It’s unquestionable that the cadence of the average sitcom has evolved in the three decades since Frasier debuted. The quips are more quick-fire and less naturalistic, there are fewer B stories, and the timing of each scene has accelerated. This is, at least in part, due to networks shortening the length of programmes which fill a half hour time slot. As more commercials were squeezed in, a half hour show slowly reduced in runtime from 25 minutes, to 24 and eventually to between 20 and 21. The change may have been gradual, but a 20 minute show, by necessity, takes on a different feel from one as much as 25% longer.

The two episodes of Frasier to date have weighed in at 29 and 27 minutes and have benefitted from the decadent runtime. This can, however, be a double edged sword — having to trim a script to fit a shorter runtime helps keep the writing tight over a season. Without regularly going through the exercise that comes from being forced to make cuts, the writing can become meandering and self-indulgent. There’s no greater example of this than Ted Lasso‘s sometimes ponderous third season; there are times when writers need saving from themselves. While this hasn’t yet been an issue for Frasier, I’ll be keeping an eye on the runtimes as the season moves forward.

(The remainder of this article contains spoilers for Frasier 2023 Season 1, Episode 2, “Moving In“)

The 1993 show spent three entire episodes setting up the series; the first show established the premise and characters and gave Martin a reason to move in with Frasier. The second spent time on the fallout, the adjustment for Frasier and Martin and the compromises that living together will mean. The third explored the relationship between the three Crane men and began the Niles and Daphne dynamic.

The 2023 show, similarly, uses its second episode to continue to lay the foundation for the series and to discover what Frasier and Freddy’s living arrangement will mean.

The opening scene, with Freddy asleep on the couch and Eve inadvertently waking him as she tends to the baby is the closest Frasier has ever been to a traditional domestic sitcom. The joke doesn’t entirely work, but Frasier himself soon arrives and sets the story in motion: the time has come for Freddy to move across the hall.

The episode revolves around the clash between Freddy and Frasier’s aesthetic, much as Martin and Frasier’s clashed 30 years before. Frasier can’t understand Freddy’s attachment to things he sees as beneath him, like a box of dirt from Fenway Park. Freddy wants his home to feel like his home, and worse, sees Frasier’s rejection of his things as a rejection of the man he’s become.

Once again, the episode’s best moments are the showdowns between father and son. The Air Hockey sequence in particular is emblematic of a show already comfortable with the dynamic between its cast. Jack Cutmore-Scott plays the moment with such relish and the two leads bounce off each other to create a memorable, and hugely entertaining scene. While there are parallels, there are also differences in the relationship between Freddy and Frasier to that which was between Frasier and Martin. Freddy delights in sparring with his Dad in a way the elder Cranes rarely did. Martin and Frasier would bicker over the superficial, only reaching catharsis and discussing their true feelings when events came to a head. Freddy doesn’t hold back from taking shots at the more foundational pillars of his relationship with his father.

If there’s a fault in this episode it’s the tendency to crib its comedy a little too heavily from the show’s own past. The monologue Frasier gives to Alan, with Alan giving nothing but stoney silence as Frasier reacts to each imagined retort is a carbon copy of a scene with Niles way back in Season 2’s “The Show Where Diane Comes Back“. Likewise, Freddy dealing with his issues with his father by sitting down as a patient of TV’s Doctor Frasier Crane has similar vibes to Martin calling Frasier’s show. It’s a small quibble and these are winning moments even if they’ve not entirely original.

After the first episode I opined that David’s character lacked depth. While he’s once again superfluous in this second episode, present solely to deliver punchlines, he does seem more his own man. He has his father’s eccentricities but none of his polish and of this he’s painfully self-aware. His responses as he walks back and forth, catching parts of the conversation without context and assuming it’s about him, elicit solid laughs.

Eve and Olivia each have a small B plot in this episode, both of which revolve around Frasier. Eve discovers Frasier’s voice puts Jack to sleep, and Frasier being Frasier mistakes her interest for a romantic one. Olivia has the least to do this week, setting up a press interview for Frasier, who of course blows the opportunity when a misunderstanding quickly gets out of hand. It’s a welcome scene reminiscent of many a Frasier farce.

“Moving In” is a fine second chapter and finishes the work of setting up the show and the relationships between its principle characters. It’s time now for the show to stretch its wings and fly with some standalone stories in the weeks that follow.

Odds and Ends

• If the last episode took placement dollars from Macallan, this one was obviously sponsored by Scootch.
• You can only push the viewer’s credulity so far — no parent in the world would willing buy an electric swing that plays “Baby Shark”.
• One of Freddy’s firefighter coworkers goes by “Moose” and of course the bar they’re seen at is “Mahoney’s”, two subtle references to now departed Frasier regulars.