Frasier (2023)

The season has so much going for it. Cutmore-Scott really comes into his own and makes Freddy a more fleshed out figure rather than the blunt instrument he felt like throughout the first season. But there are still times where the beauty and complexity of this father-son relationship is simplified to justify a plot development, and its relative failure always seems tethered to when the joke writing is its weakest.

While some of the gags don’t quite land, it allows us to explore the testing of the older men’s friendship, with the humour undercutting any potential for saccharine sentimentality.

There are also many jokes about Frasier’s enormous wealth, yet the generational divide that underlies them is never explored. As Grammer’s peers have proven, this revival could have been more than a faintly satisfying exercise in 90s cosplay.

The new Frasier isn’t as awful at the beginning of its second season as it was at the beginning of its first. But it’s not great, either. The recommendation is because of all the guest stars that we’re going to see this season and a hope that the first episode of the season won’t be an indicator of what the rest of the season is like.

Even at its best, the Frasier revival doesn’t hit the heights one would expect or hope for. When it’s good, it’s mostly just really fine. When it’s bad, it feels disappointing to even call it Frasier.