Fuller House Brings Smiles and Memories Everywhere You Look

Thomas Wolfe once famously said, "You can't go home again."

To which John Stamos has replied, "Hold my beer."

The Tanner family is (mostly) back in the Netflix comedy series, FULLER HOUSE, the continuation of the popular 90s series that was part of the TGIF lineup. (Maybe Jaleel White can get a gig for "More Family Matters" down the road?) In the new series, DJ Tanner-Fuller (CANDACE CAMERON BURE) is a widow with three children, Jackson (MICHAEL CAMPION), Max (ELIAS HARGER) and baby Tommy (DASHIELL & FOX MESSITT). Family patriarch Danny Tanner (BOB SAGET) has moved out to host his television show with Aunt Becky (LORI LOUGHLIN) in San Francisco, and has left the house to DJ.

Moving in with her is younger sister Stephanie (JODIE SWEETIN), who pursues a music career, and soon-to-be-divorced so she can get re-engaged to her soon-to-be-ex-husband (it's complicated) Kimmy Gibbler (ANDREA BARBER) with her daughter Ramona (SONI NICOLE BRINGAS). Together, DJ, Stephanie and Kimmy embark on misadventures while trying to raise kids and find lasting relationships.

As if the house wasn't crowded enough, this second season sees Kimmy's ex-husband Fernando Hernandez-Guerrero-Fernandez-Guerrero (JUAN PABLO DI PACE) move in with them, just as DJ has spent the past few months deciding which man she can commit to -- veterinary co-worker Matt Harmon (JOHN BROTHERTON) or first-love Scott Weinger (STEVE HALE). Alas, it appears DJ has waited a bit too long, because Matt and Scott have become best bros, and have both decided to move on with their lives, with Matt taking up with a (very) young athlete and Steve finding himself a DJ clone in CJ (VIRGINIA WILLIAMS).

The episodes have a touch more continuity than the 90s sitcom did, but it's not at the level where you have to know what happened in one episode to understand another one. Mostly this season involves Ramona's first kiss and how she feels about the boy with whom it happened, and 8-year-old Max trying to create a sustainable farm in the back yard for a school project.

Throughout the season, we get guest appearances by the rest of the original cast, including Uncles Jesse (JOHN STAMOS) and Joey (DAVE COULIER). Jesse and Becky are preparing to adopt a baby (once Jesse is convinced), and Joey is married to a stage magician and is raising four rambunctious brats of his own. We see some of them in guest appearances here and there, and then all of them -- including Jesse and Becky's grown twins, Nicky and Alex (played by original actors, BLAKE and DYLAN TUOMY-WILHOIT).

The only family member who has not appeared is Michelle (formerly played by twins MARY-KATE and ASHLEY OLSEN), an absence that has been acknowledged in one of the shows sly fourth-wall-breaking moments when they comment on how Michelle was too busy in New York focusing on her fashion industry -- and then the entire cast looks disapprovingly at the camera. When-and-if the Olsen twins ever do make it to FULLER HOUSE, even if only for a guest appearance, it's going to be a glorious moment of full reunion.

Shot the same way as FULL HOUSE, with the same light-hearted feel and comedy situations, FULLER HOUSE is a welcome diversion from what passes for television sitcoms these days, proving that you can revisit a classic with success.