6 ms·

People really love Frasier. I feel like I should watch it at this point with how many times I’ve seen it mentioned

Waterluvian 3y ago
It’s very clever. But what I enjoy most is that it’s just completely low stakes. There’s never any real troubling story arc. It’s all just silly harmless fun. This makes it “cozy TV” for me.
- thsksbd 3y ago
  Harmless fun? If you're able to empathize and have a bit of social anxiety Frasier is the most high stakes show ever. The brothers get themselves into the stupidest situations, make asses of themselves, and never come out on top. Its the opposite of Seinfeld( great show).
  - Waterluvian 3y ago
    Yeah, totally fair. If one is very emphatic to that kind of thing, it can definitely be uncomfortable. What I generally intend by "harmless fun" is exemplified by the episode where they buy and ruin a posh restaurant in a day, but you never hear any mention of the financial ruin from that. Whether they're super rich or not is simply not explored in the show because it's not relevant to the goals of the storyteller. It's like a cartoon: they've just got infinite resources whenever a plot calls for it. That's quite unlike Bob's Burgers, for example, where they're constantly pointing out that they can't even pay rent on time and there's a constant looming anxiety about finances (which to the credit of the show, contrasts meaningfully with how the children are happy and healthy and want for little)
    - sheepybloke 3y ago
      > That's quite unlike Bob's Burgers, for example, where they're constantly pointing out that they can't even pay rent on time and there's a constant looming anxiety about finances To your point, like Fraiser, it's often used a plot device in Bob's Burgers and generally, like Fraiser, everything turns out OK. For me, a lot of it is more defining the social class and context of the show. Will the character be comfortable in a wine club? How will they interact with this setting? What problems would they have?
    - tomjakubowski 3y ago
      > Whether they're super rich or not is simply not explored in the show because it's not relevant to the goals of the storyteller. What?? I thought the show obviously portrayed Frasier and Niles as wealthy yuppies. Frasier rents a luxurious 3 bedroom apartment and Niles is married to a woman named Maris who is the heir to a urinal cake fortune. They live in a mansion!
      - 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
        I think the point was more that they were never lacking resources. They had exactly as much money as required. There were plenty of minor plot arcs which would bankrupt a normal person. The casual spending of money was just a means to change the scene and/or make the inevitable failure inconsequential.
      - mywittyname 3y ago
        Since he had a nationally syndicated talk show host, I always assumed that he was meant to be approximately Howard Stern (pre-Sirius) rich.
        TMWNN 3y ago
        >Since he had a nationally syndicated talk show host Not nationally syndicated. Only broadcast in the Seattle area.
      - smsm42 3y ago
        One of the plot lines deals with Miles getting a divorce and temporarily having to live like a normal non-rich person, driving a hatchback (which he calls a hunchback) and living in an appartment. Before (and soon after) Miles is quite affluent, and Fraiser is not far behind.
        ascagnel_ 3y ago
        He's not living in a stereotypical apartment -- it has a large living space (in which he's able to host fairly large parties for the upper crust), a well-appointed kitchen, a separate floor for bedrooms, and a third floor that's never seen on the show.
    - swayvil 3y ago
