To address one of the common comments I see on here, the explanation for Dan not being dead (and Jackie not being a lesbian, Becky not dating David etc.), is that the final season of Roseanne was a story written by Roseanne Conner and none of it actually happened. They don't go into much more detail than that.

Watch Roseanne? Nah Watch hours of Jose discussing Roseanne? Yes please.

"A show about the working class made by people who aren't shitty" *casually glances at Malcom in the Middle*

I’m struggling to understand how Roseanne went from profusely apologizing to her son for hitting him to deriding her daughter’s generation for not hitting their kids

Original "Roseanne," 1990s: "these things aren't boys' things, because you're a girl and you're using them" Reboot "Roseanne," 2018: "why are you wearing that? that's for girls and you're a boy" Also the spanking thing... it crosses the line from "inconsistent character writing" to "bad retcon"/"we forgot part of our show's premise."

What's interesting to me is that in real life, Roseanne claimed she was abused, which is what influenced the storyline about spanking DJ. You would think she wouldn't suddenly forget about that when the show rebooted, even if everyone had forgotten who the character of Roseanne Conner is suppose to be.

“I’m an American tax payer sometimes” a beautiful line

John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are a FIERCE acting duo

Semi-devil's advocate here. BUT, people who were blue dog centrists in the 90s becoming full blown MAGA by the mid-late 2010s, especially as they moved from early-mid 40s to retirement age in small town America is entirely realistic and I've seen it among dozens of people I know personally (having grown up and continuing to live in Appalachia). The Roseanne character's political progression as I just described I think is entirely possible/actually more realistic.

Wow that scene about hitting your children in the original just gave me chills. That was so great.

If you’d told me last year I’d be loving a multi part analysis of Roseanne I’d have called you crazy.

Loving the reviews, but I gotta say: Roseanne's transformation from season 9 to 10 isn't that far from the transformation I've seen happen in boomers in my own life. This nationalistic-faux populism we're living through does strange things to people.

Roseanne in the finale: We didn't hit our children, as we were hit Also Roseanne: 14:20

John Goodman is an underrated actor. And it's too bad DJ's story was never really hashed out some more. As the only boy of the family in an interracial relationship, he could have had a really great story.

Ah. Gotta love the “the kids are just 10x worse nowadays so you HAVE to abuse them. Not like the old days where kids had so much respect” Ugh. It’s so gross

I grew up in a small Illinois town, blue collar, parents in and out of working either zero or three jobs at once. Roseanne REALLY resonated with me growing up in the 90s. It's no surprise that Barr is embarrassing and hard to reconcile with, especially in 2019. Anyone with lower income white quasi-conservative parents has seen how you can have a parent go from compassionate and smart to xenophobic and terrible over the course of 15 years. When you say in the beginning that it's as if nothing has changed, it's wrong - the world has changed our old people too.

I was annoyed Emilio and Becky's relationship didn't last longer than a single episode. I feel like they missed an opportunity to endear him to the audience and flesh out his relationship with the family before deporting him.

I think the show still misses the fact that dressing as Frida is different than dressing like "a mexican" or "a native american"

Just seeing the original of the Roseann apology for spanking her son made me tear up. I had a conversation like that with my mom, for the EXACT same reasons. It’s a real true to life moment that really kicks ya in the gut with how real it is. New Roseann: “If wE don’t spank tHeM they’ll just sIt in tHe CorNeR and wonder WHy we aren’t SpAnKiNg them!”

I’ll never forget how I felt after watching the hitting scene when I was a teen and Roseanne apologizing to DJ, my jaw was dropped cuz my dad never apologized for abusing me and knew right then he doesn’t love me. I’m happy to say I never laid a hand on my daughter and broke the cycle. I have no relationship with my “family”, and learned family isn’t blood, family is who is there for you no matter what ✌🏼

I thought the bit about drying nail polish was really cute. My granddad was an old fashioned guy who let love overcome his prejudices, but was still snarky. Very realistic.

I loved the original Roseanne - likely a product of my mom's love for the show. I felt your first essay was incredibly thoughtful, interesting, and well put together. While I didn't watch the new episodes beyond the third episode, I was likewise enthralled by this piece. Subbed. Fantastic work!

