Roseanne is the rebooted American sitcom, created by Matt Williams and produced by Roseanne Barr herself. It follows the Conner’s; a dysfunctional but typical American family, as they tackle all the challenges that life throws their way – including each other. In the newest reboot, we are reintroduced to a new ‘Conner’s family – the kids are grown up, the parents have retired, and everyone’s got a lot on their plates.
In this week’s episode, its mother dearest versus daughter dearest, and Mark makes the best damn bird house I’ve ever seen. No exaggeration.
So, we’ve seen Rosie and Jackie fight a lot, about a variety of different topics. But nothing warms my heart more when they come together to argue about who hates Momma Connor more (note the sarcasm!!!). Seriously though, this is a weird time in the season for them to come together and work as one. Hilariously enjoyable to watch, but weird.
Momma Connor comes to stay after being kicked out of the home, and thusly gets tossed around by the two sisters over who she gets to stay with. This creates the best bonding scenes between the family members. The other cast members get to step back and let us watch these two really shine in this episode, and I love that. There’s a very emotional scene near the end of the episode between Jackie and Beverly (after the old woman tries to jump out of a window, of course) where Jackie realises she wants her mother to live with her, so they can repair their broken relationship, which I thought was touching. Jackie’s line of “my life would be better without you, but it would be so much better if it was better with you” really got to me, and I hope we see their relationship change and improve later down the track.
Beverly Connor is definitely something else; she’s degrading and very unsupportive of her children, but she has her moments, I guess. Of course, the highlight of the episode (and my life, to be honest) is when she feels so unwanted, she breaks out of Jackie’s apartment, runs away to Becky’s, and is caught getting ‘busy’ with her boyfriend, Christopher Lloyd (the character’s name is Lou, but you can’t help pausing the episode and going, ‘ITS CHRISTOHPER LLOYD!’. I mean, that’s what I did, anyway).
I don’t think the mother/daughter relationship is the only bond growing here. At the end of the episode, Rosie gives Jackie a very heart-felt hug, and thanks her for taking on the ‘burden’ of their mother. Seeing them be very sweet and genuine around each other (mixed in with the good ol’ Connor banter) is very nice to see, and something I definitely want to see more of later on. The two sisters make me die with laughter!
Other than the great mother/daughter/daughter bonding going on, there was a weirdly-placed scene where a group of ladies (I think some of them were family friends? I might have to research further into this!) were gambling, and one of them casually mentions that she’s gay, which of course, got me very excited. Though it was a weird scene, it was still enjoyable, and seeing that role reversal between Bev and Rosie (Rebellious teen versus strict mother) was definitely a lot of fun.
My favourite pairing returned this week! Mark and Dan seriously are a force to be reckon with in terms of their humour and soft bonding. Dan gives Mark the job of painting and building a bird house for his customer, and Mark delivers. I mean, I’d pay the kid to design my future home, he’s so insanely talented with clothes and art! I sincerely hopes he uses his skills in the future, because that kind of skill is unique. I’m very jealous and also very proud. Of course, Dan doesn’t approve, as Mark didn’t follow the given instructions, and the sub-plot ends with a heart-warming scene of Mark learning how to balance between letting his creativity flow and following the rules. Mark is the best character on this show, hands down, and I want to protect him with all my heart.
GRADE: 8.5/10. We’ve all had our fair share of mummy problems, and its not an uncommon plot convention for TV, but it was still enjoyable and funny to watch! Also, I demand more Christopher Lloyd (in this show, but also just generally in my life, let’s be honest).