      They are insulated. By their wealth. By their professions and education. By their infinite capacity for... I don't want to call it "self deception". But their fine intellects allow them to interpret anything to suit their preferences. To rationalize anything. And they do. Which is some oft used plot grist, of course.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - TMWNN 3y ago
    >Harmless fun? If you're able to empathize and have a bit of social anxiety Frasier is the most high stakes show ever. I've seen and loved 99% of Frasier episodes, and never once thought of it as a high-stakes show. Perhaps it's because I lack empathy, but I'd like to think that it's that I have always lacked the desire for pretension (despite having an educational, professional, and social background not dissimilar to the Crane brothers'), so never took personally the anxiety Frasier or Niles felt at failing to fit into some gathering of their peers. Upon further pondering, more proof of this is that I am among those who get very anxious when I see people get embarrassed. But it has to be a situation where it feels "unfair". When Frasier or Niles make fools of themselves it's always because of their own pretensions, not anyone else's.
- maximinus_thrax 3y ago
  > “cozy TV” This is totally it. I would add that for me it's extra cozy because I used to watch it (and love it) as a kid growing up in Eastern Europe and now, I live in Seattle! I rewatched it sometime during the pandemic and the jokes hit way closer to home than when I was a 13 yo kid, both from the fact that I'm now an adult and from the fact that I understand why someone calling from Tacoma has a different problem that someone calling from Medina hahaha. All in all, a great show.
  - Waterluvian 3y ago
    Oh yeah so many jokes land differently now that I’m an adult. It’s fun to rewatch. I also didn’t realize that almost all of the callers are uncredited celebrities.
    - maximinus_thrax 3y ago
      > I also didn’t realize that almost all of the callers are uncredited celebrities. Yes! That's another sort of 'easter egg' I found when I rewatched it. There was someone who sounded just like David Duchovny and I looked it up and down the rabbit hole I went.
    - dudul 3y ago
      Maybe I misremember but I thought they were credited. Now I need to rewatch the entire series to double check :)
      - jks 3y ago
        I think they were credited in each season finale - a "Thank You for Calling" screen.
        valarauko 3y ago
        IIRC they're also credited in each episode credits.
code_runner 3y ago
like a lot of shows from that era (in my opinion), you may end up needing to push through at the beginning... but it does settle in relatively quickly. there are almost no bad episodes in the entire run.
sylens 3y ago
The writing and comedic timing is really something special
anthomtb 3y ago
Frasier was a staple of late-night reruns during my early-aughts teenage years. So I've seen a lot of them and know the characters well. Yet I think it would be worth a re-watch. I enjoyed it at the time but suspect that there were more subtle points and humor which my young, naive brain did not pick up.
- asveikau 3y ago
  I re-watched Frasier recently. As with most 90s and adjacent sitcoms, the stuff that holds up least is around changing gender norms. Frasier often comes across as a sex crazed narcissist, who we are supposed to be rooting for. That was the joke at the time too, but sometimes it doesn't age well. Still worth rewatching, however. Another interesting example of 90s sitcoms and evolving gender roles would be Ross from Friends. A modern expectation of how a man should act in a long-term relationship would probably consider him to be emotionally abusive. But I didn't find his conduct all that bad in the 90s. I think a few years ago it was a fad for gen-z to watch Friends, so I think I'm not the only person to note this.
  - canadianfella 3y ago
    [dead]

