ’s 

best asset, portraying the trau-
ma Jane has undergone with 
a vulnerable humanity. Jane’s 
like a child in many ways — she 
understands the world and how 
it works, she but lacks a sense of 
belonging within it. While dra-
matic scenes like Jane breaking 
down as she looks at herself pro-
vide emotional gravitas, small 
moments truly give Alexander 
the ability to flesh out her per-
formance. In one such scene, 
Weller tells Jane she should 
get some food to eat. Her quiet 
response, “I don’t know what I 
like,” reflects how lost Jane real-
ly is as Alexander stares, wide-
eyed, looking for answers.

Stapleton, 
unfortunately, 

has less to work with than his 
onscreen 
partner. 
Weller 
is 

given, in many ways, a parental 
obligation to Jane, trying to 
guide this complete unknown 
through the world, and these 
moments give Stapleton his 
best opportunities to display a 
dynamic character. But, Weller, 
as of right now, is given minimal 
character detail. He has no 
home, family or anything to 
distinguish his work and private 
life from each other. It goes 
to show that by the end of the 
episode, more information is 
given about Jane’s cryptic past 
than Weller’s present situation.

Jane’s search to uncover the 

secrets of her past brings her 
to work with Weller. In this, 
Jane finds purpose, as she goes 
into the field alongside Weller 
when one Chinese tattoo gives 
the day’s date and an address. 
As 
the 
layers 
of 
mystery 

behind the markings unravel, 
so do the layers of Jane Doe. 
Certain aspects of her past life, 
including expert marksmanship 
and 
fighting 
skills, 
slowly 

unfold throughout the episode. 
While 
the 
show 
relies 
on 

the 
relatively 
traditional 

procedural 
crime 
structure, 

“Blindspot” lifts up its approach 
by adding a personal motivation 
of self-discovery for the show’s 
protagonist.

“Blindspot” relies on well-

known storytelling methods that 
are essential to the crime drama 
genre. However, it introduces 
enough reconfigurations to its 
layout to make its premise not 
feel completely derivative, and 
uses its talented lead to sell 
the emotional necessity of each 
weekly case.

B-

Blindspot

Series Pre-
miere

Mondays at 

10 p.m.

NBC

ALBUM REVIEW
Disclosure’s misstep

By CARLY SNIDER

Daily Arts Writer

Disclosure knows what works 

for them — a radio-friendly com-
bination of rolling house beats and 
soulful vocals. While the response 
to this tem-
plate on their 
first 
album, 

Settle, 
was 

overwhelm-
ingly positive, 
following 
the 

same mold on 
a second record 
may have been 
a misstep for the English duo. As 
is sung on “Echoes,” “Such repeti-
tion calls for concern.”

Bringing back Sam Smith, as 

well as numerous other heavy-
hitters, Disclosure is flexing their 
newfound star-power. Artists like 
The Weeknd, Lorde, Miguel and 
Gregory Porter all make cameos, 
each catering their voices to Dis-
clocure’s electro-soul sound. The 
record’s first track, “Nocturnal” 
feat. The Weeknd, is by far the lon-
gest song on the album and plays 
like a remix of a remix of a pre-
existing song by the artist. It plays 
on both of the artists’ strengths — 
Abel Tesfaye’s syrupy vocals and 
Disclosure’s funky-house beats.

The second track features 

Smith of “Latch” – “Omen” 
is clearly trying reconjure the 
popularity of it by highlight-
ing Smith’s silky voice and 
Disclosure’s blooming, crescen-
do-ing beats. But while catchy 
and dynamic, “Omen” still lacks 
the playful, infectious nature of 
“Latch.”

“Holding On” feat. Gregory 

Porter is the only song on the 
album that doesn’t start with a 
recurring beat, but rather with 

a powerful cry from Porter. The 
track continues in typical Dis-
closure fashion from there on – 
establishing a basic beat, layering 
in a repetitive chorus and inter-
jecting a brief bridge.

The peak of the record comes 

in Lorde’s feature on “Magnets” 
and “Jaded.” Lorde’s vocals are 
unlike any other featured on the 
album, cheekily bobbing in and 
out of the melody, with a staccato 
singing style that complements 
the succinct backbeats of the track 
perfectly. Moving into “Jaded,” 
the same kind of punctuated bass 
beats are used in combination with 
the duo’s UK garage sound and 
expressive vocalization.

From that point forward, little 

is done to break the monotony of 
each track. The rolling, punch-
ing beat of “Superego” and the 

smoky chorus of “Masterpiece” 
attempt to pull the second half 
of the album up from its droning 
trenches, but they ultimately fall 
short. The signature groove-based 
beats of Disclosure may have been 
able to carry them on Settle, but 
even with its myriad of big-name 
features, Caracal is in need of a 
little something extra. While not 
overtly unpleasant or dull, the 
tracks simply lack diversity. Cara-
cal would be perfect sprinkled 
throughout a house party mix but, 
when listened to in one sitting, 
blends together into an unidentifi-
able mush.

Disclosure’s reliance on guest-

star appearances caused them to 
forget what made them so suc-
cessful in the first place — their 
innovative sound. Settle was so 
well-received because it pushed 
the boundaries of what Top 40 
music could and could not do 
— “Latch” was a game changer. 
Instead of continuing down their 
inventive path, Disclosure stuck 
with exactly what worked in the 
past. Though Caracal delivers the 
kind of sound that Disclosure fans 
have come to love, it also leaves 
listeners reaching for something 
more — and it just isn’t there.

B

Caracal

Disclosure

Island Records

ISLAND RECORDS

Blinded by the white.

Adult ‘The Muppets’ 
needs time to grow

B

The 
Muppets

Series Pre-
miere

Tuesdays 

at 8 p.m.

ABC

ABC

Admit it, you’ve pictured it too.

TV REVIEW

Disclosure 
forgets what 
made them.

