“Whatever happened to predictability?
The milkman, the paperboy, evening TV?
You miss your old familiar friends waiting just around the bend…”
We didn’t understand as elementary school students in the 80s and 90s, but it makes perfect sense to us now. The milkman, the paperboy, and evening TV? They’ve morphed into organic almond milk, online news outlets and and Netflix – which we now (ironically) have to thank for the much-anticipated reboot of Full House.
It feels a bit like coming home after college: simultaneously, everything in the Tanner House (now the “Fuller” House) is the same but different. The actors have aged, but their famous one-liners remain. The tile backsplash in the kitchen has been updated but the couch and cheesy, predictable plotlines are still on point. And nearly every woman in her 30s on my social media feeds was saying “TGIF!” on Friday, February 26th as we all settled in to reunite with the Tanners, Gibblers, and Katsopoli.
Contributor Confessions:
- We cringed. (“In 20 years, did no one think to de-plaid that house?!” )
- We rolled our eyes. (“Stephanie is a world famous DJ? Jesse is going to work for General Hospital? Danny is still on the air even though his voice sounds the way Kimmy’s feet smell?” )
- We cringed some more. (Ubers and boobers? Enough said.)
- We laughed. (“I love how the woodchuck clearly pushed Tommy over the edge and made him cry even more. That’s how I feel every time that puppet comes out, too.” )
- We cried. Oh, did we cry.
An informal poll of our contributors revealed that 100% of us burst into tears at some point during the pilot – most of during the show’s updated theme song. For others, it was when DJ admitted she couldn’t handle the stress of being a single mom or when Stephanie told her sister why she’ll never be pregnant. We’re all mothers now, and one of the most rewarding but terrifying experiences we face daily is watching our kids grow up – knowing that they will leave their innocence behind and endure these struggles themselves some day…the way we did.
After the Full House series finale in in 1995 the DJs, Stephanies, and Michelles of our generation finished high school, went to college, got married and had babies of our own. We did it amid school shootings, terrorist attacks, an economic recession and a subprime mortgage crisis. Some of us lost pieces of ourselves along the way – infertility, miscarriage, infidelity, divorce. Those aren’t plot points any girl includes in her childhood dreams, but they happen, which is part of why we have flipped for Fuller House.
They say you can’t go home again…but you can. It’s just different. DJ is a widow, Kimmy is separated from her husband, and Steph – still single – can’t have kids of her own. Yes, the show addresses these things and then quickly moves on – much to the chagrin of many critics. But you know what? That’s kind of the point – it is for us, at least. We know what “real” life feels like. We know disappointment, loss, and death. Fuller House transports us, for a few minutes, to a brief time in our childhoods where problems never took more than 30 minutes to solve (including commercial breaks), and sappy music cued big hugs and life lessons learned. Plus, there’s choreographed dancing in nearly every episode – which is like catnip to Millennial moms.
Maybe it’s just us (I’m betting it’s not), but our She Wolf Pack loved the corny, highly improbable, saw-it-coming-a-mile-away story lines and jokes of the 13-episode Fuller House reunion. Whatever happened to predictability? It’s right here where we left it in 1995 – ready to give us that nostalgia high we’ve been waiting for.
How about you? Did you love Fuller House or hate it?
