This week will see the return of The Jim Henson Company’s acclaimed reboot Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock for its second season on Apple TV+, and Laughing Place was provided access to advance screeners for the purposes of the review below.
Looking back on the past decade or so of 1980s pop-culture franchise reboots, it would be difficult to find one that successfully recaptured the spirit (and overall quality) of the original like Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock has. In the first season, which was released more than two years ago, the creative talent assembled by The Jim Henson Company pulled off something even I– as an avowed lifelong Fraggle fan– never thought possible: they recaptured the sincerity, warmth, and endearingly tactile nature of the beloved first version, even going so far as to surpass it production-value wise in a number of ways. And now Back to the Rock is back again for round two, and from what I’ve seen that winning streak has indeed continued, with this iteration actually one-upping itself this time around.
The story of this second season begins with two inciting incidents that (I assume, only having watched the first five installments so far) reverberate throughout all 13 episodes– a windstorm generated by an enormous fan coming from Doc’s (Lili Cooper, the lone recurring human character in the show) laboratory, and the introduction of an invasive species of strawberry (or as Uncle Traveling Matt– voiced by Dave Goelz with Kevin Clash as puppeteer– calls them, sweet radishes) to the Gorgs’ garden. Both of these events wreak ecological havoc on the ecosystem of the Fraggles, Doozers, and Gorgs to the point where they each have to adjust their own ways of life to account for them. But with that as the basic framework, the season naturally also includes the usual entertaining adventures of Gobo (John Tartaglia), Mokey (Donna Kimball), Wembley (Jordan Lockhart), Boober (Goelz’s voice again, with Frank Maschkuleit as puppeteer), and Red (Karen Prell).
Special guest stars this season include Hamilton’s Daveed Diggs returning as recurring character Jambolin, singer Adam Lambert as The Great Glitterini, Wish’s Ariana DeBose as Mezzo, Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein as Pryce, and Beetlejuice’s Catherine O’Hara as Leader. But mostly so far this season has been about the Fraggles learning some pretty valuable lessons and exploring mature themes like the idea of “echo chambers” (via intentionally irritating creatures called the Repeatee Birds), tackling the differences that divide us, and even the concept of being non-binary (which frankly I understand better than ever now thanks to the fifth episode, entitled “I’m Pogey”). Of course it’s all couched in Fraggle Rock’s wonderful sense of adventure and discovery and presented in a way that I believe viewers of all ages will appreciate and understand. During my recent interview with executive producer Halle Stanford, she mentioned that creator Jim Henson’s original intent with the Fraggles was to bring about world peace, and that may not happen– at least right away– due to this season, but it would be very tough to argue that these captivating puppets and their enchanting environments aren’t doing their part.
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock season two will premiere this Friday, March 29th, exclusively via Apple TV+.