By Alex Kostka, Staff Reporter.
“Full House” is back… well the Fuller family is. That’s right. As of Feb. 26, 2016, 13 episodes of the new first season were launched on Netflix for every ‘90s aficionado to binge watch. Sure, you might have heard terrible reviews from other publications **cough cough Hollywood Reporter** but believe me when I say that I’m convinced they’re just jealous that the Tanner/Fuller family is way more functional than their own. Listen, I’m not going to sit here and waste your time by defending this ‘90s reboot, but it definitely is for the fans or newer fans that may have picked up the original show after its end date 20 years ago.
The series is based around DJ Fuller (formerly Tanner). Her husband passed away firefighting and she is left widowed with her three sons: Jackson, Max and baby Tommy. Who is there to move in and help her out in her time of need? Her middle sister Stephanie Tanner and best friend Kimmy Gibbler. Kimmy, played by Andrea Barber, now has a daughter named Ramona. The family lives in the same house as the Tanner family did in the original series, and the series starts with Danny preparing to sell the nostalgic home that everyone grew to love in order to move to Los Angeles full-time. When he overhears his daughter DJ and her concerns about her family’s future, he decides to take the house off the market. To help her out he gives the house to his daughter to live in along with her three sons, sister, best friend and Ramona.
DJ, who’s now a veterinarian, is in the same place as her father was in “Full House” raising her three kids after her soulmate passed away. I guess you could say the show flipped a few things around, and it might seem the exact same, but in my opinion they didn’t drive the legacy of “Full House” into the ground, and it’s not as cheesy as some might think. They didn’t just throw the characters back into their roles, and recreate the show as if DJ and her father felt like switching places. The transition was smooth, the majority of the cast reappears in the first episode and throughout the season, and they all look like they haven’t aged a bit. John Stamos (Uncle Jesse) is even a producer on the series now, returning with executive producers Jeff Franklin, Thomas Miller and Robert Boyett.
Kicking off is the first episode titled “Our Very First Show, Again.” The whole cast appears in the series premiere, excluding the Olsen twins who did not want to join this season. Basically, it’s a huge family reunion for the first episode. After taking my own time binge watching “Fuller House,” and checking out social media, fans of all ages were chanting for more through status updates, tweets and on Facebook. To me, that speaks louder than the harsh criticism the show received from popular publications on the web. The original show never received great press or awards, similar to the reboot, but the original series did last eight seasons long and had endless reruns for years to come. I have a good feeling “Fuller House” will be doing the same, which is why Netflix renewed it for a second season.
If you were to ask me if you would enjoy the reboot without watching the original series I would probably say no and tell you to begin with “Full House” first. If you are a “Full House” fanatic, then I can almost guarantee that you’ll enjoy this reboot. You’ll be able to pick up on jokes and references they make to honor the old series, and you will grow to love the characters you have been missing since 1995.