Fuller House: Season 2 Review

As the first review from my new post in IGN’s San Francisco office, I find it fitting that the Fuller family should welcome me to their city. With thirteen new episodes primed and ready to binge on Netflix, Season 2 was a particularly easy watch for this fan of the 90’s original series. The first season of Fuller House was enjoyed at Casa Varner, so expectations were high this past weekend, as Season 2 made its debut.
Leaning into the most severe sitcom tropes, Fuller House is certainly a love-it or leave-it kind of show. Many modern family sitcoms have left behind most of the more exaggerated approaches to comedy (i.e. laugh tracks) but Fuller House does not set out to be a modern example. Nothing is left on the table — from breaking the fourth wall to dream sequences, Fuller House takes what the original series created and turns it up to 11.

Season 2 kicks off reuniting the characters back at the iconic Tanner family household, citing various summer activities for their departures. While it makes sense for the kids to be gone all summer, watching the adults reunite as if they had been gone as well is a little jarring. This isn’t the last time the kids are upstaged by the adults. DJ and Kimmy are notorious for living vicariously through their children; Kimmy going as far as attending 5 of the 6 weeks of Ramona’s dance camp. The series struggles in finding comedic moments between parent and child, and it’s not like Aunt Stephanie is running around with a woodchuck puppet to lighten the mood.

The most welcomed addition to the family is Fernando, played by series regular Juan Pablo Di Pace. We met Fernando at the end of season one as Kimmy’s racecar driver fiancee and estranged father to Ramona. Fernando’s enthusiastic assertion back into their lives creates the first major arc of the season; as he insists on moving into the Tanner/Gibbler household while working things out with Kimmy. (Remember those bad tropes? Bending over in a short pink robe, the family is exposed to Fernando’s… pixelated parts. Actually pixelated.)

Fuller House: Season 2 Photos

In spite of his nonsensical nature, Fernando’s presence this season is seriously necessary. With two moms (plus non-parent, too-cool-to-be-fun Aunt Stephanie) in the house, Fuller House goes against every other 90’s sitcom that consciously omitted the “buzzkill” mother figure (including its predecessor!) Season 1 tried to break that stereotype by showing our leading ladies as everyday working women, but that doesn’t necessarily add up to laughs. Fernando’s over-the-top characteristics push beyond any normal parenting trope, and allows the writers to use him in “Uncle Joey” moments, even if he is a parent himself. Antiquated television politics aside, the scenes between Fernando and DJ’s son Max (Elias Harger) were some of the most heartwarming moments of the season, as they ultimately parent each other…and you better believe they hugged it out!

People love this show for its heart, and the stories that feel like a warm hug by the end of the episode. In Season 1, viewers learned that Stephanie is unable to have children. This season, her cheeseball romance with neighbor Jimmy Gibbler (yes, really) takes on a new level as she looks at their long-term future with a different lens.

The highlight of the season is the Halloween episode. Not only do you get a great moment for Stephanie and Jimmy to bond over pranking kids in a haunted house, but viewers are also treated to a throwback homage to I Love Lucy. Kimmy and Fernando dress up as the iconic duo, and even perform Babalu and a scene in black and white that contributes to the best classic reference of the season.

Attempting to list every guest star this season would be nearly impossible. We get three episodes with various members of the classic “Full House” cast, including Blake and Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit reprising their roles as Nicky and Alex Katsopolis. We also meet Joey’s magician wife, his four talented kids, as well as an adopted baby for Jesse and Becky. We also get cameos from the likes of Alan Thicke, Dancing With the Stars’ Bruno Tonioli, and NKOTB. Can you tell which one would pull a golden “10” paddle out of his pants?
Keep in mind this is a 2016 sitcom that wants to be a 90’s sitcom. As uneven as that statement reads, the pop culture references are worse. In one scene the viewer is expected to laugh at DJ using the fake name “Sinead O’Connor” at an Irish wedding, and the next Kimmy is catching a Pokemon on her phone on live TV. Given my personal knowledge of Sinead extends to her tearing up a picture on SNL, it doesn’t seem like a reference that hits the Netflix demographic.

The character moments are what work– not the 2016 references or the talking dog gags (yes, REALLY.) The absence of Michelle at the Tanner family Thanksgiving shouldn’t be felt at all, given the wealth of characters already on screen. Breaking the fourth wall to call out the Olsen twins’ absence is not only insulting to the actors inhabiting the scene, but also to the passive viewer trying to enjoy a Thanksgiving meal with one of their favorite families. There is a time and a place for side-eyes and subtweeting, and it isn’t in an episode.

To that end, there were more than enough cool callbacks to the original series. My personal favorite is DJ’s high school boyfriend Viper, a washed up rocker that considered DJ “the one that got away.” It serves a humorous break in the nonsense that is DJ’s love life this season — an overdrawn Season 1 plotline that also extends the full length of Season 2. It doesn’t matter who DJ choses in the end, as long as she makes up her damn mind.

Verdict

Fuller House Season 2 brings a fuller cast, a fuller plot, and a lot more cringe-worthy pop culture jokes. Love it or hate it, the staying power of this heartwarming Netflix staple is stronger than ever.