We Need To Talk About Fuller House

That's right.  This was serious enough to resurrect the blog, people.  I, in my role as the premiere imaginary entertainment reporter, had to address this situation of national importance.  Fuller House was a big, fat flop.

Let me start by saying that this isn't how I wanted things to go.  My sister and I loved the original, (and love traditional sitcoms, in general).  I watched Full House like everyone in my age group, as part of TGIF when it originally aired.  My sister, being nearly ten years younger, watched it in repeats until she's seen every episode multiple times.  We are not your casual viewers. When we found out about the Netflix revival, we made an unbreakable date to watch. An entire Saturday was blocked off.  Snacks and drinks were acquired.  We were focused.  We were ready.  We lasted two and half episodes before we started watching YouTube videos instead.

The fact that they show was so boring that we gave up really bothered me.  In the name of research, I decided to finish the rest of the episodes on my own today.  And I've arrived at a few thoughts on how this train ran so badly off the tracks.

1) Fuller House is so busy patting itself on the back about how clever it is that it forgets to actually be clever.  The jokes are either cheap or just chances to say catch phrases.  When they aren't doing that, they are throwing shade at the Olsens or just being meta and it might make you smile but it doesn't make you laugh.

2) They forgot to bring the heart.  Full House was a sitcom, but we loved the characters and we felt for them.  We mourned the mother that DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle were robbed of.  We felt their heartbreaks and happiness.  And we just aren't given that in this new show.  DJ has one teary scene about her husband and then it's all about the love triangle.  We are not given a chance to really invest in these characters beyond what we already know about them.  And that was ultimately disappointing.

3) The writing just wasn't good.  My bar for dialogue is not that high.  But it's higher than what was happening here.  It felt like Netflix just got together a few B-string writers and said give us every trope you've got, without context or merit.

4) It relies too much on the history of Full House instead of trying to be its own thing with memories from the old show mixed in.  This is what I think other revival shows, like Girl Meets World (which I happen to love), get right.  Girl Meets World gives us the character drop-ins we want, but within the context of telling a new story.  In the finale, which I liked better than some of the other episodes, Becky and Jesse were renewing their vows, but without their kids or Danny?  This was shoehorned into the plot in such a careless way, it actually makes sense when Jesse and Becky leave without telling anyone.

5) I didn't care who DJ picked in the love triangle. I get that all the true fans were supposed to root for Steve, but he just kind of weirded me out. He was just too much. And I liked Matt, but I feel like we didn't really know him at all.  And trying to go through the whole process in 13 episodes just felt really forced.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.  I wanted to love it, but I just couldn't get there.  If you disagree, I'd love to hear your point of view.  Maybe I just didn't get it.  But it wasn't for lack of trying.