It’s very clever. But what I enjoy most is that it’s just completely low stakes. There’s never any real troubling story arc. It’s all just silly harmless fun. This makes it “cozy TV” for me.

thsksbd 3y ago
Harmless fun? If you're able to empathize and have a bit of social anxiety Frasier is the most high stakes show ever. The brothers get themselves into the stupidest situations, make asses of themselves, and never come out on top. Its the opposite of Seinfeld( great show).
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  Yeah, totally fair. If one is very emphatic to that kind of thing, it can definitely be uncomfortable. What I generally intend by "harmless fun" is exemplified by the episode where they buy and ruin a posh restaurant in a day, but you never hear any mention of the financial ruin from that. Whether they're super rich or not is simply not explored in the show because it's not relevant to the goals of the storyteller. It's like a cartoon: they've just got infinite resources whenever a plot calls for it. That's quite unlike Bob's Burgers, for example, where they're constantly pointing out that they can't even pay rent on time and there's a constant looming anxiety about finances (which to the credit of the show, contrasts meaningfully with how the children are happy and healthy and want for little)
  - sheepybloke 3y ago
    > That's quite unlike Bob's Burgers, for example, where they're constantly pointing out that they can't even pay rent on time and there's a constant looming anxiety about finances To your point, like Fraiser, it's often used a plot device in Bob's Burgers and generally, like Fraiser, everything turns out OK. For me, a lot of it is more defining the social class and context of the show. Will the character be comfortable in a wine club? How will they interact with this setting? What problems would they have?
  - tomjakubowski 3y ago
    > Whether they're super rich or not is simply not explored in the show because it's not relevant to the goals of the storyteller. What?? I thought the show obviously portrayed Frasier and Niles as wealthy yuppies. Frasier rents a luxurious 3 bedroom apartment and Niles is married to a woman named Maris who is the heir to a urinal cake fortune. They live in a mansion!
    - 0cf8612b2e1e 3y ago
      I think the point was more that they were never lacking resources. They had exactly as much money as required. There were plenty of minor plot arcs which would bankrupt a normal person. The casual spending of money was just a means to change the scene and/or make the inevitable failure inconsequential.
    - mywittyname 3y ago
      Since he had a nationally syndicated talk show host, I always assumed that he was meant to be approximately Howard Stern (pre-Sirius) rich.
      - TMWNN 3y ago
        >Since he had a nationally syndicated talk show host Not nationally syndicated. Only broadcast in the Seattle area.
    - smsm42 3y ago
      One of the plot lines deals with Miles getting a divorce and temporarily having to live like a normal non-rich person, driving a hatchback (which he calls a hunchback) and living in an appartment. Before (and soon after) Miles is quite affluent, and Fraiser is not far behind.
      - ascagnel_ 3y ago
        He's not living in a stereotypical apartment -- it has a large living space (in which he's able to host fairly large parties for the upper crust), a well-appointed kitchen, a separate floor for bedrooms, and a third floor that's never seen on the show.
  - swayvil 3y ago
    They are insulated. By their wealth. By their professions and education. By their infinite capacity for... I don't want to call it "self deception". But their fine intellects allow them to interpret anything to suit their preferences. To rationalize anything. And they do. Which is some oft used plot grist, of course.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- TMWNN 3y ago
  >Harmless fun? If you're able to empathize and have a bit of social anxiety Frasier is the most high stakes show ever. I've seen and loved 99% of Frasier episodes, and never once thought of it as a high-stakes show. Perhaps it's because I lack empathy, but I'd like to think that it's that I have always lacked the desire for pretension (despite having an educational, professional, and social background not dissimilar to the Crane brothers'), so never took personally the anxiety Frasier or Niles felt at failing to fit into some gathering of their peers. Upon further pondering, more proof of this is that I am among those who get very anxious when I see people get embarrassed. But it has to be a situation where it feels "unfair". When Frasier or Niles make fools of themselves it's always because of their own pretensions, not anyone else's.
maximinus_thrax 3y ago
> “cozy TV” This is totally it. I would add that for me it's extra cozy because I used to watch it (and love it) as a kid growing up in Eastern Europe and now, I live in Seattle! I rewatched it sometime during the pandemic and the jokes hit way closer to home than when I was a 13 yo kid, both from the fact that I'm now an adult and from the fact that I understand why someone calling from Tacoma has a different problem that someone calling from Medina hahaha. All in all, a great show.
- Waterluvian 3y ago
  Oh yeah so many jokes land differently now that I’m an adult. It’s fun to rewatch. I also didn’t realize that almost all of the callers are uncredited celebrities.
  - maximinus_thrax 3y ago
    > I also didn’t realize that almost all of the callers are uncredited celebrities. Yes! That's another sort of 'easter egg' I found when I rewatched it. There was someone who sounded just like David Duchovny and I looked it up and down the rabbit hole I went.
  - dudul 3y ago
    Maybe I misremember but I thought they were credited. Now I need to rewatch the entire series to double check :)
    - jks 3y ago
      I think they were credited in each season finale - a "Thank You for Calling" screen.
      - valarauko 3y ago
        IIRC they're also credited in each episode credits.

code_runner 3y ago

like a lot of shows from that era (in my opinion), you may end up needing to push through at the beginning... but it does settle in relatively quickly. there are almost no bad episodes in the entire run.

sylens 3y ago

The writing and comedic timing is really something special

anthomtb 3y ago

Frasier was a staple of late-night reruns during my early-aughts teenage years. So I've seen a lot of them and know the characters well. Yet I think it would be worth a re-watch. I enjoyed it at the time but suspect that there were more subtle points and humor which my young, naive brain did not pick up.

asveikau 3y ago
I re-watched Frasier recently. As with most 90s and adjacent sitcoms, the stuff that holds up least is around changing gender norms. Frasier often comes across as a sex crazed narcissist, who we are supposed to be rooting for. That was the joke at the time too, but sometimes it doesn't age well. Still worth rewatching, however. Another interesting example of 90s sitcoms and evolving gender roles would be Ross from Friends. A modern expectation of how a man should act in a long-term relationship would probably consider him to be emotionally abusive. But I didn't find his conduct all that bad in the 90s. I think a few years ago it was a fad for gen-z to watch Friends, so I think I'm not the only person to note this.
- canadianfella 3y ago
  [dead]