Originally published on Set The Tape
This year I took part in the Set The Tape Listmas articles, sharing my thoughts on some of my favourite media from the last year. I talked briefly about a couple of TV shows that I enjoyed.
Frasier (2023)
Frasier is my favourite sitcom of all time. Between the DVD box-set on my shelf and TV reruns, I’ve seen the whole 11 series through at least a dozen times and will still sit to attention whenever I find it on a channel. But when it was announced that Frasier would be returning after a 20-year absence, I was unsure about it. The more I learned – that it would be set somewhere else, that only the titular character would be coming back – I began to hate the idea. Spin-offs and reboots are rarely as good as the original, and this would be a spin-off of a spin-off.
But a friend of mine saw the first couple of episodes and advised me to try it. And I’m so glad he did. Though taking a while to find its feet, I soon saw that this was still the show I loved. The first episode had some jokes that made me laugh out loud, and some heartfelt moments that moved me to tears. The Frasier spirit was still kicking. As the season went on, it began settling into itself and became a show that I looked forward to each week.
The new cast bring a unique energy to things, to a degree which may even have worked better than simply just bringing the original cast back. Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) gets put into a new life, forced to adjust to a changed environment and figure out his relationships. It’s great to see the inevitable clashes and hi-jinks that brings, as well as the tender moments too. The various nods to the late, great John Mahoney help, not only reminding viewers of the history, but also showing that the new showrunners care about the on and off-screen history too.
Star Trek: Lower Decks
I was discussing Star Trek with my partner recently and said that there isn’t a Trek show that didn’t take a while to get good, using the spectacular Deep Space Nine as an example – boy, were the first two seasons bad in places. Yet as I was making that argument, I realised that I actually couldn’t find fault with Lower Decks at all. Since it premiered, the animated excursion has been firing on all cylinders, mixing the Trek we know and love with wacky animated comedy, in a balance that must be hard to do but the show makes look effortless.
The latest season continues to do just that whilst, in addition to adventure-of-the-week antics that add to the overall universe, introducing a season long arc that feels like a genuine mystery. It also turned out to be a surprisingly satisfying season for long-time Trekkies. Not just content to bring back Rom (Max Grodénchik) and show the progress he’d made as the Grand Nagus, the show also connected things back to the original ‘Lower Decks’ episode of The Next Generation in a genuinely heartfelt way.
If you’d have told me an animated comedy Star Trek series that featured evil holographic com-badges out to kill people, a tiny bone-eating monster called Moopsy, and jokes that poke fun at recycling the same actor in multiple roles was going to end producing the most consistently excellent Trek ever made, I’d have laughed at you. But here we are. A show that isn’t afraid to try wild, wacky new things which bring a brand new life to this long running universe. A love letter to the series that came before, Lower Decks might just be one of the most perfect shows in the franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment