'Fuller House' roundtable: Sister wives
Season 1 | Episode 2 | “Moving Day” | Aired Feb 26, 2016
The EW Community contributors have been excited about Netflix’s Fuller House for some time now. This week, Erin Conley, Tamar Barbash, and Terri Clark chatted live as they watched the second episode.
Erin: This shot from the point of view of the fridge is a bit strange.
Terri: Having Ramona—a tween non-family member—move in will be an added challenge.
Tamar: Yeah, and it comes on the heels of these kids losing their father.
Erin: Kimmy’s bacon-and-eggs scarf, though …
Terri: “Come here, sister wife.” I die!
Erin: Terri, I think your prediction was correct that we would get more Kimmy in this episode. Certainly a lot of her, including literally, in terms of this image of her head she just hung up on the wall.
Tamar: Of course Kimmy has a fathead of herself.
Terri: Kimmy is going to be that mother who always embarrasses you.
Erin: I have to say, Candace Cameron Bure is doing a pretty good job of carrying this episode without the original guys. But Max is still upstaging everyone.
Tamar: He’s too much! I wish they’d spread out the original guys a little more, rather than having them all in the pilot and then disappearing.
Terri: I think the plan is to have them “stop by” periodically throughout the series. I’ll bet we see them in about half the episodes. I’d guess we’ll see Stamos more than the others because he’s the executive producer who brought the show back.
Erin: I enjoy how they thought that we may have forgotten DJ works at a pet clinic, despite the fact that she brings it up at every opportunity. Also, what happened to Comet Junior Junior Junior?!
Terri: Good question! Maybe he has his own room.
Erin: Max is Danny Junior Junior for sure.
Tamar: But the obsessive cleaning characteristic is so much more endearing on a little kid.
Terri: Yes, and Kimmy’s daughter is looking like a mini-me version of her, aka the nuisance of the house.
Erin: This scene is clearly meant to point out how Stephanie is now in the Uncle Jesse role. Also, they have really upgraded that kitchen backsplash.
Tamar: Yeah, they really seem to think we won’t get things if they don’t spell them out very explicitly.
Terri: I agree that Stephanie is taking up those reins and they’re being a little heavy-handed. Do you think it would seem as glaring to people who are checking out the show on Netflix and maybe aren’t as familiar with Full House?
Erin: Are people watching this who haven’t seen the original? I honestly don’t think it would be at all appealing if not for the nostalgia factor. “I changed so many of Michelle’s diapers, I feel like there were two of her.” I see what they did there.
Terri: She’d better hope Tommy doesn’t need another change soon.
Erin: I take back everything snarky I said about DJ’s pet-clinic job if it means we get random adorable dogs every episode.
Terri: Okay, I’m sold on the kid who plays Jackson too. Michael Campion is a cutie.
Erin: This car green screen is … a thing that’s happening.
Terri: I knew DJ was setting Stephanie up.
Tamar: But being mad at Stephanie and Kimmy here is silly. Jackson is old enough to navigate around them. It could have happened just as easily if DJ had been home. If anything, I feel she should be telling Jackson to apologize for doing this to his aunt.
Terri: There is truth to all that, especially the apology to Stephanie and Kimmy. However, they clearly weren’t checking on him if he was gone that long. Hopefully Jeff Franklin is just a little rusty. It’s been almost 30 years since Full House, and he’s got to find that voice again.
Erin: ARE THE CHILDREN DRINKING MARGARITAS?
Tamar: I was just going to ask that exact question.
Erin: At this point, I’m expecting Joey will visit in episode three to hit us over the head with the parallels he has with Kimmy.
Terri: Fair enough. I’ll pay you $10 if that happens.
Erin: I feel like they’re setting up a Jackson/Ramona thing, maybe? I feel weird about it. And I still have questions about whether the children were drinking margaritas.
Tamar: This is what I’m saying. It adds a very different dynamic to the whole premise.
Terri: That occurred to me too, but no, please no. That would be weirdly incestuous, even if they aren’t family. Plus, I’d rather they have a brother-sister vibe as they help each other traverse first crushes, bullies, and all the coming-of-age storylines you’d come to expect from the brains behind Full House.
Tamar: I don’t know. I know they wanted to keep the symmetry with the original with Kimmy/Joey and the switching rooms, but for me, adding Ramona really doesn’t work. Having Joey was legitimately helpful. He was there solely to help Danny. Having a tween makes Kimmy an entirely different kind of resource, and moving rooms because of another kid feels like an unnecessarily unfair transition to push on kids who are grieving.
Terri: It’ll be interesting to see how this dynamic plays out. As the only girl, being a “surrogate” sister to DJ’s three boys could work.
Erin: I’m curious to see if they space out the guest appearances between the original guys, or if they let the “new” family ever stand fully on its own. This episode was less thrilling than the first to me, but still fun.
Terri: I think it was less thrilling partially because they weren’t constantly throwing in fan bait.
Tamar: I worry that without the fan bait, there’s not much to it. The heavy nostalgia feels like the biggest thing it’s got going for it.
Terri: Eventually it’ll have to settle into its own thing. I’m a huge Girl Meets World fan, and it’s done an exceptional job of finding its own footing and creating its own fan base; at the same time, it still occasionally recognizes the original and gives nostalgic nods to Boy Meets World. I hope Fuller House can make that same kind of transition.
Erin: Honestly, this second episode was just really lacking in Comet Junior Junior Junior or any other descendants.
Terri: Note to showrunners: Please introduce more fur to Fuller House for Erin.
All 13 episodes of season one of Fuller House are now streaming on Netflix.
