Frasier review: a 'gentle' reboot of the beloved 1990s sitcom

Running for 11 years from 1993, "Frasier" was one of the "funniest, cleverest, most perfectly drawn and hilariously scripted television shows of all time", said Jan Moir in the Daily Mail. Now, it's been rebooted on Paramount+ – and the results are... so-so. The new series finds the titular psychiatrist – played, of course, by Kelsey Grammer – back in Boston (where he originally appeared as a character in "Cheers"), and teaching at Harvard. Grammer is, alas, the only original cast member to return, and we do feel the absence of David Hyde Pierce (as Frasier's brother Niles) and the late John Mahoney (as their father). The young actors in the reboot "just aren't funny", which leaves Grammer having to be the star turn, rather than what he was: "part of a terrific ensemble". 

The first two episodes are bogged down by "ungainly exposition and numerous, desperate-seeming references to old characters", said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. But after a few episodes, a miracle happens: "characters sync, jokes zing, storylines flow". And, surprisingly, Nicholas Lyndhurst (yes, Rodney from "Only Fools and Horses"), who appears as Frasier's old college buddy, emerges as a "crucial waspish intellectual foil" for the vainglorious Frasier. 

I didn't have high hopes for this reboot, what with no Niles at all, and Roz (Peri Gilpin) only slated for a guest appearance, said Hugo Rifkind in The Times. But it turns out to be "rather lovely. Not fresh or new, and certainly not essential viewing" – but gentle and rejuvenating, "in the manner of a warm bath".

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Where to watch: Paramount+

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