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Episode reviews for Episode 11.20 - And Frasier Makes Three

Avg. Viewer Review: 78.0%
Number of Reviews: 2

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Flour the beef, Jun 01, 2013

Reviewer: Sammy J from Melbourne, Australia


You know, it's funny to think that the final season of "Frasier" went out at the same time as the first season of "Arrested Development". If that show represented the start of something new, "Frasier" was surely the end of the era for the neo-classic sitcom. Rewatching this show is warm and fuzzy, but also an exercise in the slightly hokey premise of a studio-bound comedy being beautifully realised with a talent cast and writers so in tune with their characters. All of which is to say that I very much enjoy the (slight-but-important) main plot of this episode, but have some serious problems with the structure.

Frasier is falling quickly for Charlotte the matchmaker but, unfortunately, her handsome, rugged boyfriend Frank is always there. No man wants to compete with Aaron Eckhart, and I particularly enjoy Niles' snide jokes about Frasier being the "anti-Frank". The script does a neat about-turn by having Frank be almost more fitting than Charlotte as a romantic possibility. Given that Charlotte is the final love interest of the entire series, it's fair to make Frasier work for it, and to develop a believable series of obstacles in his path. So, there's a good deal of humour in seeing not just that Frank doesn't realise Frasier's feelings, but that he cannot even imagine Frasier as a sexual threat. (The laugh when Frank doesn't even get it after he finds Frasier in a robe... in bed with Charlotte... is joyous.)

Still, by deliberately keeping Charlotte and Frasier apart, the script does a serious disservice to the relationshp. Sure, we know they're meant to be together because this is a sitcom and Laura Linney is radiant, but it's still an unusual way to treat an important romance. Still, their ultimate conversation has some true poignancy and the reveal that Charlotte is moving back to Chicago, while a little manufactured, allows us one final obstacle in Frasier's path. He's going into next week's episode one step behind the audience, which is another unusual step that I think works... but I'm just not sure.

The lengthy sequences of Frank not figuring out the truth are funny, but they do leave two subplots gasping for air (and, I assume, heavily cut in both cases). Roz decides to date handsome Chris Diamantopoulos, who fell in love with her sultry voice while behind bars. (Roz defends the decision: "I don't know any guy who isn't a little fascinated by fire".) Meanwhile, Martin typically decides to use the same ring he was going to use for Sherry, and gets convinced to buy a new one. Unfortunately, he chooses one from a police auction - a former toe ring that has an inscription on the inside. Both subplots are played well by the actors but both just fizzle out. They're stand-in scenes for the main cast while the series acknowledges that, yes, it's a talented bunch but they've all achieved their aims: the show needs to focus on getting Frasier to an endpoint. I guess that's legitimate. The show could have told developing stories for all five characters this year, or it could parcel out the character growth one by one, bringing us back full circle to the initial developments Frasier Crane faced back at the start of the first season. So I guess I'm being churlish by complaining too much, but I kinda wish that if the show was going to give token scenes to the cast, it could give token scenes to the cast as a whole, not things that felt like seeds of plot but go nowhere.


Rating: 79%

 

'And Frasier Makes Three' review, Nov 12, 2005

Reviewer: Jocelyn from London, UK


Frasier finally gets to make his feelings known to Charlotte in this episode, but only after enduring a string of bizarre outings with her slow-witted boyfriend Frank, whose failure to grasp his new buddy Frasier's true intentions provide the main source of humour here. There's a fun partially subtitled sequence with the threesome at a restaurant where Frasier finds that not only is Frank equally fluent in French, but also that his efforts to impress Charlotte were a complete waste of time when it turns out that it's actually Frank who's an Irish literature buff. Although Niles and Daphne are once again given little to do, there's a fairly amusing subplot in which Martin's gives Ronee an engagement ring from a police auction which had previously belonged to rapper, Li'l Cupid (who even turns up in the tag scene!) and the episode ends on a rather poignant note when, having finally got together with his ideal woman, Frasier remains unaware that Charlotte will soon be moving back to Chicago.


Rating: 77%