It’s been twenty years since the last Roseanne episode aired. It returned on March 27 with a one hour reboot. The original cast is back and the live audience’s laughter is much better than canned laughter. The main storyline is the Conner family working together to find common ground and support each other, like families everywhere.
In the first episode, titled “Twenty Years to Life,” the rift that developed between Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) and her sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) after the election is exposed.
Roseanne’s daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) has moved back home to Lanford from Chicago with her two children and wants to reconcile her mother and aunt. The disagreement is political and the tone is set as Jackie enters the Conner home in a Nasty Woman t-shirt and a pink pussy hat. She greets Roseanne with, “What’s up, deplorable?”
Darlene insists that the two women start speaking to each other. It doesn’t go very well.
Darlene: Ok. You guys have got to talk this out civilly. Mom, Aunt Jackie's standing right here, pussy hat in hand.
Roseanne: Oh! I don't have time for this.
Jackie: Knee still giving you trouble, Roseanne? Why don't you get that fixed with the new health care all you suckers got promised?
Roseanne: It works good enough to kick your ass, snowflake.
Jackie: There you go. All you people go straight to the violence. Every one of you wrapping yourselves up in the flag and clinging to your guns.
Roseanne: Oh, that's such a stereotype. Where you going?
Dan: I just realized -- we got kids in the house and I can't remember where we hid our gun.
In a refreshing change of pace, Roseanne gives a voice to the millions of working class Americans in the flyover states that Hollywood usually ignores in explaining her vote for Trump to her sister, "He talked about jobs, Jackie! He said he'd 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."
As the bickering, er, talking continues between the two women, some funny barbs fly over a family dinner. Jackie brings a salad and Russian dressing (oh, a Russians joke!) and as Roseanne says she’ll say grace, she asks Jackie if she would prefer to take a knee. LOL. In the prayer, Roseanne thanks God for her son D.J.’s (Michael Fishman) safe return from serving in Syria and for the safe return of his wife, and she thanked all the troops for their service. She thanks God for making America great again.
Grand daughter: Granny Rose!
Roseanne: Oh! It's my little princess!
Jackie: ...Or senator or doctor or captain of industry because girls can be whatever they want to be.
Grand daughter: I want to train cats to bark.
Roseanne: Good. I think it's cool. Aunt Jackie thinks every girl should grow up and be president, even if they're a "Liar, liar, pantsuit on fire."
Jackie: I think we know who's a liar and who's on fire, Roseanne.
D.J.: Hey, Aunt Jackie.
Jackie: D.J.! Welcome back. Thank you for your service.
D.J.: Thanks, but I've been out of the Army for three months.
Jackie: Oh, I've been off the force for years, but I still smell the adrenaline. Um, how's the missus? She win the war over there yet?
D.J.: Not yet.
Jackie: Okay, well, thank her for her service. I brought salad.
Dan: Thank you for your salad.
Darlene: Hey, everybody, this is the first dinner together we've had as a family in a long time. Let's try to survive it.
Roseanne: Oh, yeah. First, let's say grace. Jackie, would you like to take a knee? Dear Lord, thank you for this food and for bringing our son, D.J., home safe from Syria. Please protect his wife, Geena, and all our troops still overseas. Please watch over our son, Jerry, who's on that stupid fishing boat where apparently they don't get phone calls. But most of all, Lord... Thank you for making America great again!
In another storyline, Roseanne and Dan’s (John Goodman) daughter Becky (Lecy Goranson) is widowed and considering being a surrogate for a couple so that she can make money to pay bills and put money down on a house. Dan isn’t having this and Roseanne tries to make peace. The woman looking to have a baby comes to interview Becky and the Conners and it is Sarah Chalke the actress who replaced Goranson for a time during the show's original run. (This was a clever way for the reboot to work in both actresses who played Becky in the original series.) This doesn’t work out, though, and a surrogacy agreement isn’t made.
Darlene’s two children are a teen girl and a 9-year-old boy. The boy, Mark, wears glittery female clothing and Roseanne tells her husband, "Darlene says just ignore it. He's 'exploring.'" "May the winds fill his sails and carry him to the boy's section of Target," Dan returns hopefully.
Roseanne sits down with Mark before his first day at his new school and asks about his choice of clothing and if he feels like a boy or a girl. He’s wearing a sequined miniskirt and leggings but confidently tells his grandmother he's a boy and insists he just likes to be creative and colorful.
Roseanne and Jackie finally smooth their differences out and begin to get along with each other. Jackie wants Roseanne to stop telling her she is stupid and bossing her around like older sisters do to siblings. She blames Roseanne for the good job she did convincing her that Hillary Clinton would be a disaster as a president and so she choked on election day and voted for Dr. Jill Stein instead. LOL! What a fool. Roseanne tells Jackie she’s a “good-hearted person who can’t do simple math” because Jackie thinks all Americans are entitled to free healthcare.
In the second episode titled “Dress to Impress,” the focus is on young Mark, Darlene’s cross-dressing son. Dan is concerned that Mark will be bullied and possibly physically hurt by the other kids. He is very excited when Mark expresses interest in Dan’s pocket knife so Dan gives it to the boy. Naturally, Mark takes it to school and when a bully tells him that he will tell everyone that Mark is a “girl bot,” Mark gives the knife to the bully to keep him quiet. The school principal calls Darlene to pick up Mark and then Darlene and Roseanne learn where the knife came from. Roseanne asks if Dan was just happy that Mark was showing some masculinity and Dan delivers a great line as his response, “When did masculine become a dirty word?” How true.
All in all, this is a really good show. It’s a conservative-friendly show, which is rare these days. The dynamic of how common political differences have caused problems in Trump’s America is real and finally being acknowledged, at least in this show. Most of Hollywood will no doubt criticize Roseanne Barr’s courage to be reasonable in real life but that’s their problem. Even liberal talk show host Jimmy Kimmel has been dished a helping of real talk from Roseanne as she says all Americans should want the president to succeed so that America succeeds. More of that, please.
