Emberweave

With so many people screaming that The Conners would have been funnier if they'd kept Roseanne, I wanted to revisit this "final" season of Roseanne, because I watched it when it first aired and wasn't very impressed. Well, I just watched the repeats on COZI and I was right the first time. The show is not funny. There is no balance whatsoever between humor and commentary. The humor is missing completely and the commentary is delivered with a sledgehammer, regardless of the viewpoint. During the first three episodes I watched, I think I might have chuckled once. The dialogue consists of nothing but angry yelling. The characters are pale shadows of the original portrayals. It's as if the writers never actually studied or even watched the first five seasons of the original show in order to capture the Conners. I gave this three stars because it was nice to see the set and the cast, but after a few minutes, that novelty has worn through. If the Roseanne twitter fiasco hadn't happened, I doubt this revival would have lasted more than two seasons.

This is an enjoyable storyline, with Hazel concerned that she and Harold endear themselves to Steve and Barbara because Hazel is worried that if they don't, she could lose her job and Harold could be sent to live with his severe Aunt Deirdre. The interaction between Hazel and Harold is very sweet. You really feel their bond, so the fear that they could be separated is a genuine worry.

The problem with this story is not the plot itself, but where this occurs in the episode order. This is episode fourteen, nearly halfway through season five. Hazel and Harold have already endeared themselves to Steve and Barbara and have blended into the family quite nicely as previous stories show. Yet, Hazel actually says they've only been there three weeks and need to make sure they can stay. This is very jarring when viewed for the first time. Clearly this story was supposed to air in the third or fourth slot of the season, but for reasons unknown was bumped to halfway through the season, which makes the plotline very incongruous.

If you own the DVDs, then I recommend skipping to this story and watching it as the third episode. It will make a bit more sense overall and also break up the sudden "Deirdre is in several stories in a row" run.