"Whatever happened to predictability?"
Nobody should remember Full House for being a great comedy. It delivered jokes unworthy of its laugh track, but wore its heart on its sleeve, and for millions of people who grew up with the Tanner household, that was all it needed to do. Fuller House is no different.
It's not really a good show, but for the adoring fan base, this sequel series will feel very comfortable. Fuller House adapts the original series' premise as widowed single-mother D.J. Tanner Fuller (Candace Cameron Bure) gets help in raising her three boys from her sister Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin) and her best friend Kimmy (Andrea Barber) in the same house in which she grew up. There's something wholesome and familiar about it that makes it watchable despite the many, many jokes that land with a thud. If anything, the actors delivering those clunkers are the main attraction here. Candace Cameron Bure makes a good Danny Tanner replacement as a square single parent. Jodie Sweetin has fun as the wild Uncle Jesse proxy, and Andrea Barber—who hasn't acted since the original series—walks away with every scene she's in, making Kimmy Gibbler just as endearingly interminable as ever. Kimmy's not a great character, but Barber's unbridled enthusiasm makes her a joy to watch.
The original elder stars—Bob Saget, John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Lori Loughlin—all slip back into their roles well enough. They're featured selectively, giving the new ensemble (which features some bearable, and often likable, child actors) a chance to make the show their own, but it's just so damn gratifying to see them turn up. Coulier and Stamos in particular are so familiar with their roles it's as if they've been getting together and practicing in the 20 year interim.
If you're not in anyway emotionally attached to Full House, there's really no reason to seek out this revival. Like the original show, it's not terribly funny, and the true hook of the series is the charm of its core cast members (which is admittedly less charming this time around). I watched the first episode, and groaned internally at the stale jokes and stagy, on-the-nose re-introductions of the characters, but for some reason I kept watching. I can decry wasted talent when new multi-camera sitcoms play it too safe and too broad, but watching Fuller House, I can only say this is what the old show was, and this is what the new show should be. To be more clever would betray the feel of the original material.
I used to watch Full House in re-runs on Nick at Nite as a kid, and while I can't say I remember laughing a lot, it felt like visiting a friendly family just down the street. The show's theme song, now updated by Carly Rae Jepsen, is what stirs those nostalgic feelings in me more than anything else in the revival. It has that same warm feel, and it still asks the question "Whatever happened to predictability?" Fuller House demonstrates that it's never left, and that's fine. There's something very satisfying about just smiling and thinking, "I remember this."