Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Roseanne’, The Reboot Of The Classic ABC Sitcom (That’s About More Than Trump)

In the Year of the Reboot, no reboot has been more highly anticipated than Roseanne. Yes, Roseanne Barr’s politics, and the idea that her character will be a Trump supporter was a big news story. But the other question was: would one of the best sitcoms of all time be as good the second time around?

ROSEANNE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of the Connors’ living room, seemingly unchanged from when we last saw it in the pre-season 9, lottery-winning days. We hear Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) screaming “Dan! Dan!” We cut to her in bed with her husband Dan (John Goodman), wearing a sleep apnea mask; she yells at him to wake up, saying “I thought you were dead!” He takes the mask off and says, “I was sleeping! Why does everyone always think I’m dead?” (And so the entirety of Season 9 has been retconned, and everything in Lanford, Illinois is back to normal).

The Gist: Roseanne and Dan’s youngest daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) has just moved back into the house with her teenage daughter Harris (Emma Kenney) and ten-year-old Mark (Ames McNamara), who identifies as a boy but loves dressing in girls’ clothes because the colors “pop.” Darlene says she’s moved back home to re-bond with and look out for her parents — Roseanne’s got a bum knee she can’t get fixed because her crummy health insurance won’t cover a replacement, and Dan’s still hanging drywall despite being well into his retirement years — but it turns out that Darlene is out of work.

She’s also reconnected with her aunt Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), much to Rosie’s dismay. Rosie, a Trump supporter, is so dismayed that her sister voted for Hillary that the two haven’t spoken since the election; Rosie has a memorial portrait of Jackie when she was on the Lanford P.D. because “she’s dead to me!” Jackie comes over wearing a pussy hat and a “Nasty Woman” t-shirt, saying “What up, deplorable?” to Rosie, just to spark the episode’s main argument: Rosie voted for Trump because he said he’d support the working class, and Jackie… well, Jackie didn’t really vote for Hillary, it turns out. She’s angry at herself because she let Rosie pump her so full of “Hillary is a criminal” rhetoric that she voted for Jill Stein, which she thinks helped Trump win.

Meanwhile, Becky (Lecy Goranson), who’s been struggling to make ends meet since her husband Mark died, has decided to become a surrogate for a woman named Andrea (Sarah Chalke), who will pay her $50,000 to do it, mainly because Becky will be using her own eggs. Dan is against it; Darlene thinks her older sister is way too old to do it (Becky has shaved ten years off her age in order to get the gig), and Rosie begrudgingly is OK with it because, as Jackie points out, she’s always been in favor of a woman being in control of her own body.

At dinner — D.J. (Michael Fishman), who is just back from a military deployment, arrives with his young daughter Mary (Jayden Ray) — everything blows up and melts down, as usually happens with the Conners. But, as also is usual, people talk things out and hug, which proves that the Connors may be crazy and scream at each other, but they are a loving brood in their own way.

Our Take: We all know the story of how the Roseanne revival happened: Gilbert got the idea after Goodman came on The Talk; Roseanne said she’d do it if everyone came back and she wasn’t running things. So to help her out, Gilbert got a pro showrunner in Bruce Helford and a fellow comedy vet in Whitney Cummings to help her produce the series. Other pros like Wanda Sykes are on the writing staff. All of this shows in the first episode, which sets a tone that isn’t all that much different from Roseanne‘s peak period: lots of laughs, a fair amount of drama, and a topical bent that doesn’t bludgeon people over the head.

A fair amount of digital ink has been spilled — including by us — about Barr’s political leanings lately, the fact that she’s going to insist that Roseanne Conner supports Trump, and how that might affect the revival. And, yes, the argument between Jackie and Rosie about the election does feel like a bit of overkill. But damn if it isn’t hilarious overkill, especially when Jackie beats herself up for voting for Stein because of Rosie’s influence. Then the argument stops being about left vs. right and it becomes like every argument they have ever had, where Rosie tries to influence her younger sister, which Jackie always resents but is susceptible to, anyway.

We loved how they incorporated Chalke, aka “second Becky”, so that she’s a big part of the show but plays a role that’s less second Becky and more akin to her Scrubs role of Elliot Reid. Goodman and Metcalf are, as usual, the gold standards of going from high comedy to compelling drama in a single scene. And the young actors who play Dan and Rosie’s grandkids are fun to watch.

Speaking of which, the second episode shown on premiere night has a lot to do with Mark’s gender fluid identity, and it shows Rosie as more of the social liberal her character has always been, while Dan shows concern for his grandson’s safety, until he realizes that the kid can take care of himself. A third episode shown to critics is more about the Connors celebrating their anniversary on a shoestring and Rosie’s burgeoning pill habit because of her knee. While the current political climate has a lot to do with these episodes, the first episode is the only one where the election and Trump’s presidency is directly addressed.

Sex and Skin: How awesome is it that Dan and Rosie are still getting it on after 45 years, and excited to do it?

Parting Shot: Andrea and Becky meet at Becky’s work, and of course there’s the requisite jokes about Andrea thinks she’s looking in a mirror “without any makeup on” (Of course, it’s even funnier because Chalke is hella tall while Goranson is average height, which was less apparent when Chalke played Becky as a teenager.) Andrea wants to meet Becky’s family and interview them about their health and emotional history. Becky is, of course, horrified at the thought. Andrea thinks a shipment of organic pears would be a fun greeting gift. “That would be perfect!” says Becky. “They’ve all been meaning to try a pear!”

Sleeper Star: Mark promises to become the most intriguing Conner grandkid, and McNamara pulls off the idea of a kid of the 2010s that’s allowed to explore gender and identity, even in a conservative town like Lanford.

Most Pilot-y Line: When the Conners look for their gun in the garage, Dan comes across the book Rosie was writing in Season 9 (or the entire series, depending on how you interpret the original run’s finale). In yet another retconning, Rosie says “trash that,” and Dan says “This woulda sold like hotcakes if you didn’t kill off the most interesting character.”

Our Call: Stream It. Like Will & Grace, the chemistry and professionalism of the original cast makes the reboot work like the two decades since the first run ended never happened. If you can get past the real Rosie’s politics, this is a fun watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company’s Co.Create and elsewhere.

Watch Roseanne on Hulu