The New ‘Frasier’ Finally Made an Episode That Feels Like the Old ‘Frasier’
Apart from the theme song, the droll title cards and the gigantic Kelsey Grammer paychecks, there isn’t a whole lot about the new Frasier that feels like the original show. After all, the new iteration takes place in Boston, not Seattle, and features an entirely different cast of characters, played by new actors who don’t have to worry about screwing up their past legacies.
Frasier 2.0 is a mostly serviceable sitcom, but its biggest problem is that it’s called Frasier. We can’t help but compare it to one of the greatest TV comedies of all time, because it’s actively inviting that comparison.
Last week’s episode bent over backwards to provide audiences with nostalgic reminders of the old show, contriving to have Frasier visit Seattle and catch up with old friends, but mostly fell flat. This week, on the other hand, we got an episode that actually, kinda, mostly felt like Frasier. “Murder Most Finch” finds Frasier and his new girlfriend being roped into a murder mystery party thrown by his Harvard colleague Olivia. No one wants to participate, until, under the cover of darkness, somebody destroys the game’s props, prompting Frasier to play detective for real.
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Over on the Frasier subreddit, fans seemed genuinely surprised that the show wasn’t only enjoyable, but felt of a piece with its predecessor. “I thought it was worthy of the original show,” one user noted. “This felt so much more like classic Frasier, loved it,” someone else posted. “You could have (slotted) this episode into the original series and it would have fit like a glove,” another argued.
As one viewer pointed out, a big reason why this episode worked so well is because every character’s oddball energy contributed to the comic whole, not unlike the classic episode “The Two Mrs. Cranes,” in which the entire Crane family concocts an elaborate series of lies to mislead Daphne’s ex-boyfriend.
To be fair, “Murder Most Finch” did combine a number of specific story points that we’ve seen in past Frasier episodes. For one thing, the murder mystery theme seems like it could be a sly callback to one of the very best episodes of the original show: “Ham Radio.”
And we’ve seen Frasier launch into detective mode before, such as when he and Niles discover a human skull in the floorboards of their old home.
Obviously calamitous dinner parties are the subject of innumerable Frasier episodes, but the specific idea of a host forcing their guests to reluctantly participate in an elaborately-conceived costumed game seems very similar to the Halloween episode “Room Full of Heroes.”
But “Murder Most Finch” (unlike some other episodes this season) allows the supporting cast to do much of the heavy-lifting. Frasier’s not the one trying to pull off the perfect evening, Olivia is. Sure, the episode rehashes some familiar Frasier tropes, but it shuffles around the details just enough so as to not feel too derivative.
This episode actually makes it feel like the show could be moving forward, and not stuck trying to sweatily recapture the past long after the tossed salad and scrambled eggs have expired.
