There’s only one thing that Fuller House did better than Full House. More than two decades since the beloved ABC family sitcom wrapped up, Netflix brought the Tanners back to the small screen through its spin-off sequel. Fuller House pretty much copied Full House‘s premise in an effort to capitalize on the nostalgia factor. Despite this, however, the sequel show fell short in all aspects when being compared to its parent series, except one.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/t4dfuho_ec018_h-8d8376a797a949a39ba7306a9bda8498.jpg)
Like Full House, the events of Fuller House were kicked off by a tragedy with DJ’s (Candace Cameron-Bure) husband, Tommy Fuller Sr. dying. This mirrors Danny (Bob Saget) losing his wife in the original series, prompting Jesse (John Stamos) and Joey (Dave Coulier) to step in and become the Tanner daughters’ parental figures. Full House was praised for its depiction of a non-traditional family and relatable take on the ups and downs of raising kids. Fuller House, on the other hand, opted to focus on the love lives of its main stars.
Suffice to say, Fuller House failed to capitalize on the magic of Full House, but it did one thing better than its parent series: diversity. In the original series, there was barely any people of color (POC). Over the course of its run, the sitcom featured a few, however they were mostly guest stars such as Stephanie’s (Jodie Sweeting) friend, Harry Takayama (Michael Sun Lee), and Michelle’s (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) good pal, Denise Frazer (Jurnee Smollett). While Fuller House was far from perfect, it at least brought in POCs as regular players, such as Argentine actor, Juan Pablo Di Pace and Soni Nicole Bringas who is half Uruguayan. Aside from this, Fuller House also revealed that Stephanie Tanner is a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
Despite all of these, Fuller House‘s diversity was still not nearly enough. Both Ramona and Fernando mostly functioned as supporting characters. They barely had their own narratives, and on the rare occasions that the focus was on them, it was mostly about a generic plot line that didn’t quite capture their unique experiences as people of color. It was worse for Stephanie’s revelation that she is bisexual, however. As it turns out, her throwaway confession was improvised by Sweeting. Since it was unplanned, there was never going to be a backstory for it; there wasn’t even any intention of doing it in the first place. The show never revisited it moving forward, either. Sadly, it was just done for shock and comedic factor and was ultimately disrespectful to the LGBTQ+ community.
There are so far no announcements regarding another Full House spin-off. That being said, the cast is all willing to return to continue the Tanners’ story after Fuller House. In the event that this project somehow moves forward, hopefully, diversity and better representation are something that the potential offshoot actively incorporates in its narrative.
