Vulture digs it and says it's still progressive.

 

Quote

More than 30 years later, Roseanne is back for a tenth season on ABC, and has been rebooted in a manner that lightly echoes the way Will & Grace was successfully reincarnated just a few months ago. Like the NBC comedy, Roseanne returns with the same cast, tosses aside previous inconvenient plot developments (Dan Conner: no longer dead!), and focuses its first episode in large part on the impact of Donald Trump’s election. The difference is that, while Will & Grace more or less jettisoned Trump talk after the first episode, the fact that Roseanne Conner voted for Trump redefines her character for the 21st century. On one hand, as a working-class white woman living in the middle of the country, it’s not surprising that she’s a Trump supporter. (The fact that the real Roseanne is pro-Trump also leeches the shock value out of this reveal.) But on the other, Roseanne was always an unabashed pro-choice feminist who presumably would have little patience for pûssy grabbers.

 

“How could you have voted for him, Roseanne?” asks her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) in the first of two half-hours that air Tuesday night. The two have been feuding ever since the election and still haven’t buried the hatchet, or the pûssy hats and Make America Great Again caps that divide them.

 

“He talked about jobs, Jackie,” Roseanne explains. “He said he would shake things up. I mean, this might come as a complete shock to you, but we almost lost our house the way things are going.”

 

“Have you looked at the news?” Jackie asks. “Because now things are worse.”

 

“Not on the real news,” Roseanne shoots back.

 

Yet when Becky (played by the original Becky, Lecy Goranson) announces that she’s planning to act as a surrogate and donate her own eggs to another couple trying to get pregnant, Jackie points out that it’s Becky’s body, Becky’s choice, and Roseanne can’t help but agree. Apparently it is possible for this woman to still have some progressive views and, also, buy into aspects of what Trump is selling. Which, in ultra-divisive 2018, is a somewhat revolutionary idea, one that will get even more interesting if the sitcom allows Roseanne to continue grappling more openly with her own philosophical contradictions. (ABC provided three episodes in advance.)

 

In other important ways, Roseanne hasn’t changed at all. It is still funny in the same ways it was always funny, using classic sitcom jokes and storylines to highlight issues of class. When Darlene’s teenage daughter Harris (Emma Kenney) asks, “Can I have some money?” Darlene immediately turns to Roseanne : “I don’t know. Mom, can I have some money?” Then Roseanne looks to the sky: “I don’t know. Can I have some money?”

 

Some of the writers and producers who worked on the original are back for this one, including producer Tom Werner, Bruce Rasmussen, who penned the premiere, and Sid Youngers, who wrote the third episode. But they’re joined by producers, consultants, and writers like Whitney Cummings, Wanda Sykes, and Darlene Hunt, the creator of The Big C and writer of the second episode of Roseanne 2.0, an approach that adds to the sense that this Roseanne is a very carefully designed hybrid of new and old.

 

Sometimes the carefully designed nature of the show holds it back a bit. Perhaps this is due to the episodes ABC chose to make available to critics – the first two and the seventh, which addresses opioid addiction, were the ones ABC shared – Roseanne seems so driven to advance socially relevant storylines that it doesn’t alway unfold with the same natural ease that characterized the original in its best seasons. (Obviously season nine, in which the Conners won the lottery and, in one episode, Roseanne saves most of her family from an act of train terrorism, was not one of those seasons.)

 

[...]

 

As grandparents, Roseanne and Dan are loving, but also occasionally befuddled by their offspring’s offspring. In particular, Dan has a hard time adjusting to Mark’s penchant for wearing skirts and nail polish. Roseanne, on the other hand, may not entirely understand why he dresses the way he does, but she’ll fight to the death for the kid, as she demonstrates while making a pretty pointed speech to Mark’s new classmates.

 

“I’m counting on you guys to make the new kid feel welcome. And if you don’t, I have ways of finding out about it,” she says, adding, “I’m a white witch.”

 

The fact that a character on a 2018 sitcom can be pro-Trump and supportive of an LGBTQ middle schooler may seem like a contradiction. But this new Roseanne exists for just that reason: to point out that such contradictions can and do exist in this country.

 

Like a lot of grandparents in America, Dan and Roseanne also are partially playing parental roles again, which adds another layer to the culturally relevant sense of déjà vu. When Harris talks back to Darlene in tones Darlene once used with her parents, Dan bemusedly notes that it’s been 20 years since he’s seen this movie. “The classics really do hold up,” he says.

 

Which is true of Roseanne as well, even if it’s reinvented itself a little for the current moment. It may not be quite as good or as groundbreaking as the original, but it holds up.

Edited March 26, 20187 yr by Vee

I honestly sometimes can't tell if Roseanne is exactly pro-Trump or if she's just trolling people.

 

Even before Trump, she was talking about how the 'Left' took things too far where they enabled the current social climate to be too "politically correct" where everything is taken too seriously - I think that's what pissing her off the most. I don't know if I'd ever call her a right-wing Conservative.

 

 

Edited March 26, 20187 yr by BetterForgotten

Oh, I think she means it. I also think her recent public appearances have indicated a fair amount of embarrassment mixed with stubborn old person pride. Both Kimmel and John Goodman roasted her on it and she barely fought back. She even urged people to vote him out if they wanted. I think/hope the reunited cast and crew have had an effect on her.

 

And yes, I do think it was borne out of a frustration with 'political correctness' with her - and too many other people like her, who the right radicalized from the far left when their privilege was threatened. Some can be won back, some can't. No amount of political correctness can excuse her vote or her behavior, but it is a trend we see again and again. Alienation in a changing world makes some people easy pickings when they can't adjust.

Edited March 26, 20187 yr by Vee

NY Times Review

Well, I'm officially optimistic.

I was reading Roseanne's wiki and saw this:

At 16, Barr was hit by a car; the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury.^[7] Her behavior changed so radically that she was institutionalized for eight months at Utah State Hospital.^[9] While institutionalized she had a baby, which she placed through adoption.^[10]

 

I had no idea she went through that. How awful.

 

I expect the show to be good. I look forward to it.

Yeah, and she was blackmailed by the National Enquirer to do an exclusive with them when they tracked down the daughter she gave up for adoption. She and her daughter are now very close. 

I knew the NE was despicable, but tracking down an adopted child and then blackmail? That is really nasty.

Yeah, they told her they were going to run the story without her permission if she didn't grant them an exclusive interview with her daughter. Roseanne was new to Hollywood at that time, and clearly didn't know how to deal with a lot of that attention. 

Edited March 26, 20187 yr by BetterForgotten

It's too bad so much of the press focuses on the "Trump" aspect of Roseanne Conner, considering they only focus on that for the first episode. That's what happened for Will & Grace's return, only stronger. 

Yeah, the pilot sounds rocky, but pilots usually are. I'm glad it's an hour event. They've also only screened 3.

 

Wow: Even Alan Sepinwall likes it.

Lecy requested Sarah come back:

 

 

What a weird, awkward interview with Roseanne, John, and Sara on The View. Lots of dead silences and missed cues from Whoopi and team. Just very unprofessional. 

I except nothing less from what's become of The View. 

16 minutes ago, Faulkner said:

What a weird, awkward interview with Roseanne, John, and Sara on The View. Lots of dead silences and missed cues from Whoopi and team. Just very unprofessional. 

Probably because they aren't interested in the reboot.