The Frasier reboot is the ultimate example of a bad TV revival
From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
During the last few months of December, I indulged in my regular holiday tradition of watching Christmas episodes of my favorite sitcoms. Thanks to Hulu’s curation of holiday episodes (why are they the only major streamer to do this?), it was easy to find the right episodes and I ended up binge-watching all the episodes FrasierChristmas episodes. Somehow they were even better than I remembered, but like Lillith’s arrival at a Christmas party, one thing marred my joy: the memory of them Frasier “Reboot” is comparatively terrible and possibly the best example of a bad TV revival.
The Frasier reboot plot
If you haven’t had the dubious pleasure of experiencing it Frasier Reboot yourself, here’s the rundown: We begin with our title character at a crossroads after his father dies, Charlotte leaves him, and his Dr. Phil-like talk show comes to an end. He decides to start over and return to Boston to take up a new teaching position at Harvard while rekindling his relationship with his son. But everything – from the difficulties of adjusting to his new job to finding a shared culture with his firefighter son – is a constant reminder that Frasier may have gotten older, but not necessarily wiser.
Why it’s bad
If this recap is done faster than Eddie running out of the bathroom, why do I think so? Frasier Is Reboot the ultimate example of a bad TV revival? The first and perhaps most important reason is that the revival’s main cast is literally missing all of the ensemble characters that made the original series a hit. Recurring characters are mostly doled out in small cameo appearances, leaving audiences with a new cast of characters that simply aren’t as entertaining or engaging as the previous ensemble.
That’s not the actors’ fault. The cast is generally talented but equally original Frasier Author Ken Levine explained on Hollywood & Levine that other than his son, none of the characters in the reboot have any real connection to Frasier himself. This includes his Harvard professor Alan Cornwall, supposedly a “best friend” but who was “not mentioned once.” Cheers or Frasier. That’s a great point, and the longer he talked, the more it became clear to me that the many problems with the show’s characters are the reason things keep unraveling (both in the narrative and in the comedy). could be an outstanding reboot.
Levine’s breakdown also includes Eve, a new mother who, in the new version, lives with Frasier’s son after her firefighter boyfriend dies. Levine points out that we have to ask ourselves an important question about her character’s history: “What does this have to do with Frasier?” He then asked if it was possible to “lose this character” before moving on with certainty his own question answered, “Could be sure.”
The last Frasier reboot character Levine focused on was Olivia Finch, Frasier’s dean at Harvard, who is only too eager to hire a major celebrity as a lecturer at the university. The author asked the big question: When it comes to a university as prestigious as Harvard, “why do they go out of their way” to hire famous faculty, something that has only ever been done for a “very small college, some made by Middlebury University.” Her fascination with celebrity status also makes it harder to answer, “What’s her role?” when it comes to bossing Frasier around.
It’s actually getting better
Reading his thoughts felt like a revelation. Honestly, I felt a bit like Frasier himself as I internally raved about the new series, and Levine came in like Martin to talk some straight sense into me. An ensemble show is by definition Nothing without his characters and the Frasier Depending on the strength of the characters, Reboot would always succeed or fail. But compared to the old one Frasier Given the new reboot, it’s easy to see that the new series’ characters were a failure in every way.
Still everything FrasierThe film’s flaws didn’t stop the reboot from getting a second season, and this season (in fairness) managed to improve on its existing characters while bringing back original fan-favorite character Roz Doyle. While Season 1 was the ultimate example of a bad TV revival, in Season 2 it seems like the series is finally moving in the right direction (albeit very slowly and still with rather clunky characters). And that leaves a moral worthy of a classic Frasier Christmas Episode: That even for the worst among us, it’s never too late to work on getting better.
