PILOT REVIEW: The Conners

THE CONNERS

Starring: John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Michael Fishman, Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara, Jayden Rey, Maya Lynne Robinson

Created by Matt Williams
Developed by Bruce Helford, Bruce Rasmussen, & Dave Caplan
Written by Bruce Helford, Bruce Rasmussen, & Dave Caplan, Directed by Andy Ackerman

IN SHORT: Roseanne minus the Trump references and someone else...

THE PREMISE:
I think if you're reading this blog, you know the premise of this one. Following Roseanne Barr's racist tweet in May, her very successful reboot of Roseanne was cancelled. The creators and key members pitched a spinoff centered on the rest of the Conner family following Roseanne (the character's) death. All the cast is back including vets of the original series and those who joined for the revival.

THE REVIEW:
I am glad that this spinoff is happening. I thought the Roseanne reboot was pretty good and didn't really understand all the political tinged responses to it. I thought it represented families in America in 2018 pretty well, for good or for bad. After Barr's reckless decision nearly resulted in everyone being out of a job, I was happy to see that ABC is giving this show a chance and giving the cast and crew a chance to soldier on.

The first episode is pretty heavy, but it's handled very well. Regardless of what the star did, the character of Roseanne Conner was very missed by her on screen family and I thought it was smart to pick up the series a few weeks after her death. John Goodman, who seemed off his game in the spring revival, was a standout here with an emotional and strong performance. Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert were predictably strong too. It's nice to see that these characters could still be themselves even without the centerpiece of the show. This could have gone a lot of ways and it very easily could have gone off the rails. It's a testament to the people working on this show that they handled everything with class and poignancy.

I wondered through most of the episode what this show would look like on a regular basis with the pilot episode being very good, but also very heavy-handed. The show brilliantly gave us a glimpse in the final minutes with the family starting to revert to the sarcastic characters we know so well and Dan coming out of his funk to help grandson Mark. The show then launched into a new, but familiar, title sequence at the end of the episode. I thought that was a great way of the show telling the audience "we had to deal with this, but now we're moving forward" in a creative way. I think this show, with or without Roseanne, still has a lot to say about what it's like to be a blue-collar family.

BOTTOM LINE:
I watched all the episodes of the Roseanne revival last spring and thought some episodes were strong and others weren't but Roseanne Barr was one of the best parts while the rest of the cast was off and on. With Barr gone, it gave the rest of the cast a chance to shine and at least in the pilot, they rose to the occasion. Let's hope it continues.