A Special Look at “Fuller House”-Season 1

 

As I think everyone knows, the Full House sequel premiered on Netflix this past February 26th. I finally managed to watch the episodes the other day. What did I think? 

Um….let’s start at the beginning. Oh, and if you haven’t watched it and yet want to be surprised there are spoilers coming.


Full House was an 80’s series which was just corny and sweet and harmless. The premise was simple, widowed Danny asks his best friend and brother in law to help him raise his three girls. Yeah the writing wasn’t strong and the plots were basic, but the characters were charming. It kicked off ABC’s TGIF and was around for eight years. Last year a deal was finally  struck to bring the series back on Netflix, and at long last it has premiered.


The premise was a switch of the original show. This time Kimmy and Stephanie are living in the house helping D.J. raise her three boys (and Kimmy’s daughter). The rest of the original cast appears in the pilot and then stagger through the rest of the thirteen episode (except Mary Kate and Ashley, we’ll get to that). D.J. is widowed and a veterinarian (I can buy that), Kimmy runs a party planning company (Ok), and Stephanie….I’m not sure, they say DJ but to be honest, it’s kind of vague. Stephanie as a party girl who stays out all night is a little hard to swallow. Where’s the backstory? Even when they brought back old boyfriends in one episode they had to go allll the way back to the second season of the old show to find one for Stephanie. Would have made more sense to give her an old flame and, well, a backstory aside from she likes to party! Seriously after watching all episode I get where D.J. and Kimmy have been but what the hell happened to Stephanie? In the pilot she is ready to dash off and then changes her plans in a blink. She is a traveler but it’s also stated she is unemployed and poor??? Then she talks about launching a singing career? Ok Ok there is one major revelation but I’m not spoiling that.


Ok I am getting off track. As I was saying the was announced months ago and I was hyped, until I read a nasty review in Entertainment Weekly. Turns out they were a little harsh..but not that far off the mark either. So this brings ma back to my question, what did I think?  Well first of all, when did Jodie Sweeten get so hot? Actually all three look pretty damn good. I will say the chemistry between Kimmy, DJ, and Stephanie is great. Course it should be. It’s the same house and the same actors, even the same (recreated) set.  As far as nostalgia value goes, it was great to see the whole cast together again. Even supporting cast like Stephanie’s old friend Harry (played by a different actor so why bother?), Steve, and even Nicki and Alex all grown up. The problems begin when I take the nostalgia glasses off.

Apparently the actors forgot how to act, at least in the first episode. There is a lot of badly given lines and laughing at their own jokes. I think they forgot this wasn’t a Jimmy Fallon sketch. This does get better as the series went on. There are fourth wall gags and the references to the old series are ok but get tired…Stephanie stopped saying “How Rude!” after the third of fourth season of the old show so having her keep keep saying it as an adult feels forced. And Steve has a dog named Comet IV which is also stupid. And the references to Michelle involve quoting catch phases she stopped using after she turned three!


So how is our cast? Andrea Barber keeps playing Kimmy like she is still a teenager. It was a fine as a kid but as an adult her constant smiling makes her seem like she’s on some kind of medication. The rare times she is allowed to let her guard down she isn’t bad. Thankfully she is still likable. At least D.J. and Stephanie are played as adults, and really I can’t find any fault with either of them. The kids? DJ has three sons Jackson, Max and Tommy. Kimmy’s daughter is Ramona. They’re OK not the best but not the worst, I could stand watching them. Jesse and Rebecca didn’t bother me (though the fact they have been together for 28 years makes me oh so old!). And while I liked Bob Saget’s return as Danny I can’t say the same for Dave Coulier. Good god Joey is annoying here and serves no purpose, even when the episode tries to give him one. It’s as if even he knows there is no real reason for Joey to still to be hanging around so may as well just have fun with it.


And yes, Mary Kate and Ashley did not appear at all. This annoyed me when I first heard about it, I think they could have gotten off their high horses and made a cameo at least. Full House is what made them famous, it’s only fair to acknowledge that. It’s also an insult to the character, Michelle would have been there in a second! But they didn’t appear we manage to get a bunch of jabs through the series directed at them. The least subtle came in the pilot, when the actors literally break the fourth wall with a wink to the audience so obvious it almost hurt. But again, I would be a bit hurt to if i were the others since Mary Kate and Ashely seem to have no respect for the sitcom family that their careers going. Or the fans that supported them for so long. One claimed they didn’t do it because she hadn’t acted in so long. Didn’t stop the others!

So since all thirteen episodes came out at once (which makes no sense to me but whatever) I managed to watch or at least skim through them. Let’s review real quick :





1. “Our Very First Show, Again”
Yeah it seems like most everyone agrees the pilot is not very good. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t see why. It is really cool to have everyone back but none of them feel like they’re trying. The conflict that brings Kimmy and Stephanie into the house is the kind of thing that would have been resolved in another episode, it’s really just amounts to D.J. letting her guard down for minute and being overheard. But because we need a series, rather than explain that to everyone Kimmy and Stephanie step in as if to say “we know you can’t handle this so we’re going to help!”. In the original Danny asked for help. By the way in case your curious, DJ had moved her and the kids back with her father a year earlier after her firefighter husband was killed. Now he is moving and, yes, ends up letting her stay in the house.
It’s a reunion and sets up the new series, so I guess  that’s enough.



