I'm an enormous fan of the original Frazier, it is one of the finest sit-coms ever, the writing and acting was second to none.
Admittedly only 2 episodes of this sequel have aired so far and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for a few more but thus far I'm not impressed at all.
Things that need to improve, fast:
Cheers and Frazier had an edge to them, they were that sharp, slightly mean. This feels like an ABC early evening overly sanitised American 'comedy' that people may like but never really laugh at. So far this is very 2020s, there's nothing to laugh at.
Admittedly only 2 episodes of this sequel have aired so far and I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for a few more but thus far I'm not impressed at all.
Things that need to improve, fast:
- Niles and Daphne's son isn't a character, he's a poor pastiche.
- the Dean of the school is a cliche and in this instance is neither used to deliver comedy or as a straight-man to bounce jokes off.
- the character played by Nicholas Lyndhurst has very few jokes and is again another lazy cliché.
- the premise of Frazier taking a job and buying a building feels forced and is a regurgitation of the original premise.
- the son character immediately jumped into "feelings" with zero comedy value.
- Frazier has lost his angst, his blundering despite best efforts, his effete snobbery has been removed. All the stuff that made him funny.
Cheers and Frazier had an edge to them, they were that sharp, slightly mean. This feels like an ABC early evening overly sanitised American 'comedy' that people may like but never really laugh at. So far this is very 2020s, there's nothing to laugh at.