'Mad About You': Will second part of Spectrum revival rock Buchmans' marriage and show the separation portrayed in original finale?
When the first set of episodes for the revival of 'Mad About You' landed on Spectrum's On-Demand platform on November 20, the show was panned by critics as being "unnecessary", but fans loved the new take on the Buchmans' marriage, calling it a "homecoming".
The premise of the revival was that we would see Paul and Jamie Buchman in a new phase of their marriage — their daughter, Mabel, is now grown up and leaving for college. We were to see Paul and Jamie as empty-nesters and how they dealt with it.
We see Jamie going back to work for the first time since giving birth to Mabel, and we see her dealing with menopause. Though it is Paul who is overly sentimental when Mabel leaves initially, we see Jamie acting out, going so far as to sneak into her daughter's dorm room.
However, the stakes were quite low. Whatever disagreements Paul and Jamie had with each other or something else seemed very trivial and the revival seemed to rewrite the original run's finale where an adult Mabel had narrated that her parents had separated before getting back together.
In the final moments of the last of the six episodes released earlier this year, in a very meta fashion, Jamie breaks the fourth wall and announces things are going to get bumpy when the revival comes back with new episodes in December, as a confused Paul looks on.
With things still going well between Paul and Jamie in the revival, and from what the producers of the revival (including lead actor Paul Reiser), we assumed that the revival would not acknowledge the 1999 finale's reference to the Buchmans splitting up, but rather that it would rewrite the ending.
However, it seems possible that the revival could include that plotline. At this point, there does not seem to be any indication that the Buchmans' marriage is in trouble or that they might even be heading to such a thing. But perhaps, with a couple of flash-forwards, it could be done.
One thing is clear, however, and it is that the revival needs to raise the stakes more to truly appeal to the audience. With the first six episodes, the show did not offer anything new for its viewers — both new and old.
The second part of the 'Mad About You' revival will release on Spectrum's On-Demand platform on December 18.