One of the most overlooked reasons of opioid addiction in impoverished communities is directly tied to how insanely overpriced prescription drugs are. If you get surgery and don't have insurance (like Roseanne), painkillers can add a huge cost to an already unaffordable procedure. Meanwhile, local street venders have to stay cheaper than their competitors a few blocks over, and will sell you some for cheap. Regulated pills cost an arm and a leg, but the prices for the unregulated stuff are more affordable than what even most well-insured people can get. And the worst part is, most of these pills enter the market from middle-class people. When I got wrist surgery a few years ago on my parent's insurance, I was prescribed a 20-count of opioids, which was 17 more than I ended up taking. I ended up tossing them after a while because I didn't have a use for them, so it's easy to see how people with insurance can be tempted to sell their excess for quick cash. It's another way medical care under capitalism screws over poor people, and you'd be surprised at how many politicians are actually aware of this.

I'm really glad you brought up the spanking episode from the revival. It's the only one I've seen of the new series, and it bothered me so much that I haven't watched any other episodes of it. I couldn't support a show that was going to claim hitting children was totally okay, when the original had the exact opposite message.

It's not so much that I object to there being a show about a right wing person being portrayed positively- the existence of 'Last Man Standing' is of no consequence to me- it's just that Roseanne Conner was already a character, and rewriting her as a praying, gun loving, old-fashioned, ignorant right wing bigot is just disingenuous. This version of Roseanne Conner is a completely different woman.

If nothing else it's a much more interesting reboot than Fuller House. Although, arguably both are just trying to continue doing what they did in the 90s, I guess Roseanne/The Connors themes have been and probably always will be more relevant than the average sitcom. (for better or worse)

The thing is, Roseanne's character changing makes perfect sense. Her changes are exactly what we are seeing, particularly in older people, here in the upper lower class world. We all have that older friend who used to be tolerant, even if they were behind the times, who have been radicalized into Trump followers. The racism was improving, but now they're embracing it because of all the fear mongering. They blame their economic woes on those different from them. What was surreal about it all is that these same people were embracing _Roseanne_ . So they were getting the message they needed to hear and enjoying it. I still sometimes wonder if enduring Roseanne Barr's obvious, conspiracy theory enabled racism would have been worth it to be able to bridge the gap. We had this very liberal show that conservatives were embracing as their own. Instead, they now have Last Man Standing, starring another older person who got more conservative. But his show decided to switch to arguing that his crap was right, reinforcing the male machismo that the previous show rejected. So the divide just gets deeper.

I understand why Roseanne's change of heart on spanking would come across as her being out of character/ not the same. Unfortunately, people certainly can change like that. My own mother threatened her father that she would call childhood services if he hit her again when she was a teenager, when I was growing up she had a firm stance that hitting a child was wrong under all circumstances (there were a few instances where she lost control and hit us and the first time it happened she cried and promised to never do that again) these days she thinks maybe corporal punishments should make a comeback because "the younger generations are so fragile and insecure, my generation produced real men and generally people who can tough things out and we were all hit by our parents". It's breaking my heart.

I have a lot of trouble understanding how nineties Rosanne got reremembered as a conservative show. But apparently, it was "conservative" enough, that fox news was celebrating the breakout success of the return of a conservative TV show.

I'm ... a little disappointed (?) that it's ONLY 47.5 minutes... I may or may not have listened to the first one twice (thrice?) because it was so good and there was so much to absorb...

I never thought the sink was full of water and thus roseanne was drowning haley. but your point is valid, it's still physical punishment buy leaning over the sing and spraying her and then defending spanking and forgetting that kind of continuity of the character.

Matthew Broderick cosplaying as Cartesian Dualism is the best thing I've seen so far this year. Thank you sir.

It’s so odd that people will turn off with “PC / SJW culture” on tv - yet all of everything revolves around politics or messages forever

the worst part for me was the complete discarding of the cycle of violence issues that held a lot of impact in the earlier seasons, like, completely forgotten. Roseanne now thought that spanking was an ok thing to do to your family when back then, it cause a deep internal look into the negative influences that abusive and controlling family burn into us and causes us to act in ways we severely regret, then Roseanne *apologies* because it *was wrong* of her to hit her child. It was actually introspective, actually talking about how violence sticks inside you and manifests in ways you never thought you could act and hurt your family in the same way you were hurt. All that was just thrown away, I feel hurt by it if I'm honest. I was deeply disappointed.

