Frasier (re)watch season 1

[alias_sqbr]

hoidn has been posting lots of cute Niles/Daphne gif sets on tumblr and it reminded me how much I enjoyed Frasier but found it frustrating that I was stuck with whatever episodes I happened to catch on tv. So I decided to watch it in order! Not all 220 episodes or whatever just the ones that sound good/shippy. And then Cam was inspired to maybe do the same, so I'm going to write up the episodes as I watch them to help him decide what to watch himself (unless he just watches them all, he is more of a completionist than me)


I watched every episode from the only list of recced episodes I could find plus any that looked good from the Wikipedia summaries (which are usually quite spoilery!) Strong emphasis on Niles/Daphne.

1 "The Good Son" and 2 "Space Quest": Important setup, pretty good.
3 "Dinner at Eight": Skippable but worked well enough as a "this is the status quo" ep about the Cranes.
12 "Miracle on Third or Fourth Street" Christmas episode, Frasier character study. Ok, in a Christmas episodey kind of way.
15 "You Can't Tell a Crook by His Cover" Frasier is arrogant and then proven wrong, eh.
16 "The Show Where Lilith Comes Back": Important moment between Frasier and Lilith.
17 "A Mid-Winter Night's Dream" Very cute Niles/Daphne episode.
21 "Travels With Martin" very cute road trip episode about the Cranes + Daphne.
23 "Frasier Crane's Day Off" Frasier gets feverishly sick, silly but ok.
24 "My Coffee With Niles" Season finale, understated but well executed summming up of where everyone is at.

The middling episodes made me more sure I wouldn't last very long if I tried watching everything, I don't have a lot of patience for the repetitiveness of 90s sitcoms. But I am still really enjoying it! The datedness is more than set off by the 30-40 year old characters being much more relatable and attractive now I'm 37 rather than 14 :) There's a good natured affection towards everyone I really like, and the jokes and characters are very well done. There's the odd moment of "Ah, 90s attitudes", eg how WHITE everyone is, but it's not too distracting. Niles crush on Daphne sometimes gets a little creepy but I still ship it.

Also I looked at the wikipedia summaries for the main cast and it sounds like they all have lovely friendships, getting married at each other's houses and being each other's children's godparents etc. It's nice to know while watching.

Comments

[alchemia]

I remember watching fraiser when it was on... I think Niles/Daphne has been only Het couple I was seriously OTP about... of course, once they actually DID hook up on the show, I got bored with it.

When Bugland and I write together, we still refer to characters as doing the equivalent of Fraiser's ''Lorna Lindley is in my bedroom!!11!!1''. Which is really more a 14-ish thing than a 30 - 40 something thingish... erm, i think. Maybe it's universal, I wouldn't know.

[alias_sqbr]

I have a lot of het otps, but they are definitely a cut above :)

[tree]

*bounces*

niles' crush is definitely creepier in the early seasons when the writers hadn't decided whether or not to treat it seriously. it gets significantly less creepy and turns into more of a real friendship later, which is one of the reasons i love their relationship so much. friends to lovers yay!

[alias_sqbr]

Yes I'm in season 4 and they are pretty cute. bounces impatiently waiting for access to season five which I wont get til TOMORROW