(courtesy IMP Awards)
Frasier 2023 (S1, E5-6)
One of the interesting things that come into play when a much-loved character comes out of hiatus is that you watch to see how much of what we loved about them is retained and how much of a new persona is forged in a time often many years removed from their heyday. It can be a tricky juggling act, preserving the essence of the character while allowing them room to breathe, grow and modernise, and while not everyone gets it right, Frasier 2023 iteration is proof that it’s possible to honour the character as they were while pushing forward to see what they can be. Now, while the show still seems to be finding its feet, although the rhythm is increasinly comedically rich and consistently entertaining, one thing it is doing quite nicely is evoking some key elements of the Frasier persona that have endeared him to us through the years, especially during the golden years of the classic sitcom (1993-2004).
In the two episodes under discussion, “The Founders’ Society” and “Blind Date” we see Frasier in a whole new setting making some classic and hilarious mistakes, the kind that don’t do much to advance him as a person – though you could well argue he comes out ahead in both stories, short-term setbacks aside – but which are an absolute delight to watch. In “The Founders’ Society”, Frasier is in full snobbish flight, desperate to grab one of the two spots in a hallowed and elite Harvard of high flyers, and in competition with his boss Olivia (Toks Olagundoye), the head of Harvard University’s psychology department, and his colleague and old Oxford University friend Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst). At first they decide they’ll form an alliance, praise each other in front of the people they have to impress and lift each other to success. But Frasier being Frasier can’t hang onto collegial mutual support once he realises what the odds are and resorts to tried-and-true throw people under the bus to advance his own interests tactics which, as usual, come back to bite him and then some. He manages to salvage a lovely moment with Alan out of it and all is far from lost, reflecting the kinder, more self-aware Frasier of the modern iteration, but as classic self-sabotaging Frasier goes, it’s all gloriously, wonderfully par the course.
The same dynamic is at work in “Blind Date” but this time it centres around Frasier’s inability to find love, largely due to an ego that, all evidence to the contrary – mention is made of failed marriages and a left-at-the-altar wedding – believes he is God’s gift to women. So when Jess (Jess Salgueiro) sets him and son Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) on blind dates on the same night and the first woman turns up, June (June Diane Raphael in classic form), Frasier immediately assume she must be there for him. There’s a lot of hilarity as father and son, both of whom hit it off with her, try to work which of them is her intended date, a process that ends up, as Frasier’s actual date turns up (she’s perfect for him – loves opera, lived in Milan etc but you just know Frasier will make a mess of it), not going even remotely to plan. Once again, in classic style, Frasier’s ego gets the better of him and he comes as boorish and crass ruining everything – not a spoiler! It’s pretty much emblematic of his entire dating life – but hey, at least he and Freddy bond further so it’s not a total loss.
The thing about these two episodes, which draw heavily on what we know and cringingly love about Frasier, and which mostly work – both “The Founders’ Society” and “Blind Date” don’t quite generate the head of steam they’re aiming for but they’re trying and I expect season two will see them gain these types of stories the farcicial momentum they’re aspiring to – is that give us the Frasier we know and love but with a kinder, older, more self-aware sheen applied. He may still make mistakes but he’s learning from them and growing and in his third act, that’s not a bad way for a classic character to be.
Frasier is currently streaming on Paramount+
Upload (S3, E5-8)
Oh Upload, you creatively imaginative walk into the near-future you – why must you keep toying with the hearts of your characters and by extension, us? Just when we think we have our two loved-up couples deliciously ensconced in Cupid’s nest ———- SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! ———- than the final episode, “Flesh and Blood” upends the table in shockingly cliffhanger fashion and we find that both Nathan the IRL (NIRL) guy and Nathan the Lakeview back-up (NLBU), both played by Robbie Amell, are both in mortal danger. Well, one more than the other to be fair. NIRL is held captive by the evil forces of Horizon, now rather euphemistically called Betta – yes, in true corporate fashion, why fix the terrible practices at your heart when you can just PR paper over them? – while NLBU has been blinked from existence in a rather violent crackdown that sees virtual troops toting very large guns infiltrate Lakeview and blast all the back-up copies of everyone into digital oblivion. It’s an horrific outcome, and while Nathan per se isn’t dead, the two versions of him had taken decisive, if weirded out steps, to forge their own identities and paths with NIRL ready to pop the question to Nora (Andy Allo) and NLBU deciding that a much-reformed Ingrid (Allegra Edwards) is the gal for him. Love has shone on everyone after some very trying and exhausting moments and after a win of sorts in the courts which saw Horizon forced to stump compensation to the people it killed and uploaded (alas, they faced no consequences for their conspiracy to skew voting on the rights of the Uploaded, but as Nathan reminds Nora they have gotta take the wins they can get), it finally looks like they can settle down and see where life, normal life, can taken him.
But no, not so fast! With a fourth season quite possibly in the offing for this little sitcom with heart and substance that could, it’s probably not likely that the those in the here and now, and those in the afterlife can find happiness – also dumped on from a great height by the love gods is Aleesha (Zainab Johnson) who finds out her executive level girlfriend, Karina Silva (Jeanine Mason) is actually pretty EVIL, necessitating some skullduggery with bestie Luke (Kevin Bigley) who, by the way, looks great in a Princess Leia slavegirl outfit (it’s part of an hilarious scene that affirms Bigley as a comic actor worth his weight in sitcom gold) to bring her to account; kinda works, kinda doesn’t – but still you can still hope right? Well, hope in vain people because these four episodes, which continue to unsettle you with their visions of a darkly technologically invasive future, come so close, with a mix of the heartfelt and the hilarious, to making things right, only to switch everything up again.
Still, with its excursions into the Grey Zone, where a black digital economy thrives, and its continued highlighting of social inequality and the way corporations hold us at their digital mercy, Upload continues to be one of the best new sitcoms out there, able to scathingly observe some great social deficit while at the same time have a huge amount of fun with it, It’s a very creative tension between social commentary and the foibles of the people at their heart and it works a treat with the show able to switch between the serious and the silly without diminishing either aspect. The back half of the season maintains the conspiracy, social observational aspects and character interactions to a flawlessly engaging level throughout and reminds us that while sitcoms are there for laughs, they’re also there to make a point, something Upload does with panache, wit, and intelligence and a real sense that it’s not done with its humourously compelling storytelling yet.
Upload streams on Prime Video.
And AI Guy gets to go outside!