People changing in 20 years isn't unbelievable. At least it retcons the horrible last season finale. And Roseanne can't torture the writers anymore.

The ecstatic laughter after some of these lines is actually disturbing.

The whole Roseanne-bigoted-toward-her-neighbor thing always reminds me of the episode of King of the Hill when Khan's family moves in next door and Peggy accuses Hank of racism. His response of, "I don't hate him cuz I'm racist. I hate him cuz he's a bad neighbor," always struck me as an apt-yet funny-response. Khan is a "bad neighbor" to Hank largely because of a vast cultural divide that Hank is unable (more than he is unwilling) to cross. It's not overt, explicit racism (unlike Cotton, who's the perfect foil for Hank in that episode), but it's still a hurdle that Hank never really overcomes. Anyway, King of the Hill was great!

Its a shame David wasn't utilized more in the theme of breaking the gender norms in Roseanne, time after time of seasons 1-8 he was most always the punchline for his innate femininity through kindness and a passion for art, and it felt like his status as a pushover was him reflecting those biases back onto himself from a life of being underestimated and underappreciated. Oftentimes toxic masculinity devalues men who aren't "strong enough", and whereas progressive movements often support women not strong enough to support themselves due to low self confidence or relationships wherein they are not given the power the deserve, men like David do not have that support out of conservative chastisement for not being the "provider", our culture can't give the same treatment to men as it is still rooted in its harsh uphold of gender norms. David ran away from his responsibilities because he was lied to about what they entailed - it wasn't about being "man" enough, it was about being there for your family, but in a large way, he was being rooted against from the very offset of the original run.

I don't even like the show, but have thoroughly enjoyed your two discussions about it. Great work! 👏

As someone who watched the original Roseanne as a teen, the reboot brought lots of feels. I'm really relieved that they kept the Connors, because it would have been a shame to end a good show just because Roseanne herself has gone totally loony toons. I don't get it, she was nothing like that in the 90s.

Whatever you might think of Rossane Barr, I'm disappointed that you glossed over the fact that she fought tooth and nail to keep the show running without her to keep all those people working on it employed.

That scene where she was apologizing to DJ for hitting him... *not crying not crying*

Roseanne Conner's political opinions were always based on Roseanne Barr's. If the real person can change in 20 years, so can the character.

ive never even seen roseanne and i sat through 2 hours worth of discourse about roseanne. great work!

I mean one thing that might have changed Roseanne's perspective (and Barr's) around racism, is y'know, 9/11. It's weird to think of now, but between the end of the old run and the beginning of the new run, the events of the early 2000's became the past, nearly 20 years of past. Back in 96 she might have said "Who cares?" about Muslims moving in, or even "Which one's a Muslim again?" but for TWO DECADES, the background noise on that particular group of people hasn't been the most positive. Stuff like that sinks in when we aren't paying attention. A lot of people who thought they were progressive got scared back then, fear makes people stupid, and even when the fear went away, the feelings brought up by it can stick around forever if not dealt with, living on under the surface, and showing up in strange places. A better written show might have addressed that. (I'd have preferred Roseanne heard the teller say something racist, and get irritated at how rude she's being, and then one of her family scoff when she said something about it, and her not realize at first that teller sounds just like her, with maybe the family member thinking it was Roseanne herself who said it. Then, Roseanne realizing what a bigot she'd been, try and do something nice. The Conners were always teaching each other, not in a patronizing way, but in a real way, like family does. Calling each other out on their bullshit.) It's interesting to me how this large time gap shook people. Like seeing a old friend after many years there was a sense of betrayal in the way these characters changed, getting older, becoming more entrenched in their views, or picking up new ones that seem out of character. But we don't know what 2001, or 2008, or 2010, or 2012, or 2015 were like for this family. 20 years is a span of time long enough for a lot of change, a lot of damage, and pain. Of course there's room for good things too, but a lot of the time its the losses that cause us to change course. There are adult people who were born after the show ended, and grew up before it came back. Many people watching these videos are too young to have been alive when the show started, I don't think it's all that strange to think these characters changed in ways even they wouldn't understand. Time does that. I was a kid when this show first aired, and though I grew up in another country, it reflected aspects of my life, right down to the dysfunctional family, and a mother with a history of abuse, who could be rough around the edges. These people resonated with me, and I wonder at the things we didn't see, the many things that caused these little changes. In my family, since that time there have been hundreds of changes, big and small, and they've meant the people I grew up with, including myself, have changed drastically. I wish we had a chance to explore that in these characters, the things that happened that they don't even think about, because they're 15 years in the past. The things that they don't even realize changed their lives.

