Frasier Has Entered My Head This Morning

I like the TV show Frasier. It does make me laugh. Lucky really, because it seems to be on constant rotation on cable here, along with Seinfeld and the other clever-clever sitcoms. It’s fun trying to figure out which episode you’re watching, by judging the extent of Frasier’s mullet, or seeing if Niles is lusting after Daphne, or if they’re together, or how much of a caricature each character has become. Also, I like seeing which little animation accompanies the title card of the Space Needle. Balloons? Helicopter? Fireworks?

There are a couple of things which annoy me about it though. There are often episodes which devolve into pure farce, with Frasier hiding in a toilet while people come and go, and he hears them profess love for each other, but it’s the wrong person, and then Frasier meddles and tells the other person and now he’s trapped in the toilet!

I can’t stand that shit. I know, it’s technically tricky to write and harder to perform – timing is everything after all – but it feels cheap and unsubtle. Mechanical, like pushing well-oiled buttons to please a certain demographic.

The other thing is the representation of Daphne and her family. I know it’s a comedy, it’s not supposed to be real, but to hear Daphne talk about her earlier life in Manchester you’d think it was a Medieval village.

Ooh, Dr. Crane, I’ll never forget the time Old Man Postlethwaite’s pigs got the Plague!

Or

Ooh, Dr. Crane, I’ll never forget the time The Wise Woman read my fortune, and then we burned her as a witch! The whole town came out!

Even worse though, is poor Anthony LaPaglia as Daphne’s brother, who is a Cockney despite being from Manchester. His supposed Cockney accent makes him sound like a low-grade SNL cast member channeling Dick Van Dyke in a Guy Ritchie movie.

Sorry squire, I just stole your car and done a dump in it. Cheers. *Lights cigarette and puts feet on Frasier’s expensive sofa*

Still, Lilith more than makes up for it. Yeowch.