Netflix’s 5-Part Sitcom Proved Some Shows Just Shouldn’t Be Revived

Although plenty of Netflix revivals have gone swimmingly, the streaming service’s decision to bring back the iconic ‘80s sitcom Full House as the reboot Fuller House proved that not every show needs a revival. Traditional multi-camera network sitcoms have been in a strange position for some time now due to the cultural shifts associated with Prestige TV and streaming.

Throughout its run, The Big Bang Theory was one of the biggest shows on TV, rivaling Game of Thrones in terms of its audience reach. As recently as 2024-2025, two of the biggest shows on TV, Ghosts and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage, were sitcoms, and the former even boasted an old-fashioned laugh track.

However, despite these outliers, the traditional network sitcom has been on the decline for some time. This is due at least in part to the rise of long-running adult animated comedies like The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, and Bob’s Burgers, as well as the failure of original sitcoms to find a foothold on the many major streaming services.

Fuller House Added Little To The Original Show

Ironically, even though acquiring Seinfeld and Friends allowed streaming services to become massive in the first place, none of them have created their own iconic sitcoms. Apple TV’s Ted Lasso is a dramedy, while many of Netflix’s most ambitious attempts to create original sitcoms, like 2020’s Steve Carell vehicle Space Force, were swiftly canceled.

As such, it is hardly surprising that Netflix has also attempted the safer strategy of reviving classic sitcoms. In 2016, the streaming service brought back the ‘80s hit Full House, reuniting most of the original cast for the reboot series, unimaginatively titled Fuller House. Although this show lasted five seasons, Fuller House never managed to justify its existence.

Full House followed John Stamos’ Danny Tanner, a recently widowed father who called on his best friend and his brother-in-law to help him raise his daughter DJ, Stephanie, and Michelle, after his wife’s untimely death. The original show ran from 1987 until 1995 and starred Stamos, Bob Saget, Jodie Sweetin, Andrea Barber, and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.

While Stamos and Saget returned for recurring roles in Fuller House, Sweetin, Barber, and fellow original series star Candace Cameron Bure starred as Fuller House’s main characters. In a disappointingly uninspired move, the new show’s premise was little more than a rehash of the original series, as DJ also ended up widowed and also needed help raising her kids.

Nostalgia Wasn’t Enough For Fuller House To Win Over Critics

This was not an auspicious beginning for Netflix’s reboot, as the decision to repeat the original show’s conceit a generation later proved the show had little more to offer than nostalgia. To be fair, ‘80s nostalgia was still in full swing in 2016, as the likes of Stranger Things and Cobra Kai were brand new and viewers were far from tired of throwbacks to the decade.

The problem was that Netflix’s earlier comedy masterpiece BoJack Horseman had already provided an incisive, satirically sharp takedown of Full House and the era of sitcoms that it represented. The fictional show-within-a-show, Horsin’ Around, was a parody of cloying, cynical ‘80s sitcoms that took inspiration from The Cosby Show, but was most obviously a Full House stand-in.

After BoJack Horseman accurately called out the original show’s schmaltzy, painfully saccharine writing style, Fuller House needed to provide viewers with a more thoughtful, smarter, and more mature exploration of its premise than its predecessor. At the very least, the sitcom needed to move with the times, offering a cleverer spin on its overly familiar story.

Not only had Netflix’s own Arrested Developmet redefined the sitcom environment since Full House left the air, but the genre had also been reshaped by innovative shows like Scrubs, Community, and 30 Rock. Thus, Fuller House had to be self-aware in its nostalgia, offering viewers something more than a flat retread of a story from decades earlier.

Fuller House Improved, But Never Justified Its Existence

Sadly, the reboot failed in this endeavor. Although critics became kinder to the show’s later seasons, arguing that the cast’s chemistry improved, Fuller House still never gave viewers a compelling reason to tune into the series. The show was inessential to its core, offering nothing more than a tired retread of its predecessor.

There were plenty of ways for Fuller House to reinvent the story of the series without betraying its essence, and this wouldn’t have even marked the first time that such a feat was pulled off. The Brady Bunch movies of the ‘90s were nostalgic for the original show, but also able to laugh at and parody its more grating moments.

Ideally, Fuller House could have taken a similar combination of affection and critical distance in its approach to Full House’s legacy. Instead, like fellow sitcom reboots The Conners and That ‘90s Show, Fuller House was content to cash in on nostalgia for Full House and felt regrettably flat and forgettable as a result.