'Frasier' review: Reboot is sweet, sad, nice and a tad dull

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Following the events of "Frasier" (1993-2004), Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) had decamped from Seattle to Chicago where we learn that he had become a famous talk show host, his show a cross between "Dr. Phil" and "Ellen." He now yearns to be respected, so he moves back to Boston and joins the Harvard faculty with an assist from old pal Alan (Nicholas Lyndhurst), who's also a prof there, and psych department chair Olivia (Toks Olagundoye). Frasier also wants to reconnect with his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott) who dropped out of Harvard to become a fireman and to help his close friend Eve (Jess Salgueiro) with her own immediate struggles.

Yes, there's a bar in this too — not Cheers, but Mahoney's (a tribute to John Mahoney, who played Frasier's father Martin, and who died in 2018.) A handful of key "Frasier" stars declined to join this reboot, most notably David Hyde Pierce (Niles Crane), currently starring on Broadway in "Here We Are."

MY SAY To use a Frasier Crane-ish turn of phrase, there's prevailing melancholy to this reboot. Nothing too apparent, but just under the surface — a kind of floating sadness that pokes at the edges, and muffles the laugh track (or studio audience). That's a bit unexpected because Frasier, as someone says early on, hasn't changed much himself. He still has that arch wit, that stuffy pedantry, that love of fine things (also fine liquor). 

But something else is going on here and you don't need to wade in too deep to know what that is. "Frasier" is a blunt reminder of time's passage, of human mortality, and of TV mortality itself. Not that this reboot is simply old-fashioned but it's very nearly fossilized. The series finale all those years ago included a surprising (for prime-time anyway) embrace of Alfred Tennyson's poem ("Ulysses") and without being too much of a stuffy pedant myself, it seems appropriate to pull a line for this review: "You and I are old … Death closes all."

As Frasier himself might say, preeecisely! You and I are old, too, while this "Frasier" is a hard reminder of just how much we've all aged together. In fact, the general premise — highly unusual for both sitcoms and their reboots — is about death, or at least the long shadow of death. Frasier has returned to Boston to restore some personal dignity before it's too late, and to be with a son who himself is struggling over the death of his closest friend. Niles Crane is mentioned just once, and we're left to worry whether he too may have shuffled off this mortal coil. Niles' own son, David (Anders Keith), is a central character here, and as fans possibly know, he was named for the show's co-creator David Angell who perished on American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11. 

One unbearably sad note: The premiere episode is dedicated to three people, including Mahoney and Lyndhurst's own son, Archie, who died of cancer in 2020 at the age of 19.

"Cherish these days," says Frasier at the opening of the second episode. "They'll disappear with a cruel swiftness." Again, precisely, but cherish this reboot? Probably not. Included with that melancholy is an abiding sweetness, and some nice performances — little known here, British veteran Lyndhurst is rightfully celebrated over there. There's also a gentleness that's missing from TV comedy circa 2023. But the world and TV comedy have moved on, likewise us as well. A genuine TV treasure, the original "Frasier" must forever remain in the past, or where all such treasures have gone on to their eternal rest — a streaming service.

BOTTOM LINE Sweet, sad, nice, and a tad dull.