Frasier Season 2 Returned To Seattle, And It Was A Huge Missed Opportunity

When Frasier Crane returned to our screens in 2023, it was a truly surreal experience for anyone who grew up on the original "Frasier." That seminal '90s sitcom ran from 1993 until 2004, delivering 11 seasons of timeless comedy that struck that perfect balance between humor and heart that characterized so many shows of the era.

The series saw Kelsey Grammer play the pompous yet eternally endearing psychiatrist, who offered advice to the citizens of Seattle via his KACL talk radio show. It was a simple premise that took a character who'd been a regular on "Cheers" and fleshed out his story to make one of the most successful TV spin-offs of all time — not to mention one of the best sitcoms ever to grace the pre-streaming era small screen.

So when it was announced that, 20 years after Dr. Crane left the air for good, Grammer was to star in a revival series that would see Frasier relocate to Boston to start a new life, it seemed like a mixed blessing to longtime "Frasier" fans. On the one hand, no one who grew up with the original show could claim not to be intrigued by such a proposition, even if they were simply interested to see what the heck a "Frasier" show produced in the streaming age would look like. On the other hand, reviving a beloved series in this way felt like yet another cynical appeal to our nostalgia-obsessed monoculture.

Now that we've had two and a half seasons of modern-day "Frasier," it's safe to say that the show isn't quite as bad as it could have been, but certainly isn't as great as it could be — mostly due to the fact the original cast is nowhere to be seen and the Boston setting doesn't quite suit Frasier in the way the Emerald City did. Now, with the eighth episode of season 2, entitled "Thank You, Dr. Crane," the doctor has finally returned to Seattle in what should have been a major moment for the revival series, but which instead ended up feeling like a big missed opportunity.

When "Frasier" 2023 debuted, it turned out to be just as muddled as it had sounded — a nebulous cloud of nostalgia bait and comfort viewing that felt both familiar and strangely foreign. Here was Frasier Crane sporting tech bro business casual attire surrounded by actors who'd never once appeared in the OG series, in a town that should have felt familiar to anyone who remembers Dr. Crane's origin in "Cheers" but which seemed oddly sterile erected on overlit Paramount soundstages. And yet, Kelsey Grammer was still Frasier. His timing was still impeccable, and his ability to project cringe-inducing levels of self-importance while somehow being as beguiling as ever remained intact.

As the series went on, the show couldn't quite get beyond this uncanny feeling, which wasn't helped by the fact that the sitcom format itself feels so overwhelming anachronistic in the 2020s. Even as Grammer demonstrated his impressive ability to effortlessly inhabit Frasier Crane 20 years after having last played the character, the new setting and the lack of the original cast just made the whole thing feel incomplete.

Still, there have thus far been enough good episodes to keep fans watching, along with the faint promise of a potential appearance from Niles actor David Hyde Pierce and hope for a return to the city that hosted Frasier for 11 seasons. Now, the latter has come to fruition, with Frasier visiting Seattle in episode 8 of the revival's second season. But whereas this could have been the episode that finally felt like a true "Frasier" revival, it turned out to be a somewhat gloomy reminder of nostalgia's empty promise.

If you'll forgive the brief digression, there's a meme that has become popular among the WeirdCore community. If you're unfamiliar, this online aesthetic is focused on a sort of dark nostalgia, with users creating images that feel at once familiar and uncanny. It's a big part of the reason 2023's "Skinamarink" looks the way it does, and clearly influenced certain visuals from Jane Schoenbrun's excellent under-the-radar horror film "I Saw the TV Glow." What does any of this have to do with "Frasier?" Well, the aforementioned meme is a simple sentence that's often superimposed over ominous looking images of abandoned McDonald's play areas or screen-caps of Windows XP: "I went back to the past, but nobody was there."

There couldn't be a better description for Frasier's Seattle sojourn in episode 8. What could have been a stirring installment in the revival series ended up feeling just as uncanny as the overall show, with Frasier going back to the past and finding that nobody, aside from two fan-favorite characters who are given limited screen time, is there.

The Seattle trip is essentially two sets reconstructed from the original series: Frasier's KACL radio booth and Café Nervosa, where Frasier and Niles would frequently meet to discuss the latest developments in their lives, such as when Dr. Crane found "an injurious graffito" at his work which accused him of being an elitist snob. Lamentably, there are no such delightfully ridiculous conversations to be had this time around, as Niles actor David Hyde Pierce still hasn't agreed to return for the streaming series.

Instead, the episode sees Frasier balking at the updated decor in his old stomping grounds and attempting to reconnect with a caller from 20 years prior whom he advised to quit his job to follow his passion: Magic. It's this storyline that ends up being the real disappointment of episode 8.

One of the best parts of "Thank You, Dr. Crane" is when two classic characters make a return in the form of Dan Butler's Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe and Edward Hibbert's Gil Chesterton. The original series was very much defined by its ensemble cast and array of supporting characters, who came to feel like part of the extended Frasier family over the course of 11 seasons. Of these, Bulldog is one of the most well-known and beloved, and his return in episode 8 should have been a major moment for the series. Heck, Harriet Sansom Harris, who plays Frasier's perpetually scheming agent Bebe Glazer, got an entire episode this season, with the "Frasier" revival bringing back her character and giving her a full storyline.

But whereas Bebe typically showed up once a season back in the day, Bulldog was a regular part of the show, appearing in 53 episodes across the series' run. Yet, in "Thank You, Dr. Crane," we're reintroduced to the Gonzo Sports Show host, who drops a huge personal bombshell, before the episode moves on completely, only to give Bulldog just enough time to deliver his signature catchphrase. Likewise, Gil is given short shrift in favor of this tedious storyline involving Frasier and his former caller, Lou, which completely distracts from the fact that Frasier is finally back in Seattle and reconnecting with some of the characters fans have been waiting 20 years and almost two full seasons to see.

While Dr. Crane is attempting to make up for giving this man the wrong advice 20 years prior, the actual characters we all want to learn about are sidelined. The result is an episode that feels not only oddly unsettling due to its unpopulated version of Frasier's Seattle, but that feels like a real missed opportunity. Bulldog and Gil were right there! The demise of KACL as a station was right there! Instead, Frasier spends the episode trying to talk down a former caller who doesn't appear to be based on anyone of the actual callers from the original series. Let's hope if David Hyde Pierce's one condition for returning to "Frasier" is met and Niles finally makes an appearance, that episode actually lives up to its potential.