Your first Roseanne vid is what I subbed to you for, you only had like 6k then, I'm glad to see that more than doubled in only a week or so, you deserve it.

Being Scottish it feels so odd they put Mark(? The grandkid who loves the colourful clothes) in a kilt because... well it’s a kilt

i'm very uncomfortable with the way the audience cheered at Roseanne practically waterboarding her granddaughter, especially coupled with the scenes from the original series...

Honestly this is the perfect pace for a deep dive like this, so often these things are full of fluff or so deliberately paced that it becomes background noise one way or another. This feels pretty well edited on the script level without being too fast for the thoughtful implications to sink in. Great job!

This video is done so well it should be a course in social studies.

The way you edit and narrate all these reviews of all these shows and all the heart wrenching scenes, I always tear up a little. Especially the abuse section. I never had to deal with it, but it's a very moving scene because so many of my loved ones have dealt with it and seeing them grapple with coping with it and rising above it, hit some heart strings.

WOW. Your videos are amazing and well-put. :) Roseanne was a show that was BIG in my house. My own mother tried to emulate the character, despite being closer to the last season/real life one. Yikers. But this summation and description of The Conners has piqued my interest from a point of not knowing the show existed.. To genuinely wanting to watch it and see if it retains the sense of emotional support and family that the original show gave me. Only now it's not an escape, it's just a fond reflection. Thank you for your retrospectives, friend!

"Obsessed with it... A little bit" - Me with any project that suddenly consumes my life for a couple of weeks

I've never watched a single episode of Roseanne but that scene at 15 08 made me tear up. And it made me all the sadder that the season 10 remake didn't actually bother with her apologizing or talking about how she was abused herself when she falls into that same cycle with her granddaughter.

What a lovely unexpected treat on this otherwise miserable Friday night

This channel manages to give really well presented overviews of this show. Covering not just the more interesting plot points and character moments but also putting them into a broader context of things happening behind the scenes as well as the political climate. It's not often I can watch a 47 minute KZfaq video and be completely engrossed to the point where it's over and it only felt like it had been ten minutes ago that I began watching it.

THIS is exactly the commentary on the show I was looking for that I never found in any blog. Thank you.

Id love to see something like this about the show "Shameless"

These 2 videos were seriously incredible. Normally I'll just play a video like this in the background while working, but I found myself dropping whatever I was doing and just giving these my full attention. Looking forward to whatever you discuss next.

Watching these videos reminds me of watching Roseanne reruns before bed in the early 00's with my grandparents. I might have to go back and watch it now. Thanks.

You should talk about Shameless next. I feel like that show shoots for the same class commentary as Roseanne, but is much smarter about it. That's just my opinion though, I'd love to hear your thoughts

It breaks my heart how old Dan looks

You left out the fact David and Darla's son was interested in dating boys in season 2.

I loved the original (I also happen to be working class from Illinois and roughly DJ's age. The original show just felt so much like how I remember growing up. The Mother's Day BBQ episode from season 2 especially reminds me SO much of practically every BBQ I went to as a kid.) And I tried to give the new one a chance, hoping that Roseanne's personal craziness wouldn't bleed too much into it. But the moment I saw the spanking stuff come up, I knew they had lost the original character and this wasn't the same show. I gave up on it after that and celebrated when she got canned. I did watch the first episode of season 11 and thought it was good (better than 10 anyway), but I just couldn't go back to watch anymore. It's better to keep the first 9 (or even better the first 8) seasons, and forget the attempts at revival. But I do love the analysis!

I love the Roseanne show, at least the first nine seasons, & I love The Conners!! So thank you very much for these videos!

