After incredible success with all-new original content, Netflix is swinging for the fences with a nostalgia series set to resurrect one of the most popular saccharin sitcoms of the late 80s and early 90s.
Remember the good ol’ days when everyone was complaining about Netflix pricing and debating the downfall of streaming video? Nope neither does anyone else. The streaming video pioneer has become a legitimate entertainment powerhouse, delivering win after win.
In heads up competition with parents looking for streaming content for their kids, Netflix beats the competition, and when it comes to original content, there’s Netflix and, several laps behind them, everyone else.
Sure, Amazon Prime is pushing out original content, and, for the most part, audiences are not universally lampooning it, but that tacit approval pales in the blinding light of Netflix’s massive success with Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. Sure, there have been a couple of misses – Marco Polo and Hemlock Grove had fans but not so many – but even superhero shows like Daredevil and Jessica Jones have met with critical and consumer success.
Now Netflix is set to release the stunning counterpunch: a sugar-dripping homage to 90s nostalgia. Yes, they are bringing back Full House.
They call it “Fuller House” though many fans have glommed onto the possibly more accurate “Full House: TNG.” The show picks up pretty much right where the old series left off. We have DJ Tanner, now All Grown Up as the lead in the show. She’s moving back into her dad’s old place, joined quickly by her “little” sister – no not that one – and her cloying gal pal Kimmy Gibler.
While most of the adults from the original cast are only billed as guests for the series, many of the same old tropes should be expected. There are the catchphrases – with the adults filling in for missing Michelle Tanner – the familiar huggy happy endings and, yes, there is even a set of twins, a nodding wink to the “secret” that Michelle was actually two different actors.
The foundation for success in this is that Netflix does not try to take itself too seriously. The original never did. It depended on hammy dialog and familiar exchanges, to the point where fans could nearly quote the lines along with the actors even if they never saw that episode before.
Will 90s nostalgia deliver for Netflix as well as 60s and 70s nostalgia did for the networks? Time will tell, but at least, we know what to expect.
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