TV Review: 'Roseanne'

For some shows, it's impossible to separate the star from the series. For better or worse, the DNA of its inspiration is woven into the creative fabric of what you see on the screen. The late 1980s and 1990s were the heyday of the "comic as the center of the sitcom" movement and the best of them managed to harness the angst and humor of the comic into a weekly series. Anyone who knew Tim Allen back then saw a lot of him in "Home Improvement" and "Grace Under Fire" wouldn't have been possible without Brett Butler.

But the crowning achievement of this sitcom genre was "Roseanne," which from its earliest episodes was a reflection of its star's moody and shifting emotional state. Surrounded by arguably one of the best ensembles in television, the show "Roseanne" was often indistinguishable from Roseanne Barr. The chaos of her life often spilled onto the set and while it was often weird and unpredictable, it served as the emotional underpinning for what viewers saw in the show. The show's tone was also colored by the creative cognitive dissonance of "Roseanne." A show about a working-class family struggling to get by was helmed by a woman whose rise to stardom was driven by this core desire to be anything other than working class. And the more the popular "Roseanne" became, the more its star felt the need to show the world she was more than Roseanne Conner. It was an entertaining creative high-wire act that didn't start to fall apart until the final seasons. Which not coincidentally were the ones Roseanne had the most creative control over.

Like many fans of "Roseanne," I was filled with a lot of dread to hear a reboot of the show was in production. It helped that the original cast was returning and that the early word-of-mouth was positive. Still, any "Roseanne" reboot would also include Roseanne Barr and in recent years, she's seemed to gradually slip off into some strangely bitter and angry place. My fear was that erratic personal point-of-view would make it impossible for "Roseanne" to balance the desires of its star with the creative requirements of any mainstream television comedy.

The good news is that at least in most of the first three episodes that have been shown to critics, "Roseanne" is a funny, often heart-warming series. Everyone pretended the previous series finale never happened and John Goodman's Dan Conner is back. Albeit slow-moving and not in the best of health. But he and Roseanne Barr have real chemistry after co-starring together for so many years. They can deliver a punchline so precisely it's as if they're listening to an internal comedy metronome. The duo was always one of the best married couples on television and while they aren't yet 100 percent back to their peak, they are still markedly better than just about anyone else around today.

Much has been made of Roseanne Conner's shift to being a Trump supporter and that character's shift reflects Roseanne Barr's puzzling change in her personal beliefs. Barr is someone who was personally so liberal that as recently as 2012, she was trying to win the nomination for the Green Party's Presidential spot. But in the years since, she's slowly shifted to a person who claims the Boston Marathon bombing was a possible "false flag" event arranged by the Obama Administration, who tweets links to bizarre #QAnon conspiracies, and seems to believe the debunked theory that Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation used Haiti for personal gain. She frequently references #TheStorm, a catch-all paranoid theory that encompasses everything from Democratic Party-led pedophile rings to Russia's collusion with the Hillary Clinton campaign. It's not so much that she's a Trump supporter that is so troubling. It's that she's slid into this place where she appears to be filled with equal parts of resentment and anger. She's entitled to her political opinions, but given that she's happily residing in some Conservative tin-hat land, the prospect of what that might mean for Roseanne: The TV Show has to be at the top of a lot of people's mind at ABC.

Happily, much of that cultural angst isn't visible in the early episodes of "Roseanne." Much has been made of the politics of the first episode, which pits the Trump-loving Roseanne against her Hillary-loving sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf). They have barely spoken since the election and it's a testament to Metcalf's insanely impressive acting skills that she transforms a scene which could be a shrill political argument into a funny, poignant reflection of what many American households are going through in 2018. Metcalf was always an underappreciated engine in the Roseanne show universe and it's a delight to see her back in a role that gives her some chances to show off her impressive comedy skills.

Sara Gilbert is also back as daughter Darlene, who moves back home with her daughter Harris (Emma Kinney) and son Mark (Ames McNamara). She was always a great foil for the rest of the family, but the passage of time has sharpened her acting skills to the point where she is almost the emotional center of the show.

If you have a fondness for the original "Roseanne," you'll likely enjoy the 2018 version. It's a great cast and producers Bruce Helford and Whitney Cummings have strong comedic skills and the ability to juggle all the conflicting emotions that are the core DNA of "Roseanne." And ABC was happy enough with what it saw in the early episodes to add a ninth episode to the premiere eight-episode season.

But the ultimate success of "Roseanne" will hinge on the ability of everyone else associated with the show to let Roseanne Barr be Roseanne Barr without allowing her inclination towards personal chaos to infect the series. In the same way that the spiraling behavior of Brett Butler ruined "Grace Under Fire' in the 1990s, this Trump-era version of Roseanne could leave the show a broken pile of ruined ideas. It's strange to say that the best thing for "Roseanne" is for Barr to simply show up, do the scenes and stay quiet until the next table read. But it's also the best way to ensure this next-generation "Roseanne" will have its own lengthy run on television.

As for myself, I haven't decided whether I'll be watching every week. I love the Conner Family and the cast is a delight to watch. But there are times as a viewer when it's difficult to separate your fondness for the show from your basic dislike of one of the show's cast. I haven't fully resolved that conflict for myself. I'll leave you to decide you feel as the season progresses.

"Roseanne" premieres Tuesday, March 27th on ABC.