I've been putting off this review. I've watched the episodes and have my notes, but every time I sit down to write this, I just can't. I want to identify precisely what's going wrong in the second season of the Frasier reboot on Paramount+, but there are so many things that it's hard to know where to start.
When Frasier 2.0 was first announced, I was intrigued. Kelsey Grammer is always game to return to this character. But then word came that this reboot would not include Niles (David Hyde Pierce), Daphne (Jane Leeves), and Martin (John Mahoney, who died in 2018), I wondered, why bother?
The first season had a rough start but found some footing, and by the end, I could anticipate a decent laugh or two. Plus, I'll watch any episode that reunites Frasier and Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). The biggest fault of the Frasier reboot isn't the weak writing (although that's an issue) or the antiquated sitcom setup with a laugh track (which doesn't help); it's the bland supporting cast. What made the original so much fun was the snobby banter between Frasier and Niles, Martin serving as exasperated common man, and Daphne injecting metaphysical commentary. The new cast has an impossible task to try and fill some of those archetypes.
“Ham”-FRASIER, Pictured Nicholas Lyndhurst as Alan and Kelsey Grammer as Frasier. Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ ©2024 Paramount+. All Rights Reserved
In this reboot, Frasier has gone back to Boston to teach psychology at Harvard and reestablish a relationship with his firefighter son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott). He's crazy rich, and his banter partner is an old college friend, Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst), who also teaches in the psychology department. Rounding out the cast is the department head, Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoyle), Freddy's best friend's widowed wife, Eve (Jess Salgueiro), and Niles and Daphne's son, David (Anders Keith). None of these characters are memorable, and each episode is constructed like a three-act play where you see the joke set up a mile away, and it never really hits. Frasier and Lilith's son, Freddy, should be more interesting. Growing up with those two as parents and Martin as a grandfather should make for an interesting combination, but instead, he's boring. Daphne and Niles' son, David, is supposed to be smart but naïve, but instead comes off as dim. All the progress made by the end of the first season has been erased, and we're left with a thrown-together mess stuffed with really talented comedic actors serving as guest stars (Amy Sedaris is working overtime in her episode).
“Cyrano, Cyrano”- FRASIER, Pictured: Jess Salgueiro as Eve, Jack Cutmore-Scott as Freddy, Peri Gilpin as Roz, Patricia Heaton as Holly and Kelsey Grammer as Frasier. Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ ©2024 Paramount+. All Rights Reserved
Plotlines from this season: Frasier and his friend Alan, buy an expensive ham; Frasier flirts with a bartender Patricia Heaton on Valentine's Day; Frasier, Alan, and Freddie use Eve's baby to pick up women, and Frasier's agent Bebe Glazier returns with her daughter, Phoebe (Rachel Bloom) to try and convince Frasier to abandon his newly finished memoir and revive his successful TV show. The most painful part is that David reads Niles' feedback on the book throughout the episode, making you notice his absence. One cutting remark provided through David, "If it helps, my dad wrote, 'Overwrought, overwritten, over it.'" I could hear Niles delivering this line and imagine the scowl Frasier would volley back.
We are halfway through this season, so there's still some hope. Episode eight teases a return to Seattle, which might be fun, but I'm going to need a Lilith episode soon.
Do you you have reboot fatigue? How are you enjoying the second season?
