‘Roseanne’ is back on TV, brash and funny as ever.
Ever since the presidential election, our country has been deeply divided. It only makes sense, then, that the ever-contentious Conners of “Roseanne” find themselves grappling with their own family rift.
When the iconic sitcom makes its highly anticipated return next week, viewers soon will learn that its title character (Roseanne Barr) and her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalfe) haven’t spoken to one another for a whole year, thanks to their opposing political views. The former — just like the brash comedian who plays her — is a Trump supporter. The latter most definitely is not.
And so let the notso-subtle ribbing begin: When the women get pushed into having dinner together, Jackie calls Roseanne “deplorable” and brings a bottle of Russian dressing. Roseanne jabs back with, “Aunt Jackie thinks every girl should grow up to be president, even if they’re a liar, liar, pantsuit on fire.” OK then.
Much has been made about Barr’s decision to have her TV alter-ego land in the Trump camp. Earlier this year, she even had a snippy exchange about it with reporters during a panel discussion. Rather than pushing an agenda, she insisted, she is simply being loyal to the spirit of the series.
“I have always attempted to portray a realistic portrait of the American people and of
the working class. And, in fact, it was workingclass people who elected Trump,” she said. “So I felt that, yeah, that was very real, and something that needed to be discussed. And especially about polarization in the family, and people actually hating other people for the way they voted, which I feel is not American.”
How much you welcome the return of “Roseanne” might largely depend on whether you can stomach Barr and her real-life views. (She says she voted for Trump to “shake up the status quo.”) Either way, be advised that both liberals and conservatives take their lumps. Most importantly,
the show is still honest, relatable and often laugh-out-loud hilarious.
Of course, when “Roseanne” originally arrived in 1988, it was also groundbreaking. A socalled “kitchen-sink” sitcom, it exuded raw, bluecollar grit and offered the kind of unsentimental view of life in a lower, middle-class Midwestern family that couldn’t be found elsewhere.
Now, that approach isn’t so revolutionary — ABC even has another earthy sitcom called “The Middle.” But this landscape remains much more the exception than the rule in prime time and
that’s why, out of all the reboots flooding TV right now, a “Roseanne” comeback makes more sense than most.
“I just think we were friends to a lot of people, if you can be friends on TV,” Barr says. “But (the fans) did let us into their homes and maybe they missed us and are happy to catch up with us again — I hope.”
In this case, catching up comes with some revisions. Remember how John Goodman’s Dan Conner supposedly died of a heart attack? Scratch that. He’s alive and well — a twist the show embraces right off the bat, in an amusing way.
Now in their mid-60s — and noticeably thinner — Dan and Roseanne live in the same house in Landford, Illinois, and are still struggling to pay the bills. Among the more recent set of expenses are the countless medications they require. Brace yourself for plenty of health care jokes.
Meanwhile, younger daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) is separated from her husband and has moved back home with her two kids — a teenage daughter, Harris (Emma Kenney), and 9-year-old son Mark (Ames McNamara), a boy who prefers to dress in girlish clothes.
Son D.J. (Michael Fishman)
is an ex-soldier back in town after serving overseas. Older daughter Becky (Lecy Goranson) is a widow working as a waitress. And get this — she’s been recruited to be a surrogate by a woman played by Sarah Chalke, the actress who came to be known as the “second Becky” after taking over the role. (A nice inside joke.)
As with its original run, “Roseanne” is packed with blunt, in-your-face humor. And our leading lady still brings her A-game when it comes to dishing out sardonic zingers. But now, as it was then, the barbs are balanced with heart. Roseanne and Jackie, for example, eventually figure out that siblings can still feel the love, even if divided by politics.
That heart is on display in the show’s second episode, which mercifully abandons Trump talk. In the storyline, Dan strongly objects to little Mark wearing a skirt on his first day at a new school. It’s not that Dan fiercely clings to a rigid, macho-man assessment of gender roles. He’s just being a protective papa bear, worried that his grandson will get bullied and hurt.
It’s clear that, on “Roseanne,” family still comes first.