Frasier fans are about to be satiated, as the long-awaited (by some) second season of the reboot is on its way. After watching the first five episodes provided for critics, I must admit that this season appears to be a step down from the series’ freshman outing. But whether it be my unconditional love for the original, or those sporadic shimmers of Frasier magic we still see in Kelsey Grammer, I’m not ready to give up on it quite yet. The blues are callin’ alright. They’re calling me as I desperately try to hang on to this fledgling reboot.

​

Hints at a possible romance between Eddie (Jack Cutmore-Scott) and Eve (Jess Salgueiro) have been put on the backburner as the season kicks off. So has, unfortunately, the charming May-December relationship between Frasier and Eddie that was reminiscent of Frasier and his own father during the show’s original run. Instead, plots including some more minor characters are being weaved in, such as an odd coupling between Frasier’s colleague Olivia (Toks Olagundoye) and firefighter Moose (Jimmy Dunn) that I just can’t bring myself to care about.

​

Peri Gilpin returns as Roz and her feisty, flirty persona is still intact all these years later. I do hope we get to see more of what’s been going on in her life over the last two decades, because so far, she’s been reduced to b-plots that she is frankly far too good for. It will be interesting to see if the introduction of her daughter Alice (played by Greer Grammer, yes…that Grammer) will be a good or a bad addition to the series.

​

The saving grace of the first half of season two is episode 5. The brilliant Harriet Sansom Harris returns as Bebe Glazer, Frasier’s tough-as-nails agent who never met a publicity stunt she didn’t like. Rachel Bloom guest stars as Bebe’s daughter, and let’s just say… the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in that family. It was the only episode out of the five I watched that genuinely made me laugh.

​

I still have hope for the series to turn itself around, because those little glimpses of ghosts of Frasier past are there. We will just have to see if this old psychiatrist can learn some new tricks.