Frasier is the best sitcom ever. With equal parts sophisticated wit and uproarious everyman humor, the series made me fall in love with the charm of Seattle’s most neurotic psychiatrist. It’s hard to believe that nineteen years have passed since Frasier Crane last heard the blues a-calling on primetime, but now he’s back in a ten-episode revival on Paramount+. Here are my thoughts.
October has turned out to be my favorite month of 2023: a revival of my favorite TV show debuted on the twelfth, new studio albums from two of my favorite bands came out on the twentieth, and a fresh installment of my favorite video game series dropped out the same day. This is the final installment. Read the rest here.
The original Frasier was a spin-off of Cheers. In it, Kelsey Grammer starred as the pompous Dr. Frasier Crane. Fresh off a divorce, he moved back to Seattle to host a call-in radio show. There, he reconnected with his fastidious brother Niles, their blue-collar father, Martin, and Martin’s dog Eddie. Frasier’s sarcastic radio producer Roz and Martin’s loopy home healthcare worker Daphne rounded out the ensemble.
Frasier’s 264 episodes were propelled by a combination of cosmopolitan humor, rapid-fire dialogue, ridiculous misunderstandings, and physical comedy that resulted from the clash of high and low culture. The end of the original series wrapped things up so nicely that I didn’t think I needed more!
I did, as it turns out. The revival begins like the first episode of a bizarro twelfth season. Frasier returns to his hometown of Boston with his nephew David in tow. Frasier’s ostensibly there to do a favor for his old school chum Alan, but he takes the opportunity to try to reconnect with his estranged son, Freddy. Soon, we’re introduced to Alan’s boss Olivia, and Freddy’s roommate Eve.
The six round out the show’s main cast. That’s right- aside from Kelsey Grammer, none of the original actors returned so far as we’ve seen. I chafed a little as I missed my old friends, but Grammer steals the show in the role he was born to play.
Nicholas Lyndhurst’s Alan is the clear standout of the rest of the cast. A snobbish, boozy grouser coasting through the back forty of his tenured teaching career, Alan’s sharp wit and breezy barbs remind me a lot of Niles. The resemblance is most apparent when he bickers with Toks Olagundoye’s ambitious, man-hungry Olivia. She’s the series’ new Roz and shines throughout her limited screen time.
The younger characters fall flat, but Freddy, played by Jack Cutmore-Scott, is the best. A quick-witted firefighter with a plastic jug of scotch and some keepsake Fenway Park dirt, Freddy covers the rest of Martin’s old role as the blue-collar side of the original series’ culture clash. Unfortunately, there isn’t much for Jess Salgueiro’s Eve to do other than check the goofy Daphne box. For most of the episodes, Anders Keith’s David is flat-out annoying.
The original Frasier set an impossible standard for cast chemistry and writing quality, but it didn’t fully find its stride until its second season. It’s too early to judge the revival based on the handful of episodes we’ve seen, but I’m not sure Frasier will capture lightning in a bottle a second time. Its writers seem content to set us up for gags straight out of How I Met Your Mother or The Big Bang Theory. Unfortunately, most land with a whimper despite the studio audience’s overbearing guffaws.
That said, the show starts to pick up by its fifth episode as the spirit of the original begins poking through. Eve is given more substance, Freddy gets more likable, and David finally seems like an actual person instead of a cartoon. Nearly all of my full-on belly laughs came from Alan and Olivia, but the strongest were reactions to Frasier himself. Kelsey Grammer hasn’t lost a step over the past twenty years, and that’s enough for me to keep watching.
I knew that new Frasier wouldn’t come close to the quality of the original. It doesn’t, and the show is merely good. I give the revival six out of ten Seattle skylines, but I hope to award it eight or nine Bostons as it continues to establish its own identity. Overall, I’ve decided to find it charming.
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I’ve been curious about the new Frasier. I loved him in the old series, especially the repartée with Miles. I’m amazed by all the different interests you maintain, though. I’m always interested when your mom shares stories about your shared activities. In fact, I’ve heard stories about you on and off for years (along with your siblings). Your mom and I went to Ball State together and were Spanish students together. All of you came to my house once and played with my son and had lunch. I’ve become Facebook friends with Sally too.
Hi Bonnie!
If you like Frasier as a character in a vacuum, you’d like the new series. Kelsey Grammer does his best in it, but aside from a few standouts, the cast doesn’t quite measure up for me so far.
I do my best to hang out with mom every chance I get! Even though I’m exasperating at times, she’s been game to go on some great adventures. I love our times together.
I remember coming to your house and swimming! Lots of fun!
I am one of the people who never fell under the spell of Frazier. I had liked Cheers, and always found the Frasier Crane character the most annoying on the show. However, perhaps I would have liked the show if I had given it a chance. I agree that it can often take quite awhile for a good show to find its footing.