"I got half the drugs for twic ethe price" FUCKING DAMN that hurt to hear again, as someone with chronic condition

I subscribed after watching your videos about Sabrina and the Golden Girls. I started watching your playlist yesterday starting with Roseanne. The way it transitions seamlessly into Part 2 is perfection. I recommend everyone watch these videos this way. You do an excellent job mixing in fact with critique. I am looking forward to viewing the rest of the playlist. Cheers!

Great videos. My wife and I both grew up watching the original series and restarted it when the new show was announced. We brought up a lot of the same points you did your videos. Glad to see someone took the time to make a 2 part video essay and really put in the work to make it great. Fantastic work. You earned yourself a subscriber.

Oh man, not that I didn't sit and watch your first part of this series from start to finish and enjoy every minute of it, but this is what I was hoping the last video was going to touch more on, so thank you so much. Thoroughly entertaining and endlessly insightful. I especially appreciate you bringing up the 'spanking' parallel. I saw that last year and it made me mad. If there was ever a glaring indication 'Roseanne' was no longer "Roseanne", that was it. To answer your question, I think we can have 'Roseanne' _because_ of the absence of Roseanne. "Season 10 was an affront to the brilliant original run, it was clear either the writers didn't know what they were doing, or they let Barr have way too much input, but no amount of superficial nostalgia (like the cameo of Darlene's teacher in the pilot, or Roseanne's post-lottery win jacket from season 9) was going to save it. 'The Conners' to me was like a retry without a mentally unstable, noisy weight, where the cast and crew were able to do the original some justice and deliver to the super fans of the original (like me)

What I want to know is why Dan and Roseanne are not on Medicare at this point. They have their 45th wedding anniversary in this season, so they should be 65 or damn close to it.

I agree with your final lines... I was never a huge fan of either show... but I'm oddly obsessed with them too... for all the reasons you listed. Thank you so much for all the time and effort put into these. They were phenomenal

Thank you for making both of these videos. I never watched the show, but you have instilled a fondness for it in me. You were also shockingly fair in your treatment of Roseanne Bar and I appreciate you did go super far one way or the other

27:58 “determined how their worth is measured over if they can squeeze out a baby.” That’s just wrong. Becky was upset because she may not have wanted children but the idea of it being now closed forever to her was very upsetting. I just don’t understand why you wouldn’t ask a few of your female friends their take on this. You’re trying to be so woke but what you wound up speaking for women and painting them all with the same brush. Pro-choice is just that. A woman can choose to not have children and a woman can choose to have children. Both are completely valid and reasonable options.

What I just don't understand is how Roseanne allowed her character to be written so differently. She played the woman for 9 seasons and controlled every aspect of the show that she could, surely she didnt forget everything

I’m sure I speak for many that we aren’t fans either but stumbled across the first video,watched it and were captivated by it thanks to you. And now we are watching this 😄

17:19 It’s really difficult for some of us to see how much our parents have changed… since 2016. You’re left wondering how much of them was always like that, and how much of the parent you loved is still in there.

I'm sad they decided Jackie's not a lesbian. When Roseanne revealed that in the finale, little 11 year old me was like... yeah, I know? Wait, was that not a thing? I really thought we all knew that already.

If the question is "is Lethal Weapon 2 still a fantastic movie despite Mel Gibson's Mel Gibsonitude?" then the answer is yes.

It’s amazing how she complained about the “Lefty writers” and the show was a massive success. Maybe it’s a hard pill to swallow; accepting that your world view isn’t as deep and popular.

Loved part one can't wait to dig in. Great job

*"We're stealing your cable so this makes us even."*

I think that her change reflects the change of many people in the past 20 years. As a person of the 90's no one cared; now everyone is divided and the Roseanne reboot was successfully showing that. Just like we all have

I love the fact that you made a part two! This is amazing!

Good point. Not only can victims be capable of abuse, but they can also be capable of breaking that cycle of abuse, which Roseanne seems to so as well. And what do you know? They DID end up re-opening the Lunch Box in a later season of The Conners.

I have been waiting for this second parter which happened to coincide with my my most anticipated second parter

I ADORE LAURIE METCALF. That is all.

The Connors and Rosanne are two of my favorite shows. Thank you so much for these two videos.

