In Defense of Netflix’s ‘Fuller House’

Fuller House dropped on Netflix this past Friday. It’s everything that it’s predecessor (Full House ABC 1987 – 1995) was. The traditional multi-camera show shot like pretty much every sitcom was in the 1980s and early 90s, complete with laugh track. Fuller House is a shameless retelling of the original story only with the kids now as the grownups. The oldest daughter DJ (Candace Cameron) is the widowed mom of three boys and her sister and best friend move in with her, in the same house. (Kind of how Star Wars The Force Awakens mostly retelling of the original Star Wars trilogy with a new younger more diverse cast.) Of course, to update into this century, there is a bit more sexual innuendo, and one of the characters speaks Spanish. They even try to be a bit “meta” as they talk about the Olsen twins and how they are too rich to act in stuff like this these days.

Let’s make no mistake about it. Full House wasn’t Seinfeld, Frasier, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, The Office. To compare with more contemporary ABC multi-camera sitcoms, Fuller House isn’t even on par with The Middle, The Goldbergs or Blackish. DJ in the gang aren’t even the same room as Netflix’s other original comedies like Kimmy Schmidt and Master of None. In fact, Fuller House should never even be spoken in the same sentence as those two shows.

But here’s the thing, it’s not trying to be any of those shows.

Fuller House sets the bar low. The plots are easy to see coming. They go for simple laughs based on corn and nostalgia. Certainly not laugh out loud funny, but you will smile or giggle from time to time. The three leads: Candace Cameron Bure, Jodie Sweetin and Andrea Barber all do a fine job bringing their characters up to 2016. Of course, no pun is too obvious. This is the type of show where they have a Bollywood dance number and aren’t trying to be ironic. In other words, put your mind on hold because Fuller House is not high-brow humor. It’s cheesier than a cheese sandwich made with cheese instead of bread. Of course, in a world where we have presidential candidates insulting each other on a 24-hour news cycle, it might not be such a bad thing to munch on a mental cheese sandwich once in a while.

Side Note: John Stamos and Lori Loughlin have aged very well. Loughlin still looks like she could still play Black Canary in a retooling of Birds of Prey.