Fuller House loads on the nostalgia for fans

BY OLIVIA LITTLE

Whatever happened to predictability? It’s found in Fuller House, and a little bit too much of it.

After much anticipation from Full House fans everywhere, Fuller House premiered on Netflix Feb. 26.

The 13-episode spinoff of the popular ’90s sitcom brings back most of the old cast, including Bob Saget, John Stamos and Candace Cameron-Bure. Even Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) and Aunt Becky’s (Lori Loughlin) twin boys are in the first episode, now all grown up.

The plot focuses on the eldest and recently widowed sister, DJ (Candace Cameron-Bure) who is left to parent her three young boys on her own after her firefighter husband tragically dies in a fire.

Her sister, Steph (Jodie Sweetin) and her long-time best friend and still eccentric Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) offer to move in to the family home and help her raise her sons.

(Photography from Netflix)

It’s identical to the original storyline, only with a gender swap. It’s predictable and unoriginal. The previous plot focused on Danny (Bob Saget) raising his three daughters with his friend Joey (David Alan Coulier) and brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos).

The revamped theme song sung by Carly Rae Jepsen brings loads of nostalgia, modernizing the original “Everywhere you look” as well as showing photos of the actors now and then.

The first few moments of the premiere were overloaded with popular phrases like Stephanie’s “How rude!” and Uncle Jesse’s “Have mercy” and had almost too many Full House callbacks crammed into the first episode.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen who co-starred as the youngest daughter, Michelle, were the only two who didn’t return for the Netflix reboot.

Thus Danny makes a comment that Michelle is too busy “working on her fashion empire in New York” to be here, followed by the full cast staring straight into the camera with disapproving looks for a good 30 seconds. This results in a loud roar of laughter from in-studio, despite not being that funny (or comfortable).

If anything, the show is only for Full House fanatics to get a look at the actors now.

From left, Kimmy Gibbler, Stephanie, DJ and Tommy Jr. (Photography from Netflix)

Uncle Jesse, every little girl’s first crush is still looking as sexy as he did in the first episode back in 1987.

However, it was disappointing to learn that all of the “adults” of the original show, although in the first episode all leave to fulfill other commitments and are only seen in sporadic episodes throughout the rest of the season.

New characters are introduced, including DJ’s three sons, Jackson (Michael Campion), Max (Elias Harger) and Tommy Jr. (Dashiell and Fox Messitt) who are just as lovable as DJ, Stephanie and Michelle in the early episodes of Full House.

The season had as many sentimental family group hugs and “violin music moments” as one would expect after watching the original sappy Full House. However, they could have delved deeper into the bigger issues like DJ recently losing her husband or Kimmy (Andrea Barber) going through a divorce. Instead they just seem to quickly move on to lighter topics and not-so-funny jokes.

Although it is probably considered “bad TV” and won’t be winning any awards anytime soon, the reboot has already been getting a lot of praise and positive comments from Full House fans all over the Internet and they are already asking for more seasons. It’s obvious that fans will love it, even if only for the nostalgia that it brings them.