Carstairs Considers....: TV Show Review: Full House

Friday, April 5, 2013

TV Show Review: Full House - Season 8

Stars: 5 out of 5
Pros: Lots of family friendly laughs and hugs

Cons: This is the last season.

The Bottom Line:

Same old Tanner clan

Bring laughs with hugs and cheese

It's still delightful

Last Chance to Get a Hug for Leaving the Room

It's time to get ready to say goodbye to the Tanner family since season eight was the final season of Full House. But before we do, we still get one last season of fun and laughs. Leading the way is Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), the head of this unusual household. Also among the adults are Danny's best friend Joey (Dave Coulier) and Danny's brother-in-law Jesse (John Stamos). Jesse lives in the attic with his wife Becky (Lori Loughlin), who happens to be Danny's co-host on a morning TV talk show. Jesse and Becky have twin boys, Nicky and Alex (Blake & Dylan Tuomy-Wilhoit). But wait, there's more! Danny's three daughters also live in the house. There's senior D.J. (Candace Cameron), 7th grader Stephanie (Jodi Sweetin), and 3rd grader Michelle (played by both Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen). Yes, all nine people live under one roof in a house in San Francisco. As Michelle observes at one point, it's a good thing the house is bigger then it appears!

This season, Danny finds a new girlfriend in one of Stephanie's friend's mother. Joey tries to substitute teach, but finds it hard when Michelle's class expects him to be funny instead of serious. Jesse is kicked out of his own bands and forms a new one, Hot Daddy and the Monkey Puppets. Meanwhile, Becky becomes the producer of "Wake Up, San Francisco," much to Danny's dismay. And Jesse and Becky have to deal with their twins starting pre-school.

And the kids on the show face their own growing pains. D.J. tries to juggle two boyfriends after breaking up with long time boyfriend Steve. (And as long as we're on the subject of Steve, what is he doing on the cover of the box since he isn't in this season?) D.J.'s best friend Kimmy (Andrea Barber) decides to elope when faced with the possibility of D.J. moving away. Stephanie forms a new rock band, but doesn't want to practice. And Michelle uses her lemonade stand money to buy a donkey. Even their dog Comet gets into the act this year when he runs away for an afternoon.

This may be the last season, but the show isn't running out of laughs. Long time fans will find just as much to laugh at as previous seasons. And the show's non-fans? They certainly won't find anything here to change their minds. And let's face it, this show has a limited audience. The jokes are usually G rated, only occasionally straying into PG territory. The show is sugary sweet and corny at times. And almost every episode ends with a heart to heart talk, and a hug or two. If only real life were really this simple. Honestly, I can't get enough.

A lot of the fun comes from the cast. You can tell how close they became working together over the course of the show. You buy the fact that these people are family because that care and love comes through in every frame of film. This season still has some special guest stars as well, with the likes of Barry Williams, Frankie Valli, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Mickey Rooney showing up in various episodes.

And I've got to mention the series finale. "Michelle Rides Again" was a two parter in which Michelle fell off a horse and lost her memory. It serves the show well by mentioning a few things from the course of the show. And they even find a way to mock themselves a little, especially about how much hugging they do. It may not be a normal ender, but it still leaves me feeling all warm inside.

The one thing this four disc set doesn't have is special features. But that's not really shocking considering that the last few sets haven't had any either. All 24 episodes look great, however, which will please any fan.

It's hard to say goodbye. But fans of the show will be pleased to have season eight of Full House in their collection.

Season Eight Episodes:

1. Comet's Excellent Adventure

2. Breaking Away

3. Making Out is Hard to Do

4. I've Got a Secret

5. To Joey with Love

6. You Pet it. You Bought it.

7. On the Road Again

8. Claire and Present Danger

9. Stephanie's Wild Ride

10. Under the Influence