Fuller House is out on Netflix and long-time fans of the family sit-com hunkered down this weekend with their college roommates and families and watched the anticipated spin-off. With the roles reversed, DJ Tanner is living the newly single mom life with kids, reminiscent of Danny Tanner's new single dad status back in 1987. I loved Full House growing up, and I had my doubts about this sequel, but I gave the first episode a fair shot. I walked away disappointed and cringing.
I first watched Fuller House, then re-watched the first episode of Full House. I wondered why I loved Full House and Fuller House just doesn't have a chance at being what it once was. There's distinct differences between both and here are the reasons I didn't like Fuller House.
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1. The Double-Edged Sword of Recycled Material
The first episode was nothing but recycled jokes. Uncle Jesse still begs for mercy. Joey still has his Mr. Woodchuck puppet and does Bullwinkle impressions. And Danny still thinks Kimmy is a creep. All these quirks of the show are restored for the nostalgia kick millennials get, because that is the show's intended audience, but the jokes fall flat. Quite frankly, it feels like a dead horse is being beaten, 29 years later. The recycled mannerisms of these classic characters don't serve the show well because as a millennial, I didn't laugh because these are things I've seen before, and for new viewers who didn't grow up with the show, the jokes don't make sense. No person under 18 knows who Bullwinkle is and I'd be surprised if they even saw The Flintstones as kids.
2. Unnatural and Forced Dialogue
Critically speaking, I felt like the dialogue for this show was written amateurishly. The conversations between members of the family felt forced, unnatural, and lacking the cleverness of the original series. Writing dialogue is an art and it's certainly not easy writing, but I shouldn't be watching a professionally produced show, as an amateur, and thinking "Oh come on, I could have done better than that." There's an easier way to slip in everyone's new jobs and the sex jokes take away from the innocence of the family-friendly aspect of the show.
3. Hammy Acting
The acting in sit-coms are notorious for being cheesy but I felt like it was taken over the top in this first episode. If you watch the first episode of Full House and Fuller House one right after the other, you will see a similarity in acting style but here's the difference that's bound to make you uncomfortable. In Full House the hammy acting was balanced out by clever situations or dialogue. The scene where Joey and Jesse change Michelle's diaper for the first time is hilarious despite the over-fluctuating speech patterns because the physical aspect is funnier by comparison. However, Fuller House is trying to be a sit-com in the way that it mimics the show's mechanics and set up but it doesn't have that comedic spin on real situations which makes the hammy acting especially obvious.
4. Over-Used Laugh Tracks for Non-Jokes
Laugh Tracks are obnoxious forever, all the time, and until we all die by the zombie apocalypse. I despise them. Laughter as a desired effect, is never achieved by telling people when to laugh just like being moved to tears doesn't happen in a drama unless you lead people there with details on character background, actor expression, and music.
5. A Dance Number (Really?)
Dancing and having a good time while listening to New Kids on the Block is great... but I have never seen a family have a choreographed dance for anything before. It felt very out of place and seemed as though it was just meant to take up air-time.
6. Needless Resurrection
This show tries to recapture the magic that Full House once had in the 1990's while forcibly integrating millennial culture and fails to do both in the process. Resurrecting a show just for the sake of nostalgia is not a good enough reason. If asked, I couldn't come up with a reason for this show being brought back other than "Well, I guess they just ran out of ideas."
