Binge Watch Guide is a blog series to lead you through the many available series for streaming.
The pop culture scene of the 90’s is completely unparalleled in any other time.
My entire childhood consisted of trying to catch ‘em all playing Pokémon Red on my Game Boy, secretly wishing I could head to Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando and get slimed in an episode of Double Dare and listening to NSYNC on my Hit Clips.
A lot of our family time revolved around the TV too, and every night we would sit down as a family and watch “Full House” together.
I feel like I grew up with the Tanner family and learned so many life lessons from the show. DJ was my first celebrity crush (and still is, honestly. Candace Cameron Bure has still got it at 40).
I’m extremely emotionally invested in this series and was so pumped when the “Fuller House” spin off was announced. I spent my entire evening watching it the day it came out just so I could review it, so here’s my take.
Time Commitment: Low
Let's just say this, I watched the entire series twice in the span of one weekend. You could easily power through this in a few hours.
Most Interesting Character: Max
Max’s awesome performance was one of the biggest surprises of this series. The character is played by eight year-old child star Elias Harger who is going to explode in popularity after this role.
Max plays the middle child who’s a bit sassy and incredibly cute all the time. Harger pulls off his jokes and punch lines better than even most of the adults in the cast, which is pretty impressive for a kid just starting his acting career.
The Good:
Members of the old cast still have that same delightful chemistry that made the original series so irresistible. Bickering between Stephanie and Kimmy Gibbler is still as entertaining to watch now in “Fuller House” as it was in back 20 years ago.
The connection between the three leading roles, DJ, Kimmy and Stephanie is really where the show shines and gives it the opportunity to create its own space away from the original series.
The Bad:
Unfortunately, the show relies heavily on nostalgia to keep viewers coming back and the old jokes become too much of a crutch for the writing. A lot of old jokes and punch lines are thrown in lazily, almost as if they couldn’t come up with a good joke so just used the old punch lines.
The entire pilot suffers from nostalgia syndrome. It’s the only time in the series that all of the original cast members (besides Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen — which is made into a huge deal) are together in the same episode, and it turns into feeling like a game of getting as many references to the original as possible instead of good TV.
The whole premise of the show’s exposition is like passing the baton from the old cast to the new cast, but it takes far too long for the writing too start letting the cast grow into their own thing. It isn’t until the 5th or 6th episode that “Fuller House” really feels unique, and I’m worried a lot of people won’t give it enough of a chance to make it that far.
The Takeaway:
Aside from the setbacks in the first few episodes, “Fuller House” is actually a very enjoyable show. Old cast members reprise their roles as if the original series ended filming yesterday, and when they aren’t delivering fan service and working to create a new and separate show it brings back all the feels that you had watching this show in the 90s.
If you liked this, consider watching this too: The best part of “Fuller House” is the nostalgia along with it, so if you’re looking for more 90’s feels watch some older classics like “Friends” or “Gilmore Girls."
If you want more info, check out our "fuller" review of "Fuller House" here.
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