Mediocre stuff...


Standard sitcom stuff.

The first episode would belong someone near the bottom and what's the point of having a studio audience when it all just sounds like a laugh track? It's so disrespectful.

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First episode was certainly serviceable. It's easy to see that all the new characters are reworks of the old ones. There was a few brief sparks of the old writing. Grammar still felt very much in the role. I get the feeling that's just who he is in real life. Show structure and set designs pretty much mimicing the old show as well. The David character is annoying and total dead weight. Apparently Frasier has become ludicrously rich with Iron Man money in the last twenty years. Some of the writing was off and rushed. Frasier foams at the mouth in a typical rant about wrapping up his son in a web of lies and no such encounter plays out with the old shenanigans, things are just immediately settled and swept aside. But as a pilot it did its job fine. Characters, setting, and show tone have all been set.

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Yes, the David character is not doing that well so far, but he wasn't given much to work with as yet, so let's wait and see.

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After watching the second episode, I think the problem with David is he's a punchline and not actually a character yet. I'm sure they'll get around to fleshing that out soon. I definitely like the dynamic of giving Freddy a contrasting family member, in this case a cousin instead of a brother. But really how much can the show ever focus on that if the star is Frasier?

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Did you like the second episode better than the first?

I did.

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Yep. Bit of a recycling of old story beats, but I get that that was the point. I especially enjoyed the scene with the firefighters. There was some good classic Frasier writing in that, solid jokes. And bit before that where Frasier is having the powwow his buddy and he ends up diagnosing himself. Solid stuff.

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Also Freddy lives with Frasier, David does not, so he is likely going to be sidelined for a while.

Maybe when Frasier's classes at Harvard become more prominent on the show he'd have more chances to be utilised.

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There's certainly plenty to work with assuming the show gets picked up which i'm sure it will. They threw a whole lot of characters and story setups out there all at once. Frasier took years to build that up and they're trying to jump right into it.

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David so far has actually been a big hit with my family. They were all bummed that the actor who played Niles didn't return and they appreciate that he's giving off a Niles-like vibe.

I don't have a strong opinion either way. Personally, I'm enjoying Eve. And I'm very impressed by how, after all these years, Kelsey Grammer is able to just slip back into the character and play it perfectly without missing a beat.

Overall, we (four of us) were all happy with the show and think it's better than we expected it to be.

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Wow. Well that's awesome. And that seems to be what most of the fans on the facebook groups think as well.

Personally, I don't get it. Glad you enjoyed it.

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Thank you.

Perhaps expectations plays into it. I know that I went into this with fairly low ones and they were exceeded considerably. I actually laughed out loud a few times and it's very difficult to make me do that.

I would give it a 7. The rest of the family's scores ranged from a 7.5 to a 9.

I've noticed that the critical response has been quite mixed, but the RT audience score was a 90 the last time I looked and the IMDB score right now is a 7.3, so it seems the fans are generally pleased.

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But it did give a good closure in regards to the ending of previous show.

Frasier got together with Charlotte for about 20 years, until they broke up and that is why he decided to leave Chicago. He worked as a successful TV talk show host in Chicago, maybe similar to Dr. Phil, which should be good money (a quick internet search shows Dr. Phil is worth 460 million), and that is why he could afford to buy the building. That is why the Harvard department head wanted him, to use his celebrity to attract more students and funding.

Everything makes sense, which rarely happens in movies and TV shows these days, so that is kind of satisfying.

The Harvard department head of course has to be a black woman, and "brilliant scholar", which was from someone held grudges against her, so it is a bit hard to believe, also he has tenure so "absolute terror" of what? But anyway it is the standard these days, and considering Harvard has quota of students based on race, even that is not so far fetched.

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I actually quite liked the first two episodes.

The laughter track feels out of date but otherwise, pretty good.

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Out of date, perhaps, but appropriate for this show.

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There's nothing wrong with a studio audience but modern sitcoms for some strange reason film in front of an audience but use a laugh track. Older sitcoms didn't do this. Watch something like Married With Children or Martin. Those were real laughs from the people in the audience. As a sitcom fan, I'm fed up with what Hollywood is doing with multi cam sitcoms. All they're doing is making people hate them but it's really because they choose to make them poorly.

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I just watched the first episode. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either. I like that they didn't change everything. The graphics, the title cards between scenes, and the closing credits song (with a tweak) are all the same. I think there's room to grow, but lightning will not strike twice.

With that said, I do think making Frasier even richer than he was in Seattle is a bit of lazy writing. How much more interesting it would be for Frasier and his high-brow ways to suddenly be thrown into the middle class world. Freddy could be the one with the financial windfall. I think there would be a lot of material to mine there.

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All good points!

It's awfully hard to follow up one of the most acclaimed sitcoms in television history.

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It's awfully hard to follow up one of the most acclaimed sitcoms in television history.

Agree, and probably impossible to do. I do admire them for trying. Kelsey Grammar seems to have settled back into Frasier well.

Since he's back in Boston, I wonder if any of his Cheers buddies will show up even though the episode with the Cheers buddies in the first run Frasier was one of my least favorite episodes.

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I didn't care for that one either.

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The first 2/3 of the episode wasn't good at all but did improve toward the end with the best part between Freddy and Frasier talking about Martin. It has a chance to be decent but the writing will have to improve.

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Just watched the first episode on YouTube. Apart from Frasier saying what he wanted most in life was to be a good father (as if), the episode seemed fine to me. A perfect recreation of the original show with new cast members. Completely faithful to the aesthetic of the original. People who liked the original - and there were millions - will no doubt enjoy this as well.

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