The Conners (TV Series) Trucking Live in Front of a Fully Vaccinated Studio Audience (2021) User Reviews

Good, not political

[micah1814 · 8/10 · 23 January 2022]

I liked the live episode. It was cute and edgy in the way the original series was.

To refute the earlier review, there is NOTHING political about vaccines and masks. They work as a way to reduce the spread and severity of disease, and it makes sense to require that for a studio audience take these precautions and address the issue in a self-aware way, as the series has ALWAYS done.

You can't manufacture political outrage over a public health measure and then claim the people following those measures are the ones being political. You can, however, interject politics into a sitcom episode review and be a hypocrite about where politics belong and don't belong.

Episode 401

[bobcobb301 · 6/10 · 26 March 2022]

Not overly funny, not any big story developments, but live episodes are always enjoyable, especially when they poke fun at things such as the set. Worth checking out for sure.

Loads of fun with this live episode.

[ollieboard · 8/10 · 19 December 2021]

Led and mainly featuring the cream of the cast, they got to showcase their talents in this episode. High dramatic interaction in the main feuds and storylines is much more engaging with the shackles of pre recorded television off.

Cool liberties taken with the 4th wall, playing with their educated audience.

Solid episode, I hope they inspire more shows to try this approach!!

so much fun!!

[lkcphd · 10/10 · 22 October 2021]

I'm loving the storylines, and looks like S4 is off to a great start. I respect and enjoy that they're acknowledging COVID and weaving that reality into their special brand of humor - equally bright and dark. This episode bursting through the 4th wall is a tear-jerking, laugh riot all on its own. The entire cast is great, but Metcalf, Gilbert, and Sagal are magic. "Sometimes you think this is the bottom, but this is the trap door to the next layer of hell".

Always on the conservative path

[MarcusCyron · 6/10 · 30 July 2023]

The Connors' increasingly conservative path continues. Even though Darlene didn't do anything wrong, she is portrayed as a jerk. She didn't please the man. Such a reactionary world view would not have existed earlier in this series. But that's not even enough. No, now the atheist Darlene has to confess to God again - because a crazy woman couldn't read her hand. What drugs do you have to take to write rubbish like this? What has been done to Fishman and his character is also an absurdity. In general, the reduction of this family series, which used to work so well, to more or less three characters is just regrettable.

DJ's making his appearance for the season!

[glitterrose · 2/10 · 24 September 2021]

I feel like all my reviews are blending into each other because it truly seems like the majority of the episodes are blending into each other. I'm beyond sick of the Darlene and Ben storyline. It keeps dragging on and on and on and on. I realize this is my point of view and there might be people out there rooting for Darlene/Ben to get back together. I'm not sure if the series is trying to having their own Ross/Rachel thing going on. I hate the tv series "Friends" but been in the room with family that love the show enough to know that their relationship ran throughout the series. My guess is Ross/Rachel would get on my nerves if I enjoyed that show.

I didn't really think Mark's plot added much to the storyline. America's very divided right now so I realize you weren't going to have other "Conners" shooting their mouth off about politics, Corona, etc.

I realize I'm somebody that's a huge fan of the original "Roseanne" series and I realize there's no recreating that. It just makes me wish the writers would watch some of the older episodes and use that guide line for writing these newer episodes. The original "Roseanne" didn't have one storyline that they beat into the ground like a dead horse. Ben/Darlene hog up the majority of the space, you might have some stuff centering on Becky for certain episodes, you've got the storyline of Dan/Louise getting married*, Jackie being wacky**.

*I might be wrong saying this because Becky, Darlene and DJ are all adults and I'm sure they want their dad to be happy. It might be interesting to see if one character said something like "I like Louise and I do want dad to be happy. But I feel weird with all this going on, it's strange thinking of dad being married to somebody else other than mom." Roseanne (character) did get a passing mention in last night's episode so I don't think it's a case of "Never mention Roseanne ever again."

**And I still wish that they would've had Jackie using Roseanne's death as a way of becoming as level headed as she was in the early seasons of "Roseanne".

I give this episode two stars because it was nice to see DJ again. Again, I don't know what's going on there. I'm not sure if there's behind the scenes drama going on for why Michael Fishman's not on the series more or if it's it's his wishes to only be in certain episodes.

Second star goes towards the cast doing a good job for it being a live episode. I realize the cast are pros but I realize it's probably very easy to flub up on a line, get the giggles, forget a line, etc.

I realize this review might be irritating to get through. Anybody that reads it probably might think "You might want to stop watching this show and go back to watching the first 8 seasons of "Roseanne" if you think more of "Roseanne" than this." And I'll make one more point before I finish my review. This really doesn't have anything to do with Roseanne (actress). I can think of so many memorable episodes of the original "Roseanne", ones that you can watch time after time and not get sick of them. Even season 10 of "Roseanne" didn't give me that feeling of "This truly feels as special as the original series. That episode was a classic!"

Where are the bad actors?

[rmmil · 2/10 · 30 September 2021]

Notice, a live episode, and the "weakest" acting individuals are no where to be found.

Where's Becky? Why did Mark only have like 3 lines?

You know why. Don't have a live episode if you have to hide all your weak performers in order to pull it off.

Also, this show is just becoming more and more the "Darlene and Ben hour". Nobody cares about this storyline, end it. But why would you do that? Clearly, Sara Gilbert has taken over this series and all the scenes + dialogue with it.

Why does DJ have like 2 sentences per episode now? Even Darlene's (obviously grew a LOT in the off-season. Holy smokes!) daughter has almost no dialogue or scenes anymore.

Bad show being made immeasurably worse by its show runner's poor decisions.

Missing the Fun

[kamille · 5/10 · 7 October 2021]

I don't know if it's because it was Live, but this was the only Conners (including Roseanne) episode that bored me from start to finish.

I miss the Roseanne show - it was one of the best series on television, EVER! The Conners was good too when presenting Mark's gender scenes (which worked because of his confident cheerfulness), Darlene's perfectly timed sarcasm, Becky and her boyfriend's unique and refreshingly sweet relationship, Dan and family's lighthearted barbs in their iconic kitchen and living room, and Jackie's endearing quirkiness (before they turned her into a joke).

Now it's all about Ben and Darlene's constant fighting, Harris' perpetually hostile disposition, and Louise and Dan's boring relationship. The show is known for it's dark humor, which worked in the past, but now it's just plain dark - the humor quotient has been extracted like an infected tooth.

As for the political bent.. I'm a liberal myself, but I want to throw up every time someone brings up masks and vaccines. For Pete's sake, we have enough doom and gloom in the real world.. can't our "comedies" just give it a rest already?! I am waiting for the comedic brilliance to return.. I tune in to laugh, not cry.