Television studios’ endless appetite for a safe bet has led to the revival of several classic shows as limited series over the past several years. The latest property to fall victim to this trend is Frasier, a sitcom that ran for 11 seasons but was last on the air nearly 20 years ago and has been resurrected on Paramount+. Is this new chapter in Dr. Frasier Crane’s life worth watching? Not if you believe what critics are saying about the show.

Critics who have watched the first several episodes of the Frasier revival haven’t been kind to the show thus far. Some have called it “an unfunny dud,” noting that it fails to live up to the original. It seems that for every critic who enjoyed the latest antics of Kelsey Grammer’s iconic Dr. Crane, there are at least two who find that “this Frasier is just not that Frasier”.

One of the biggest complaints thus far has been the new cast of characters. Of the original cast, only Grammer returns in a starring role and the show suffers from a lack of David Hyde Pierce’s positively flappable Niles or Peri Gilpin as frequent Frasier collaborator and tormentor Roz. The new show tries to shoehorn new faces into the roles that these characters once filled, but the lack of chemistry makes everything feel stale and underwhelming when compared to the original cast.

These constant comparisons are simply unavoidable considering that the original Frasier run had one of the all-time greatest ensemble casts. Despite having a few “moments of joy” sprinkled throughout the five episodes that critics have been given, it seems this new Frasier revival simply doesn’t live up to the high standard set by the show’s past.

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