Frasier Season 2 Review: The Beloved Revival's Charms Begin To Wear Thin

Amidst a sea of streaming television series revivals that felt like little more than regressive cash grabs, last year's new iteration of "Frasier" was a delightful surprise. It would be naive to imply it, unlike it's zombified brethren, was created in the absence of greed or nostalgia. But market forces and a rampant allergy to trying new ideas in the mainstream aside, there was something special about it.

The original 11-year run of "Frasier" was itself a shrewd pivot of a spin-off from the fan-favorite show "Cheers" that introduced us to Dr. Frasier Crane. But just as Kelsey Grammer's iconic, haughty psychiatrist in his solo show was a reinvention from the role he played within the larger ensemble of "Cheers," the first season of this 2.0 take created a new paradigm. Where Frasier was originally a stuffy intellectual navigating a relationship with his more salt of the earth father Martin (the late, great John Mahoney) in Seattle, he's the elder now, back in Boston, living with his son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), a firefighter and Harvard dropout, in an inversion of that familial dynamic. 

When we last left Frasier, he had taken a position at his alma mater Harvard University, teaching alongside his best friend Professor Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Professor Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoye). The new supporting cast was rounded out by Freddy's friend Eve (Jess Salgueiro), a single mother whose recently deceased partner was a close friend of Freddy's; and David Crane (Anders Keith), Frasier's nephew who was born in the original run's finale and attends the school as well. Each new player, through their own fully drawn characters, fills in the spiritual spaces of the original series characters who for various reasons won't be returning.

The minor alterations meant that this was a throwback multi-camera sitcom employing well-worn but effective formulas to feel like a welcome presence in the 2024 television landscape. But while the new season keeps apace and maintains the charm and wit that got it renewed in the first place, one crucial (but subjective) element holds it back from greatness.

One of the reasons sitcoms make for such easy comfort food is reliability. Not wanting or needing to tinker too much with a functioning machine, Season 2 of "Frasier" doesn't rock the boat much. The first five episodes of a 10-episode season made available to reviewers adhere to last season's winning structure with little deviation. Frasier has some goal, usually tethered to the ongoing efforts to bond with Freddy, and his stubbornness and generally cagey approach to problem solving repeatedly hoists him upon his own petard. His own farcical undoings function best when coupled with B and C plots that complement and complicate the proceedings. 

But at their best, those complications often bring some mental or emotional clarity into strong focus. In the season premiere "Ham," Frasier and Alan have a row over the revelation that his friend was the one to convince his son to dropout of Harvard all those years ago. This leads to multiple people finding out that Alan has been the deciding factor in a lot of their momentous decisions and that he treated each of those situations with the same seemingly careless flair. Freddy ends up the least frustrated with this, until he finds himself interrogated by an inquisitive group of boy and girl scouts visiting the firehouse. The resulting explanations compound a series of punchlines that absolutely slay.

Even though the new ensemble has been firmly established, the show resists the urge to start spamming returns and cameos from Fraser's past. Perhaps the remaining unscreened episodes may feature the one character Kelsey Grammer really wanted to see in Season 2, but thus far the only big returns are Roz (Peri Gilpin), who we already saw in the season one finale, and Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris), Frasier's devilish agent. The latter avails herself quite well, but the former, alleged to have a larger role later in the season, appears in the third episode solely to facilitate a spotlight on Eve. 

The difference between the two guest turns highlights the season's key issue.

Bebe appears in the fifth episode alongside guest star Rachel Bloom (from the underrated romantic dramedy "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend"), who plays her daughter Phoebe. Just as Frasier is lamenting how difficult it is to bond with his son who has largely forsaken all the intellectual interests once instilled in him for more regular hobbies like sports, Bebe arrives with a daughter who behaves and acts like Frasier's mirror image. This, of course, leads to a protracted mystery around the identity of her absent father, and shenanigans ensue. It's one of the better episodes of the new season.

But when Roz shows back up in Episode 3, she feels less like a character and more a delivery device for Eve getting a night away from her baby. Tethered to a subplot about Frasier, Freddy, and Alan trying to use Eve's baby to pick up women, the episode feels rote and tired in a way the rest of the revival hasn't. Eve herself had a better showing in last season's "Blind Date." And while this episode isn't without its sharpness — when asked about his theoretical chemistry with an art gallery bartender, Freddy responds "I'm a libra and she has season tickets to Fenway" — it is sorely lacking in laughs otherwise. 

The season has so much going for it. Jack Cutmore-Scott really comes into his own and makes Freddy a more fleshed out figure rather than the blunt instrument he felt like throughout the first season. But there are still times where the beauty and complexity of this father-son relationship is simplified to justify a plot development, and its relative failure always seems tethered to when the joke writing is its weakest. More words and examples could be painstakingly documented to breakdown the intricacies of the show's character work, but it all really does boil down to humor or the lack thereof.

In a format like the sitcom, the audience will forgive a scarcity of experimentation. They will overlook narratives that occasionally rely on outdated gender norms. Even blatantly awkward bits, like Alan appearing from the search for Eve's (white) baby carrying an obviously Black child, can be glossed over despite their glaring strangeness. But it only works if the show is funny! When it is, it's an absolute delight. When it's not, and even the studio audience's canned laughter feels strained, the viewer will begin to think maybe last season would be even more special if it remained a one-off.

"Frasier" Season 2 will premiere on Paramount+ on September 19.