This is just a little reminder -- to myself, more than anyone -- that while critics, reviews and your friends' opinions can be useful, sometimes you just need to judge a work of entrainment for yourself.
Yesterday I received this (much-appreciated) message from my friend Greg:
Has anyone watched the new Frasier? It's just as sharp and funny as the original... and crazy to think he's played this same character for 40 years
To which I replied:
We JUST watched and thought the exact same thing. EVERY review said it was unbearable -- to the point that we weren’t even going to bother. So boy were we surprised at how enjoyable it is.
Meanwhile, I FINALLY watched “Sophie’s Choice” in its entirety -- you know, the Oscar-winning adaptation of the acclaimed novel. The world really needed the plight of a non-Jewish person targeted by Nazis to be better known. 🙄
To which he replied:
One of my favorite jokes was Frasier trying to decide on a sofa saying it’s a real “Sofa's choice.” Is that why you watched the movie? You didn’t get the reference?
🤣🤣🤣
Jack Cutmore-Scott is adorable as the grownup Freddy, acting as a Martin 2.0. Anders Keith is spot-on as David Crane, son of Niles and Daphne. And Frasier's collogues Olivia and Alan -- played by Toks Olagundoye and Nicholas Lyndhurst -- are both sharp and hilarious.
But with headlines like:
Review: ‘Frasier’ Returns, Tossed, Scrambled and Eggscruciating, it feels like people are going out of their way to dislike the show -- NYT critic James Poniewozik is pretending to hold against it that Frasier
did eventually become a TV star because he'd turned down the opportunity ... in 2004(!) and that Freddy outgrew being a nerd, because that's never happened(!) -- in an attempt to go viral with the wittiest takedown.
Although we probably don't need 11 new seasons of it, here's hoping the latest incarnation of "Frasier" sticks around for a while -- or at least as long as it would like to. Others may -- and have -- disagree. But I'm happy I gave it a shot.
