Seven years ago, when the return of Roseanne was canceled because Roseanne Barr tweeted racist remarks, word almost immediately started circulating that the show would continue without Barr. We thought that it wouldn’t work, but after the spinoff was picked up, we gave ways that the show could end up being great. Showing what we know, showrunner Bruce Helford and his staff went their own way, and The Conners ended up being one of the few shows of the late-2010s reboot era to actually make for more than a couple of seasons. Now, the series is starting an abbreviated seventh and final season. How will The Conners’ story come to an end?
THE CONNERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In the Conners’ kitchen, Darlene (Sara Gilbert) walks in and says “Best funeral ever!” It was the funeral of her boss.
The Gist: In the world of the Conners, things are relatively peaceful. Darlene (Sara Gilbert) got promoted into her boss’ job, giving her better hours and more cash. She’s looking forward to seeing Ben (Jay R. Ferguson) come home to Lanford as he moves his new literary/trade magazine Hardware Magazine from Omaha.
At the same time, Becky (Lecy Goranson) is enjoying her new relationship with Tyler (Sean Astin), though since he’s moved in with her — Becky shares a house with Darlene and Ben — he’s spent a lot of time cooking her elaborate meals and doing other romantic gestures Becky thinks she needs to reciprocate. She needs the time to finish her masters thesis.
Mark (Ames McNamara) seems to be making a lot of money and working night shifts at his IT job; no one knows that he’s working as a black hat hacker. Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) finds out that, due to a shortage, the Lanford PD is interested in hiring people who used to be on the force. Despite her age, Jackie feels that she has what it takes to go out on patrol, despite the objections of an officer (Zoe Perry) she encounters at the Lobo.
Jackie also found out that families of people who died of opioid overdoses can now sue the pharmaceutical companies that produced those opioids. But when she presents that to Dan (John Goodman), he flat-out refuses to pursue it. As he explains to Louise (Katey Sagal), he was completely lost after Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) died seven years ago, and he doesn’t think it’s worth it to dredge up those feelings again, even if it gives the family a chance to get enough money to make them semi-comfortable.
In the meantime, Ben returns but immediately goes to set up the magazine’s new office, leaving Darlene more alone than she’d like to be.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Conners is, as most people know, the spinoff of the Roseanne revival of 2018, which ended up being created after Barr was fired. Remarkably, the series is going on its seventh and final season and its run will have produced more than 110 episodes.
Our Take: Bruce Helford and his writing staff has always tried to have The Conners feel like it’s the continuation of the original run of Roseanne that it’s meant to be — except the parts of the original 1988-97 run that got retconned by the spinoff. It feels like they’re bringing the show somewhat full-circle, with Roseanne’s death coming back to fuel a lot of the story in the final six episodes, just like it did when the spinoff first aired in 2018.
ABC is calling this final season a “six-episode event,” which implies that the lawsuit is going to be one of the main through-line stories of the season. But The Conners, like its predecessor, has always been about continuing stories, just by the nature of the fact that it’s about a family that stays together despite a ton of hardships.
Does the first episode start or continue too many story threads? Perhaps. We don’t know, for instance, whether Mark’s hacking work will be given a whole lot of time, and it was a surprise to see that his older sister Harris (Emma Kenny) wasn’t even in the first episode. This means that there’s even more story that will need to be followed in the remaining five episodes.
We’re also not sure how far we’re going to get with Jackie rejoining the Lanford PD, though the scene Metcalf had with Perry was fun to watch, given that Perry is Metcalf’s daughter.
But we also know that scenes between Metcalf and Goodman will always be compelling, and that’s true here. And we’re always going to watch any scene with Sagal, who slid so comfortably into the cast a couple of seasons ago that we sometimes forget she wasn’t on The Conners from day one.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Darlene and Tyler watch TV together, but Darlene gets annoyed when Tyler says something gushy about Becky.
Sleeper Star: We’ve got to give Sean Astin all the credit in the world for coming in as a regular on this show at such a late time. Yes, he’s a pro, but it’s still not easy, and he fits right in.
Most Pilot-y Line: Someone comes into the Hardware Magazine office and asks Ben, “Where are your nuts?” What did Ben expect when he had the word “HARDWARE” etched on the door?
Our Call: STREAM IT. The Conners has always been a solid sequel to Roseanne, and it’s the result of a group of sitcom veterans, both in front of and behind the camera, coming together to do what they know how to do. It continues to be solid as the Conners’ story comes to an end.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
The post Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Conners’ Season 7 On ABC, The Final Season Of The ‘Roseanne’ Spinoff appeared first on Decider.
