Will you be watching “Roseanne” next week? After seeing the first three episodes of the ABC reboot, I’ll be taking a pass from now on.
For TV comedy with working-class realism, I still think ABC’s “The Middle” and NBC’s “Superstore” do a much better job. Also, like some viewers, I’ve been disappointed by the reboot’s lack of relevance and bite.
And when it does take a chance, it misses the mark. When Dan woke up after falling asleep on the couch Tuesday night and said, “We missed all our shows about black and Asian families,” and Roseanne snapped back, “They’re just like us. Now you’re all caught up,” it felt tone-deaf at best.
Both ABC’s “Black-ish” and “Fresh Off the Boat,” the objects of that joke, are funnier and fresher than the Conner family saga’s has been so far after a two-decade absence.
Of course, “Roseanne” doesn’t need me. It earned monster ratings for its March 27 premiere with a whopping 18 million viewers, which swelled to 25 million when three days of delayed viewing was added. In the excitement over those numbers, ABC immediately renewed “Roseanne” for a second season.
Tuesday night’s episode drew more than 15 million viewers, a drop from last week’s 18 million but still a huge number by current standards.
But the relaunched sitcom hasn’t brought much new to the table after its 21-year absence. The hype has focused on the Roseanne character’s support for President Donald Trump, an echo of Roseanne Barr’s own views. But like the rest of us, the show seems to be holding its breath and skirting the topic of politics to avoid family feuds.
The debut touched briefly on Trump’s America with a few jokes about making America great again and “Nasty Woman” T-shirts. There was a conversation between Rosanne and her sister, Jackie, about their estrangement since the 2016 election that ended with Jackie saying she was sorry and Roseanne accepting the apology. Cut to warm, fuzzy laughter for Roseanne being her usual stubborn, obnoxious self.
By this week, “Roseanne” was back in its comfort zone with Roseanne and Dan portraying cranky baby boomers dealing with a selfish granddaughter, Harris, who hogs the dryer, and her lax disciplinarian mom, Darlene, who needs to learn a thing or two about setting boundaries.
The fact that many of the jokes centered on a motorized staircase chair for Roseanne’s bum knee felt as if nobody on the writing staff actually knows someone who’s 90 and relies on such a device for mobility.
“Roseanne” may never delve much deeper than this into Trump’s America. In fact, the show is purposely not mentioning Trump this season.
As Sara Gilbert, who plays Darlene and executive produced the show, said recently on “Watch What Happens Live” on Bravo, “The Conners aren’t Trump supporters. Roseanne’s character is a Trump supporter — she’s the only one — and we never say his name, actually, in the show.”
What’s the deal? If Trump is repeated three times, would he pop up like Beetlejuice? According to Gilbert, the sitcom isn’t about politics, but rather what happens in a family that’s split politically. And, that, it seems, is leading to avoidance.
What a missed opportunity this is. With its reservoir of goodwill among viewers and honorable legacy of representing lower-income characters, “Roseanne” has the potential to be what “All in the Family” was for 1970s America, a comedy catharsis.
“All in the Family” worked brilliantly because it revealed so much about the clash between Archie Bunker’s blue-collar conservatism and the changing social and cultural landscape of America. It mocked the right through intolerant Archie and the left through his condescending son-in-law, Meathead. And it approached contentious subjects with the comedy equivalent of poking a stick at a beehive.
In contrast, “Roseanne” doesn’t even seem to be aiming for the bar set by the old “Roseanne,” which tackled domestic violence, birth control and racism, the latter in a much-lauded episode where Roseanne and Dan have to confront whether their parenting has led to their son, DJ, to not wanting to kiss an African-American girl for a school play.
Today’s “Roseanne” has introduced a gender-fluid grandson and a biracial granddaughter. But when will it ask the obvious questions. Like, how will those kids be treated by the Trump administration’s policies? Is anyone in the Conner family benefiting from the 2018 economy? Why do Roseanne and Dan joke about having to swap prescription meds to get by? Are they covered by Obamacare?
Where “Roseanne” does intersect provocatively with politics is outside of the show. With Trump taking credit for the show’s ratings success and Barr herself posting a now-deleted tweet last week about an unhinged conspiracy theory, it raises the question of whether the star’s personal bel