2. “Moving Day”
As the title suggests it’s moving day and this does feel like a real episode rather than a sketch on a comedy show. The problem I have is that the plot reminded me of at least three other episodes from the old series (one of which was literally referenced). Come on guys, can’t you be a little original? Kimmy and her daughter move in and DJ’S son doesn’t like his life being turned upside down.



3.”Funner House”
I forgot to mention Kimmy was divorcing her ex, well he spends the series trying to win her back. The girls go out for a girl’s night while Joey babysits the kids. And this is the episode I was alluding to when I said how annoying Joey is in this series. The girls night out stuff is pretty good but what the hell is Macy Gray doing here?



4.”The Not-So Great Escape”
I got the feeling the writers read “The Official Sitcom Cliche Handbook” because I swear every gag I have ever seen on The Brady Bunch was used in this episode. It involves Ramona dealing with her new school while the girls have hi jinks at the vet center where DJ works. The episode is more interested in silly gags then showing actual character development. Jackson and Ramona get in trouble at school but we see nothing of what happened after they got in trouble.




5.”Mad Max”
Remember that episode of the old series where Jesse misses his old life. But then when he tries to get it back he realizes how much he loves living with the girls? Yeah same plot only this time it’s Stephanie. At least the classic episode did this after a whole season, here it’s been four episodes! Fair is fair, and the scene between DJ and Stephanie at the end is one of the best scenes in the whole show. More scenes like that would have been nice.



6. “The Legend of El Explosivo”
An episode about the kids wanting to see Mexican Wrestling but D.J.’s son is punished. Mexican Wrestling? Yeah…next.


7.”Ramona’s Not-So-Epic Party”
It’s Ramona’s 17th Birthday party. It turns into a blackout episode half way through, as if they writers had no idea what to do with the idea. It turns into an episode about Ramona waning her parents to be together. And by the next episode they pretty much are.



8.”Secrets, Lies and Firetrucks”
Max learns to lie. Yeah that’s about it. Kimmy and her ex keep bouncing back and forth. Also Bob Saget appears and seems to be trying a little harder. His scenes with the girls are pretty good. We also start an arc about DJ wanting to go out with a new guy where she works, but Steve is still around. It’s to bad Danny isn’t around regularly I think he adds a nice dynamic the show could really use full time.



9.”War of the Roses”
A bunch of roses are delivered to the house and the girls try to figure out who sent them. It’s Kimmy’s ex which is obvious though they try (and fail) to make it a surprise. Lori Loughlin appears and is still really awesome.



10.”A Giant Leap”
Hunter Pence of the San Francisco Giants, Stephanie’s new boyfriend, invites the girls to a Baseball Game. Yep. So cliche I barely watched it. More of DJ’s boyfriend dilemma. And Steve’s continued romancing of D.J. makes him look real sad..dude she dumped you twenty years ago and has been married! It ain’t happening!



11.”Partnerships in the Night”
When DJ’s boss is retiring she thinks she is getting the business. But her new sort of boyfriend gets it instead. They end up deciding to go partner. There’s also some nonsense with a cow and while it;s been done before it does feel like a classic Full House scene.



12.”Save the Dates”
Kimmy’s ex keeps wooing her and DJ is still torn by her two men. Yeah, not much really new here. In fact this episode just gets ridiculous. After the girls play Twister, Stephanie fills in for Kimmy’s ex who is romancing her, and she and Kimmy have a dance which leads to….nah, you have to see it. There is some good stuff with Stephanie being an aunt.



13.”Love Is in the Air”
How did the season end? Jesse and Rebbecca are around to renew their vows. We have Kimmy marrying her ex, which makes the kids sad that they wont be living year anymore. Even though it’s only been a dozen episodes and it;s hard to believe they’ve gotten that close that fast. So does the wedding happen? What do you think? We also have the resolution to DJ’s arc. How does it end? Let’s just say it makes the last three episodes kind of pointless.

So, is the show funny? Some of the jokes were funny, though a lot of them were predictable too. Though others are a little far fetched. Like the tomato sauce gag with Stephanie and the kids I can’t even begin to describe here. Like one where Becky changes the babies clothes like magic, or the one where a hawk delivers Kimmy’s engagement ring. I think the creators need to remember it’s a simple family show. And I think the humor was a tad more low brow than I remember the classic show with more crass humor. Of course this isn’t the 80’s or a major network during the family hour so maybe I can accept that.



Yes there are retcon’s. Did you know Stephanie changed Michelle’s diaper? Or that Kimmy and D.J. participated in a Dirty Dancing contest in 4th grade? Or D.J. always beat Stephanie at Twister? I hate when TV reunions pretend things happened that clearly never did in the original series. To be fair they do make references to things that did happen.  My big gripe is that the new show just doesn’t have the heart the classic one did. I almost miss that corny music sting that came in every episode. This show could have really used it! Even for a sitcom, the problems are solved so easily. The episodes did get better as they went, and we did some good stuff here and there. Oh and that new theme song? It’s ok.

So, my final thoughts? Fuller House is like a big frosted cake which looks yummy and even tastes yummy, but there is nothing really substantial or healthy about it. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it as a guilty pleasure. And if you were a fan of the old show it’s totally worth at least a taste. The cast all works and the chemistry is there just not quite fleshed out yet.


I’m almost glad there’s a season two coming because it will probably be a lot better now that they’ve figured out what works, and what doesn’t. More than likely we will get a much better show next year.

If you loved Full House, you’ll most likely love Fuller House. I’ve gone on enough, what did you guys think?