The Conners Season 6 Threatens To Repeat Roseanne’s Greatest Mistake

Ben’s financial windfall in The Conners season 6 could change the family’s fortunes, reminiscent of Roseanne ‘s lottery win.

The Conners season 6 storylines avoid surreal adventures to focus on realistic family dynamics and working-class life.

The show can use Ben’s money wisely to revive Darlene’s writing dreams, avoiding the unrealistic riches that hurt Roseanne ‘s ninth season.

While it might sound surprising, one twist in The Conners season 6, episode 11 leaves Roseanne’s spinoff at risk of repeating the earlier show’s worst misstep. The Conners might be a direct continuation of the seminal ‘90s family sitcom Roseanne, but the spinoff is not exactly the same as its predecessor. For one thing, The Conners has a huge cast since the series added an entire generation of new characters to the eponymous family. For another, The Conners features fewer surreal flights of fancy than its predecessor. Despite its grounded themes, Roseanne occasionally indulged in absurd storylines.

As early as season 2, episode 8, “Sweet Dreams,” Roseanne featured zanier stories that bent the rules of the show’s established reality. In contrast, The Conners is a more traditional, straightforward family sitcom. Although The Conners season 7 may change this, the show rarely features anything that strains credulity and tends to focus on fairly quotidian plots. That said, The Conners season 6’s Ben story could potentially make the show a much less believable series. If this happens, the spinoff will be at risk of repeating the mistake that ruined the ninth season of its predecessor, Roseanne.

The Conners Season 6 Episode 11 Changed The Family’s Finances

A Fire And An Insurance Pay Out Left Everyone Better Off

In season 6, episode 11, “Fire and Vice,” Ben’s family-owned hardware store went up in flames and was destroyed in the ensuing blaze. Fortunately for Darlene’s husband, his insurance company paid out, and he received a large one-off sum to cover the damages. Ben gave 10% of this money to Dan to make up for the work he missed out on at the store, while he used the rest to purchase Hardware, a magazine that published a column of his. Ben’s big financial windfall changed the financial position of the Conner family, but that’s not the first time this has happened.

Thanks to the payout, Dan will be able to pay off his mortgage in one fell swoop while Ben will go from running the hardware store to owning a magazine. Things are all looking up for the family, but they have been through this process years earlier. In Roseanne season 9, episode 2, “Millions from Heaven,” Roseanne and the Conner family won $108 million in the lottery. Ben and Darlene’s The Conners story obviously resulted in a much smaller payout, but both plots centered on an unexpected windfall turning around the family’s financial misfortunes.

Roseanne Season 9 Made The Conners Rich Before

The Sitcom’s Disastrous Final Season Centered On A Lottery Win

The problem with The Conners season 6’s latest storyline is that Roseanne making the Conner family rich ruined the series. Admittedly, the lottery win was a more outlandish twist that gave the Conners millions overnight, not just a one-off payment and some exciting new career opportunities. However, the underlying issue remained the same. The central appeal of Roseanne and The Conners is the show’s unflinching depiction of blue-collar life. Both shows have their silly moments, but they have also addressed a range of serious issues. The family’s struggles with unplanned pregnancies, unemployment, and health woes are all centered around money.

As such, making the Conners rich overnight made Roseanne season 9 almost unwatchable. While not every relationship in The Conners works, the spinoff as a whole feels like it takes place in the same grounded, recognizable world as most Roseanne episodes. In contrast, season 9 was a shadow of Roseanne‘s best seasons, with Roseanne going on increasingly surreal adventures in each new episode. Roseanne saved the First Lady from terrorists, starred in a bizarre parody of Rosemary’s Baby that doubled as an Absolutely Fabulous crossover, and even broke up with Dan. None of this fit within the show’s world.

Why Roseanne Season 9’s Big Twist Failed

The Sitcom Has Always Focused On Working-Class Life

Put simply, Roseanne didn’t work if the Conners weren’t a blue-collar family. It didn’t help that Roseanne season 9 was much more cartoony, zany, and absurd than earlier seasons, but the primary problem was that the characters needed to be working-class for their struggle to resonate. This was why the finale retconned the lottery win and season 10 followed this continuity, writing off the entire season as a fictional novel Roseanne wrote within the show’s universe.

The Conners Season 6 Can Still Avoid Roseanne’s Biggest Mistake

Dan and Ben’s New Ventures Don’t Make Them Millionaires

Fortunately for The Conners, the show doesn’t necessarily need to repeat Roseanne’s mistake. Much like Roseanne’s 2017 revival made numerous bad decisions that its spinoff reversed, The Conners can now take another stab at uplifting the family financially without destroying the show’s verisimilitude. Running a magazine is expensive and Dan paying off his house doesn’t mean he will be on easy street, so The Conners can still maintain a working-class perspective when Ben and Dan face new problems going forward. Mark’s tuition remains expensive, so even this unexpected windfall won’t stop Darlene from working well into season 7.

Meanwhile, Becky will be balancing work at The Lunchbox with her Psychology course and Harris has just taken on more responsibility than ever by taking over the restaurant. The Conners can continue to work if its heroes keep working, which is exactly where Roseanne season 9 fell apart. Without relatable topics like work and family life to focus on, the goofy outing sent its heroine on pointless misadventures. Even if The Conners‘ heroine Jackie has worked some ridiculous jobs over the years, it is hard to imagine her starring in an action movie parody as Roseanne did in season 9.

The Conners Season 6’s Ben Story Can Revive Another Major Plot

Darlene’s Writing Dream Can Come Back Thanks To This Twist

Furthermore, The Conners season 6 can turn Ben’s windfall into a bigger career opportunity for its heroes in a way that Roseanne season 9 never managed. Winning $108 million simply meant that none of the Conners ever needed to work again, whereas taking over a magazine and keeping it profitable could allow Ben and Darlene to follow their dream. Even though Darlene was originally intended to be The Conners’ replacement for Roseanne, her dreams of working as a writer have been on the back burner for years now.

Darlene met Ben while working for his magazine, and she also worked in publishing. This means she has plenty of experience on her side. More importantly, she harbored ambitions of becoming a writer throughout Roseanne’s original run. Now, season 6 can revive these dreams and give Darlene a job that she loves after she spent years providing for her children by taking on thankless gigs. This would allow The Conners to utilize Ben’s big payout effectively instead of repeating a major mistake Roseanne made.