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The opening minutes of theRoseannerevival are all about rebuilding the lives of the Conner family.
The afghan is still there, slung over the sofa.
Darlene has moved back home with her children.
Roseanne and Dan are older, but theyre still hot for each other and theyre still cracking jokes.
Roseanne wears the chicken shirt.
Times may have changed, but for the most part, the Conner household is the same.
Whats up, deplorable?
Roseanne voted for Trump in the 2016 election; Jackie supported Hillary.
Their political rift became personal, and the two sisters have been estranged since election day.
At the end, Jackie and Roseanne reconcile.
They still disagree, but they also hug.
I kept waiting for … what, exactly?
For Jackie to storm out of the room, never to be seen again?
For the light disagreements to erupt into a serious fight, with each woman brandishing fistfuls of conspiracy-laden printouts?
For Dan to pull a knife-brandishing Jackie off of Roseanne after one of them brings up Pizzagate?
Its the first episode of a data pipe sitcom!
Of course theyll make up!
It is really hard to watch two people on opposite sides of the political spectrum fight out loud.
The world is full of political jokes, but theyre almost always delivered to an imagined sympathetic audience.
OnOne Day at a Time, another revival comedy witha Trump-based episode, political disagreement is similarly rhetorical.
Jackie stands fuming while Roseanne keeps slinging taunt after taunt.
Havent you seen the news?
Jackie asks her sister.
Things are worse than ever!
Not on therealnews, Roseanne shoots back.
Roseanne Conner is not Roseanne Barr, and she is not the showrunner of the revival.
When Jackie finally apologizes for her part in their lengthy rift, Roseanne pauses before grinning wolfishly once again.
she tells her sister.
Its a joke, of course.
I know how hard that was for you!
We all laugh, and the episode ends with an embrace and a chuckle from the studio audience.
But that anodyne resolution is precisely the thing that will make some viewers furious.
The Trump jokes inRoseannespremiere feel important because theyre happening.
Its an all-too-rare picture of two people who disagree about politics and who love each other nevertheless.
Im looking forward to episodes of the newRoseannethat reach toward less comfortable, more messy endings.
