Netflix has a lovely warm-hearted Kelsey Grammer movie buried in its vast library that might just be the fix Frasier fans need as they await season 2 of the reboot coming out in September.
With a career on stage before Frasier Crane came into his life, and voice acting roles in The Simpsons and Toy Story 2, Kelsey Grammer has combined being best known as the meddlesome shrink with playing a variety of other parts.
Netflix is currently running Grammer's 2018 comedy, Like Father, which only faintly echoes his most famous role but allows him to stretch his acting muscles. It's available on Netflix in the US and UK (check our our best Netflix movies guide for more films to enjoy). He's the estranged father of Kristen Bell's workaholic advertising executive who turns up on her wedding day, only to see her left stranded at the altar. The two end up going on what would have been her honeymoon, a Caribbean cruise that gives them the chance to re-build their relationship and get to know each other again.
The story may be formulaic, but it’s a film with plenty of warm-hearted charm and a nice performance from Grammer. Frasier fans will, no doubt, find themselves searching for similarities with his alter-ego but they’ll have to look hard — his parenting skills are definitely different this time around — and there's no formidable ex-wife lurking in the background. And, if the film doesn't have quite the Crane family's barbed wit, it won’t be long before Frasier is back in the building…
When the news broke that one of the 1990s favorite sitcoms was being re-booted, it was greeted with skepticism and more than a little derision. After 11 years on TV and 37 Emmys, Frasier called it a day in 2004 and the show that started life as a Cheers spin-off became a staple of daytime TV. But last year the pompous psychiatrist returned to our screens on Paramount Plus, now back in Boston but in the world of academia and, with audiences warming to a new set-up and characters, a second series got the green light.
The first two episodes of Frasier season 2 arrive on Paramount Plus in the US and Canada on September 19 and in the UK on September 24. And some of the original's most familiar faces are joining the line-up, with a recurring role for Frasier’s man-eating producer, Roz (Peri Gilpin), as well as the return of testosterone-fuelled sports presenter Bulldog (Dan Butler), pretentious restaurant critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert) and Machiavellian agent Bebe (Harriet Sansom Ellis). How they’ll all make their way to Boston from Seattle remains to be seen.
Frasier returns to Paramount Plus in the US and Canada on September 19 and in the UK on September 24 .
