"Roseanne" is back on ABC nearly 21 years after the original sitcom concluded, and it's been getting mixed reactions. Critics panned the show because the titular character is a polarizing Trump supporter, just like Roseanne Barr. Others argue it's a representation of the Midwest, and conservatives are not fairly represented on TV. The revival premiered with 18 million viewers and was picked up for a second season, which will focus more on family than politics. Do we really need this revival? 📺
Below is the synopsis of the "Roseanne" reboot, per Rotten Tomatoes.
Featuring the complete original cast, new series regulars and notable returning guest stars, the revival will explore life, death and everything in between through the relatable, hilarious and brutally honest lens of the Conner household. With the inimitable Roseanne at its epicenter, fresh stories that tackle today's issues and even more laughs from a brilliant cast and crew that haven't missed a beat, audiences old and new will celebrate the homecoming of America's favorite working-class family.
The reboot holds a fresh rating of 75 percent. If you haven't watched it yet, check out the trailer for season one below.
The episode called "Go Cubs," wherein Roseanne discriminates against her new Muslim neighbors, garnered significant backlash from critics and pundits. Some say the episode is about learning tolerance. Others say the show highlights and sparks conservations about politics in America without stigmatizing liberalism or conservatism. Vox's Caroline Framke wrote:
That thread continued with “Go Cubs,” an episode devoted to Roseanne recoiling from her new Muslim neighbors before learning that, hey, they might just be people after all. It’s not a particularly new premise; in fact, NBC’s excellent and prematurely canceled sitcom The Carmichael Show did an episode with exactly the same plot more than two years ago. But given Barr’s own political views and Roseanne’s reigning spot in today’s pop culture zeitgeist, it became a lightning rod of controversy almost immediately.
At first, Roseanne spends her time spying on the neighbors, insisting to her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) that their huge supply of fertilizer could mean they’re “a sleeper cell full of terrorists getting ready to blow up our neighborhood,” and suggesting that their wifi password would be “deathtoAmerica123.”
Once she’s finally forced to meet Samir (Alain Washnevsky) and Fatima (Anne Bedian) face to face, however, it’s harder for her to keep up the vitriol. A scene in which Roseanne has to ask them for their actual wifi password so her granddaughter can Skype her mother (who’s currently on a military tour in Afghanistan) drives home how badly Roseanne misjudged them with a series of blunt reveals. The neighbors’ outsize fertilizer collection came thanks to an Amazon misunderstanding; their password is “go Cubs” for their favorite baseball team; racist threats have caused their scared son to start wearing a bulletproof vest to sleep.
But some TV critics simply don't like the revival. The Atlantic's Megan Garber calls the sitcom reductive:
They're on the nose. They're reductive. They're easy. They conflate partisanship with politics writ large. They suggest an American political situation that is a matter of performance and personality rather than of systemic crisis.
But some TV critics argue "Roseanne" misses the mark. The Nation's Judy Berman wrote:
The show’s comeback is often framed as controversial, but, so far, that reputation has more to do with the alt-right conspiracy theories Barr spouts on Twitter than with any actual storylines. In fact, by pushing characters’ political allegiances to the foreground but refusing to tease out the implications of those beliefs, the new Roseanne has turned out to be much safer than the original—which, among other groundbreaking moments, included an episode that ABC initially refused to air because it showed a kiss between Roseanne and another woman.
