OT: Fuller House

Girl Meets World better step aside for some real gangsters.

What is it? multi-cam half-hour (24 minutes? I actually don't know how Netflix works not having it) all-round family sitcom revival
Where did it air? Netflix exclusive, which means you need a Netflix membership to watch it, but hey, at least you can binge watch the entire season whenever the hell you feel like it!
Who stars in it? Most of the original cast and some new people I don't know
Why are we reviewing it? Well we're not really reviewing it, but Mike has some words about it. It'd be nice to review because it is somewhat related to Boy Meets World in more ways than one, and it really is in many ways the grand-daddy of the shows we normally review from Nickelodeon and Disney Channel anyway.
As some of you may already know, the first season of Fuller House premiered on Netflix yesterday. For those of you who are too young, never watched the series in its original run or have no idea what syndication is capable of, Fuller House is a reboot of Full House. One of the most infamous textbook family sitcoms of all-time (seriously, this show would have its own unit in a family sitcom class), Full House aired from 1987-1995 on ABC and starred a man named Danny Tanner, enlisting the help of his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (Cochran was his last name in season one) and his best friend Joey Gladstone to raise his three daughters after his wife's death. Full House pulled every catchphrase and cliche and cute kid out of its hat and became an immensely popular series. Nobody will ever mistake it for Cheers or The Cosby Show or The Simpsons, but damn you, it was endearing.

The reboot is basically the premise of the original show, but now the oldest daughter is Danny, the middle one is Jesse, and the oldest daughter's best friend is Joey. So there's that. Bottom line is, as a big Full House fan who has already seen bits and pieces of the reboot, I have to get in on the action.

Unfortunately, I don't have a Netflix account and I wanted to do a review where I compare and contrast it to Girl Meets World. It only seems appropriate. So if anyone has any links where I can just watch episodes and not have to sign up for any crappy websites or give out personal information, be more than happy to share it with me. The fate of this review and the blog rest in your hands.

Okay, not really, but you know what I want. Unknown, feel free to get in the discussion if you have anything to say or contribute to the review when (or if) it comes out. 

EDIT: Never mind. I got a friend's account. Don't know when I'll be able to do a review but it's all up to timing, I guess. 

Oooh now i jump in!

I don't have Netflix either but I've heard and seen enough fan reaction on places like IMDb and Twitter, and of course access to the plethora of critical reviews. Out of the gate, Fuller House is as beloved by critics as the original - which is to say, not at all. In fact like Disney Channel's own Jessie, A.N.T. Farm and Austin & Ally before, critics seem to have found immediate use for Fuller House as a proverbial punching bag.

Gawker and AV Club seem equally less-than-enthralled by Fuller House as well (AV Club's review, in fact, is one of the ones that made it into the clip above).

Of course, that doesn't matter - critical praise doesn't pay the bills (see one of my favorite shows of all time, FX Network's Terriers, a legitimately good show that won tremendous critical praise but almost no one watched). Audiences seem to love Fuller House. In fact some people seem to think it's outright kicking GMW's ass and that Micheal Jacobs can learn a thing or two from the Netflix crew. 

I'll watch Fuller House eventually - what that looks like is anyone's guess. Maybe when I actually get Netflix (at this point, actually most likely), maybe through other means that might not necessarily please the guy in charge of keeping track of Netflix's copyright claims on YouTube. But I do know that Fuller House is unapologetically tapping in complete full the nostalgic factor for better or worse down to dated references and catch phrases. Meanwhile, Girl Meets World tries to adapt a formula for a time when maybe that formula is just past its prime. Both approaches have their advantages and disadvantages, and quite honestly in the end it's meaningless as both series happen to be on networks that essentially make them both completely sheltered from and invulnerable to cancelation and the type of forces responsible for ending a show prior to when the writers want to make that call (for example - despite the shock of many pundits because quite frankly it's literally their job to freakin' know stuff like this - Netflix has a policy to guarantee their series two seasons minimum no matter what, even if literally nobody bothers to highlight and click a single episode title; the reason why is to prevent The Firefly Effect). But they still remain highly relevant to students of television nostalgia, history, and just basic storytelling decency. So, we'll see.

As for the original - like Mike (frankly I'm shocked he's old enough to even remember Full House) I do have fond memories of the show, though watching reruns of it on Nickelodeon has severely tested that nostalgia (for my modern tastes it's quite honestly almost unwatchable). Of course my 9-10 year old self didn't know better...but I guess that explains why critics hate Jessie and Austin & Ally yet how those shows can spit out four seasons.