Random Thoughts-Will & Grace & Roseanne Reboots

So this year we got two 90’s shows brought back to life in the form of Roseanne and Will & Grace. Word is next year we’ll get Murphy Brown as well. So, the big question is how were these reboot’s?


Here are my thought real quick :




And yes I know Roseanne is still halfway through it’s very mini season but I’ve seen enough episodes to comment on it. And honestly, it doesn’t feel like the same show. It feels more like someone trying to copy the show. Yes the characters are there and recognizable but it doesn’t have that “real” feeling either. It feels like if Roseanne made a new show for today and just had the same cast in there. They are also trying too hard to be topical. The Trump love in the first episode, Roseanne’s over the top punishment of her granddaughter in the second episode, Darlene’s son wearing dress feels painfully forced and not realistic, Becky’s surrogacy makes no sense and is dropped before it even begins, and while it was great to see Johnny Galecki reprise his David character did they have to make him such a dead beat dad that Dan wont even allow him in the house? And why the heck has DJ hardly had two lines? There were some funny gags and I laughed at times but the feel is just not there. I don’t mind the retcon that keeps Dan alive but it just feels, off. The laughter even felt forced, like a terrible laugh track. There are four more episodes so maybe I will change my mind but so far the show feels off the mark.




Unlike Will & Grace which nails it. Maybe because the creative team is basically the same right down to director Jim Burrows. As I noted elsewhere they did a big retcon basically eliminating the final season of the regular run. And since that season (especially that last episode) sucked, it’s no big loss. It does feel like the same show, ok maybe not Season 1 when it was new but certainly not as old and stale as it got. It’s not perfect, the Trump stuff is a little much especially in the first episode which was almost worst than on Roseanne, and some of the guest spots from the old days were basically there to wink at the audience and offer very little. The worst was Alec Baldwin who comes onto the scene as if he’d been there all along. Sure. Some of the stories got icky like Will and Grace having sex with the same guy and another where it turned out Grace had sex with three generations of the same family, but that’s what Will & Grace did. The characters felt the same with Grace being Slothen, Will being alone, Jack being man hungry and Karen the rich socialite. But while the same it was clear their lives had evolved since the original run. They did a nice tribute when they killed off Rosario (the actress didn’t want to return) and their Christmas episode was…..interesting. So overall, I liked it. Was every episode perfect? No I got bored a few times. But it wasn’t awful and I look forward to its return.



IMDB kind of summed up my feelings as it had Will & Grace’s new episodes added as if it was just another season while Roseanne’s was under a totally different show as if it weren’t the same show that we loved in the 90’s.


That’s it for now, agree or disagree? Comment and let me know.