By: Jesse Striewski
The tagline for the final season of Roseanne spinoff The Conners makes the claim “A working class act from start to finish,” but I can’t honestly recall a more recent or larger travesty in American television history than what has become of this show.
When Roseanne was first rebooted on ABC in 2018 with the majority of its main original cast intact, it had potential. Then one careless (and admittedly dumb) tweet from Roseanne Barr seemingly put an end to it all. At least it should have ended there, but unfortunately the network decided to kill off its main character and re-tool the series as The Conners (effectively becoming one of the worst possible decisions imaginable).
Since that first season, I only seldomly tuned in here and there out of sheer curiosity, and every time I did I regretted it almost instantly. While the original Roseanne show was an honest portrayal of the American family at that moment in time, what evolved to become The Conners quickly turned into an embarrassment, with the remaining cast (obviously lacking much integrity here in the first place) unable to add much to what was left of the proceedings other than negativity (even Michael Fishman, who played DJ, was apparently written off the show after just the first four seasons).
I was determined to watch all six episodes of this “farewell” season though, which at times ranged from slightly entertaining, to levels of near torture.
John Goodman as Dan Conner was once one of those TV Dad greats most kids looked up to and respected, and Sara Gilbert as the cynical, wise-cracking Darlene was reminiscent of your best friend’s cool older sister you didn’t want to admit having a small crush on (that moment has long since passed too though). Only Lecy Goranson as Becky and Laurie Metcalf as Jackie added any sort of “comic” relief that I could see, the rest seemed content at just wallowing in their own misery for the sake of it.
Most of this final season centered around Roseanne’s passing and the final outcome of the trial surrounding her death, with the final episode accumulating with the family (what was left of it, anyway) gathering at her grave in yet another failed celebration that’s almost touching at times if not for the sheer arrogance of it all. The cast and crew of The Conners might actually believe that they bowed out graciously, but make no mistake – that would have required them doing so a long time ago.
Rating: 1.5/5 Stars
This show was all about DARLENE. Sara Gilbert was playing herself, not Darlene. This is how she acted on The Talk. Just terrible. No wisecracks, just negativity and depression from her. She could no longer act like Darlene. Pretty depressing.