'Fuller House' Season 5B Review: Farewell episodes do justice to the reboot, but not the original
Spoilers for Season 5B of 'Fuller House'
When Season 5 of 'Fuller House' began, Stephanie Tanner (Jodie Sweetin) and Jimmy Gibbler (Adam Hagenbuch) came back home with their baby girl after Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber) gave birth to Stephanie's baby after being a surrogate for her. With the end looming, the first part also saw the heartwarming and beautiful proposal DJ Tanner-Fuller (Candace Cameron Bure) arranged for herself (she thought she was doing it for Kimmy) when Steve Hale (Scott Weinger), DJ's high school sweetheart, asked her to marry him.
With all three ladies finally engaged, the agenda for the final episodes were set -- a triple wedding. As one character says in one of the episodes in Season 5B, pleasing one bride is hard enough -- will they be able to pull off pleasing all three? If there's one thing the 'Full House' reboot has shown, it's that all three ladies -- DJ, Steph, and Kimmy -- often work as one unit, even with wildly differing tastes. Their mutual planning leads up to a beautiful wedding that's put together at the last minute after plenty of things go wrong in the series finale.
We also get to see the return of the legacy cast, Danny Tanner (Bob Saget), Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier), and Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos) -- with the noted exception of Jesse's wife, Becky (Lori Loughlin) -- in multiple episodes. All three of them walk the brides down the aisle and even give fitting toasts to end the series -- something they did not get to do in the original series. Then there are the men of 'Fuller House', Steve, Jimmy, and Kimmy's beau, Fernando Hernandez-Guerrero-Fernandez-Guerrero (Juan Pablo Di Pace) who get to spend more scenes together this time around as the men have their tuxedo fittings and their bachelor party in an ax-throwing club. More seasons might have meant further exploration of the "he-wolf pack."
The five seasons of 'Fuller House' have also seen the kids growing up -- both the characters and the actors. Jackson Fuller (Michael Campion), Max Fuller (Elias Harger), Ramona Gibbler (Soni Nicole Bringas), and Tommy Fuller Jr (Dashiell and Fox Messitt) grow up to be pretty close siblings, and considering how they started out, it was sweet to watch. While fans of the 'Fuller House' series might be satisfied with the final episodes, perhaps fans of 'Full House' may not have felt the end was as befitting -- after all, this is the second time we are bidding farewell to the Tanner household and even if it may be more than twenty years later, the impact of 'Full House' on viewers is evident as the reboot featured multiple throwbacks.
Even so, the final episodes manage to do 'Fuller House' justice. Even if the reboot won't be as beloved as the original, we still got to see DJ, Steph, Kimmy, and Steve all grown up and living their adult lives -- something we don't often get to see with many favorite childhood television shows. Perhaps Netflix might revisit bringing back the Tanner-Fuller-Gibbler families for another run to give these families a farewell with more closure.
All seasons of 'Fuller House' are now streaming on Netflix.
