THE BAD SON, Jul 16, 2006

Reviewer: Cake for Brains from Manchester, UK

This episode had one of the best premises ever... Martin wants to move out and live in a retirement home! This could have produced some great comedy moments, but instead the opportunity was wasted, although it does (thankfully) tone down the drama a lot after the pilot of this season. I found the scene on the bus at the beginning rather cringe-worthy and somewhat out of place, and aside from a couple of witty exchanges here and there between Martin and Frasier, 'The Bad Son' (which is always going to draw comparisons with the brilliant 'Good Son') is rather disappointing and distinctly average at best. The scenes on the roof between Daphne and Niles could have worked, but maybe the writer's forgot that that's where they had their date in ATDRAWTS, surely they could've have thought of somewhere different! It had its moments, and apart from the beginning was very watchable, but I didn't laugh much at all to be honest. Still, it was better than I remembered it!

Rating: 71%

'The Bad Son' review, Aug 16, 2005

Reviewer: Jocelyn from London, UK

The title of this episode, the first to be recorded for this season, is an obvious homage to that of the classic pilot episode from seven years earlier and sees Frasier attracted to a young woman named Miranda who works at a retirement home, leading him to enlist the help of his dad in visiting her workplace in an attempt to ask her out, only to be shocked when Miranda reveals that Martin has signed up to move into the home - as it turns out, because he's enjoying beating some of the inhabitants at cards! After the lacklustre start to the previous episode, this follow-up begins with an even more horribly flat opening scene (Frasier and Roz riding on a bus - the latter wasted in her only scene) and, as with it's predecessor, concludes with Niles and Daphne on the rooftop of the apartment block, this time intending to have a picnic while watching a meteor shower. While ending two consecutive episodes with the same characters in the exact same location smacks of idea shortage, the scenes between Niles and Daphne do feel more comfortable than in the previous episode - I especially like Niles brushing off his dad's attempt at small talk with a gleeful exclamation of 'Here to see Daphne!' - while the finale with the picinic is nicely done, with Niles throwing Daphne's peanut brittle ('It's like little shards of heaven!') off the rooftop and then panicking as he finds himself trapped in the stairwell. A fairly enjoyable watch, 'The Bad Son' is not a bad episode but a few more sharp lines and better pacing would have made it a better one.

Rating: 74%