Note: This review may contain spoilers, but I will try to limit them to only what is necessary.
When I was growing up in the late 80's/early 90's, every Friday night was filled with one thing in our household. TGIF, also known as "Thank Goodness It's Funny" on ABC was filled with several comedy sitcoms, such as Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and of course, Full House. It was a different era of television than we see today, but I have fond memories of all the catch phrases, and the feel good shows where you didn't really have to think too much, you just sat back and enjoyed. So to say that I went into the new show on Netflix, Fuller House, without at least a little bit of bias would be a lie, but I still think that I'm open minded enough to not rely too strongly on these past memories of the show to shape how I viewed the new series.
Fuller House picks up around 20 years after Full House went off the air, and is now following the family life of DJ Tanner-Fuller, her best friend Kimmy Gibbler, and DJ's sister Stephanie Tanner. To say that there are similarities to the original show is a huge understatement, as DJ has recently lost her husband (originally Danny losing his wife), and is left to raise her three boys (again, Danny left to raise his three daughters), and gets some help from Kimmy and Stephanie (Joey and Uncle Jesse in the original). And the similarities don't stop there, as DJ has essentially become Danny, Kimmy has become Joey, and Stephanie has become Uncle Jesse. The similarities and the way they were modeled after each of these three is pretty obvious from the early goings, and continues to develop throughout the entire first season. I'm not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, as they were all raised by these three men, so it only makes sense that they would pick up some of their traits, but sometimes it does come off a bit much. I would have rather seen them show characteristics of each of the three men that raised them, but considering how the show played out, it almost makes more sense that it played out the way it did.
As I said, it was a different era in television back in the early 90's, so the over-the-top nature of the show to not really mimic real life, but to instead show what an "ideal" family life would be like, and the new series doesn't try to hard to bring the show into reality. In fact, it really feels like they embraced it and really went for it, saying despite that times have changed, we aren't changing for you. It really gives the feeling that the show was created for the fans of the show, and they just basically said, "If you don't like it, you don't have to watch it." Since I was a fan of the older show when I was growing up, this didn't bother me. In fact, there were several episodes throughout the season that really made me feel like I was watching the older episodes as opposed to the newer ones. Since it feels like that is what they were going for anyway, I guess I can only say that they accomplished exactly what they set out to do. Try to appeal to the fans of the older show, and just try to thrive on nostalgia alone.
I am surprised at all of the completely destructive criticisms that the show has been receiving by other reviewers. I can see where some of them have a point, and for those that never watched the original show that decides to check out a couple of episodes, I can even see why they wouldn't watch any more episodes past the first or second one, but some of the things I have read are just ridiculous. The show is not great, but it's certainly not terrible, and when you compare it to the original and look at the show for what it was meant to be, I think they hit pretty much on the mark most of the time. There are some serious laugh out loud moments, especially with some of the inside gags from the original, and there are also some times where they just completely missed the mark, but overall I feel that there were more hits than misses.
If I were to come up with one solid complaint, it would be how they are trying to stay in the 90's with the style of the show, but then they felt that they had to include certain things to try to make it more edgy. For example, it's a show aimed at families, of all ages, but there are some serious adult jokes that fly by at times. I know that most young kids watching are going to just let those jokes fly over their head and not think about it, but some of them were really just right out there. I have a 12 year old and an 8 year old, and they both loved the show, but there was more than once where they looked at me like, "What are they talking about?" or "They sure do kiss a lot on this show." The original show had some of these types of jokes and such as well, but I always felt they were more subtle. The new show kind of passes over subtlety and just throws it out there, where you can't really leave it up to interpretation.
I can honestly say that, despite several of the moments from the show being too much, or trying too hard to make you remember why you liked Full House in the first place, I did like the show. I won't go so far to say that I loved the show, but I will say that I will watch Season 2 when they make it (which has already been greenlit). It truly does capture the feeling of the original show, and you can pretty much predict what is going to happen, but I don't necessarily think that is a bad thing unless they are trying to make the show something more than it is. It is meant to be just a sit down half hour, watch it with the family, and then when it's over, move on with your life type of show, and for that, I think they accomplished exactly what they set out to do.
My rating for Season 1 is 7/10
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