Fuller House Season One
Starring Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber, Soni Nicole Bringas, Michael Champion, Elias Harger, John Stamos, Bob Saget, Dave Coulier, Lori Loughlin and Scott Weinger.
SYNOPSIS:
In Fuller House, the adventures that began in 1987 on Full House continue, with veterinarian D.J. Tanner-Fuller (Candace Cameron Bure) recently widowed and living in San Francisco. D.J.’s younger sister/aspiring musician Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) and D.J.’s lifelong best friend/fellow single mother Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), along with Kimmy’s feisty teenage daughter Ramona (Soni Nicole Bringas), all move in to help take care of D.J.’s three boys — the rebellious 12-year-old Jackson (Michael Champion), neurotic 7-year-old Max (Elias Harger) and her newborn baby.
It’s been over 20 years since Full House ended its eight season run. Now the whole family, and some new members, are back for the all new Fuller House. Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) is finally moving out of the house we’ve all come to love and has decided to leave it to his older daughter D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure) and her three boys, since her husband has recently passed away. Seeing how difficult it’s going to be for D.J., her younger sister Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) steps up and decides to move into the house with her. To fill out the house D.J.’s best friend and next door neigh Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) and her daughter decide to move in as well. Essentially, we have the same set up as the original, show only with three females instead of males as the leads.
While it’s nice to see these characters all come back, there seems to always be a lot of variables in making a reboot of an older show work properly. We’ve seen it be somewhat hit and miss on shows like Girl Meets World but Fuller House seems to struggle with who exactly it wants to target. The problem is that you can’t focus on just one demographic – you have to try and cater to everyone; that means putting in plenty for a new generation of kids who will hopefully have a new show to grow up with, but at the same time you have to offer everything for the kids who grew up with the original series and are now adults. It’s really not a simple task to do both and unfortunately Fuller House never really gets either right.
Right off the bat in the first episode we see every character from the original, minus Michelle (the Olsen twins), and they are greeted to an array of applause from the audience. This is something that stays constant throughout the season anytime we see Danny, Joey (Dave Coulier), Becky (Lori Loughlin) or Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) make a guest appearance. It’s almost unbearable each time it happens. That and the constant call backs to the old show can be a little much. Not that I don’t want to see them bring things up from the original show, but this new version seems to want to rely on that a little too much to the point of it becoming overbearing. The writers really don’t spend enough time letting you get to know the new kids, they just want you to relive the good old days with the characters you already know. That’s fine but you have to find a balance. Also we get it, the Olsens didn’t come back, you don’t have to point out how Michelle isn’t there in almost every episode.
Despite my obvious gripes with certain aspects of the series there are some good moments to be had. Each actor and actress who returns from the previous series falls right back into their characters and it really feels like the show never ended. It’s great to see how they’ve managed to keep the chemistry that they all had so many years ago. The one new kid who actually does stand out somewhat is Max (Elias Harger). He’s basically the new version of Stephanie but he puts it all out there every episode. Kimmy’s daughter Ramona (Soni Bringas) isn’t too bad but she isn’t given too much to do, on the other hand D.J.’s oldest son Jackson (Michael Champion) is the weakest new edition. This I believe is more the boy they got to play the role rather than the character himself.
After one full season the show has basically solidified what it is – a carbon copy of the original series. That might be a good thing for some and a bad thing for others. In the end, the show should work for most Full House fans but sadly I don’t see this series grabbing a lot of new kids to bring along for the ride.
Jake Peffer – Follow me on Twitter
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Originally published March 5, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