Great work. This is one of my all time favorite tv shows. I really enjoy your commentary and enjoy the way you remind me of how much I still love that show. Thanks x

So, essentially, Roseanne pulled a George Lucas

Your reaction to Matthew Broderick's character's "And I could let you" was priceless! "Hurgh ..."

This was one of my favorite shows growing up. I really like and appreciate your videos about it!

I don’t have time to completely collect my thoughts on this, so I’ll just say that I really appreciate this video which has subsequently made me appreciate those 80’s to 90’s sitcoms. Thanks for that

That spanking episode was fucked up. Corporal punishment does no good because all it teaches the kid is 'do what I say (even if you think it's wrong) or I'll hurt you.' A kid's mind records emotion more than anything else, so instead of remembering what started the whole altercation, what they'll probably remember is that someone they loved and trusted decided to make them feel pain to control them. Just because your parents hit you when you were young doesn't justify you hitting your own kids now!

I love and appreciate your intelligent queer-centric honest analytical reviews, I highly enjoyed both these Roseanne videos. Your voice is like a Time Travellers perspective, and your dissertation of this cult classic television phenomenon fulfilled what the public has wondered and desired as a retrospect. I look forward to more reviews and commentary from you, and am thankful to hear a well reasoned dissertation on media so familiar yet filled with concepts somewhat foreign somehow while remaining well balanced with its cadence.

Heck YES, I've been waiting for this! great job on both videos, man!

Great videos on this sitcom, I never even liked it but I saw the show often during its many years of running. I never watched it since the 90's and your vids are the first / only time I've seen anything about the show. Indicating your high quality commentary, I appreciate u

After watching your recap of the first eight seasons, I feel committed to my initial thoughts about S10: it was a _major_ slap in the face of S01-S08 (S09 never happened! LALALALALA!! NOT LISTENING!!!) There were so many elements of S10 that just felt tone-deaf in ways that the previous run simply wasn't, even though it was very much a product of 1988-1997, and watching her _physically assault her own granddaughter_ - that is not the same character who had an emotional breakdown when she slapped DJ after he stole a car in S06. Turning Jackie from a capable and fairly intelligent, albeit neurotic single woman with some low-key bipolar traits, into a dim-witted Rightwing caricature of the Moderate Left was insulting. Seeing Becky fall into a depression hole is given some logic, I suppose - I forget the in-story explanation of Mark's death (or the approximate time, relative to S10, when it happened), but Becky is about 45 in S10, and even that's awfully young to be a widow (well, in this day and age - hell, for the last few generations, TBQH). Still, it feels a bit weird to see her obsess on having a baby, and a bit disconnected from the way Becky was written during S01-S09. She's been a fighter and a survivor, all her life, so seeing her clearly turn into someone with high-functioning clinical depression, while given a logic that makes sense, is jarring enough, but again, putting her on Mission Baby feels a bit phoned-in from the writers room. S10 was generally written to pander to her newfound Right Wing fans who forgot (or were willing to ignore) the show's original run and her various stunts, like that San Diego baseball game. While I'd generally written off Roseanne Barr as high-key garbage, back when her fool-headed opinions about trans people surfaced, I still tuned in, in part for the nostalgia value, in part cos I love the other cast members _so much_ (John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are criminally underrated, and I wrote several fan letters to Sarah Gilbert, back in fourth and fifth grade; Gilbert is only a couple of years older than me, and her character may have been an influence on myself going goth). I also definitely felt the episode with the Muslim neighbours was totally ham-fisted, and 100% agree with the anonymous S10 Writer: it's totally out-of-character for Roseanne Conner of S01-S09, but more in-line with the real-life Roseanne Barr.

41:31 I think it's safe to say that we've all wanted to do that to Matthew Broderick at some point in our lives.

I grew up loving the original show. I even wrote a (major) paper about it in university. You are saying many things I also came to conclude in my paper. Your two videos actually widen my scope a little bit more and (as opposed to my paper) it's after the reboot, now. I think you did a pretty great job here, and I enjoyed watching - many thanks!

I’d love for you to do an update on the series now. And can I just say, WOW! Talk about a beautiful, well educated, and sharp mind you have! I have to RAVE about your analysis of this show. Everything from the editing, to your script is so well thought out and poignant yet keeps the viewer entertained and engaged. Good for you man! I look forward to watching more of your videos! 😊😊😊😊🎉😊😊