The final time we noticed Dr Frasier Crane, he was leaving Seattle for a brand new life and a brand new love. That was 19 years in the past, when one of many nice sitcoms of the trendy period got here to an in depth after 11 seasons. Now Frasier is again, and somewhat like its star Kelsey Grammer, he feels remarkably effectively preserved. Bringing beloved comedies again might be fraught with hazard, a shallow and mawkish wallow, however the creators of Frasier know precisely what made the present nice. Premiering on Paramount+, Frasier 2.0 is effectively value elevating a glass to.
Aptly, after we be part of him, he’s at an airport in Boston, his outdated stomping floor from Cheers, the traditional barfly comedy that first launched him. He’s solely passing by way of, intending to go to his grown-up son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott). By the top of the primary episode, nevertheless, he’ll make Boston his house, securing a instructing place in Harvard’s psychology division the place his disenchanted outdated Oxford pal Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst) works, when he might be bothered to show up.
Straight off the bat we study that Frasier’s father Martin Crane handed away (and in a beautiful nod to the late John Mahoney, who performed him, the bar the place a few of this new present’s motion takes place is known as Mahoney’s). There’s additionally no signal of Niles, Frasier’s equally pompous youthful brother, or his English spouse Daphne. However we do get David (Anders Keith), their son, who’s in Frasier’s psych class and is each bit the mini-me Niles you’d hope for (he carries a laminated plastic card with all his meals allergic reactions, naturally).
‘Frasier’ sees the physician hanging out along with his son in Boston. Credit score: Paramount+.
If David is channeling Niles, then the sports-loving Freddy is Martin reincarnated – the salt-of-the-earth first responder (a hunky fireman) who’s every part that Frasier’s not. Theirs is a strained relationship, at finest. He hasn’t even informed his Dad that he’s sharing his house with Eve (Jess Salgueiro), an actress/waitress who has simply had a child with Freddy’s fireman buddy, who died in service. Single mom Eve could be our sort-of surrogate for Roz Doyle, Frasier’s outdated producer on his Seattle radio present.
Earlier than lengthy, Frasier’s purchased the house reverse Freddy’s, convincing him to maneuver in, to allow them to spend time collectively. It’s a neat set-up, crisply executed by a forged greater than able to the combo of bodily and character-driven comedy required. Grammer effortlessly slips again into his sherry-swigging, opera-loving fop, whereas Lyndhurst’s boozy, lazy educational makes a great foil for Frasier (nearly the one factor he appears to care about, other than 25-year-old Scotch, is his cat Margaret Scratcher).
There are some beautiful throwbacks – nods to the bar the place all people is aware of your title, to Martin’s tatty armchair recliner, to Frasier’s disastrous dinner events – with out the tone getting too wink-wink. And the early episodes, from Freddy’s furnishings decisions to a visit to the fireplace station to Frasier’s being compelled to jazz up his lectures, are all humorous and heat, every part you need from the present. Sure, the genius that’s David Hyde Pierce’s Niles is sorely missed, however Frasier continues to be as tasty as a tossed salad and scrambled eggs.
‘Frasier’ releases two new episodes on Paramount+ on October 12, then one new episode weekly
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