'Conners' Finish Solid First Season with Multiple Cliffhangers

by Julian Spivey
When Roseanne Barr completely blew up her career last summer it made me wish that “Roseanne” had never returned to television, despite the bad initial series finale in the ‘90s. When ABC canceled “Roseanne” after Barr’s controversial tweets it meant a second bad ending for the series. But, ABC didn’t really want to give up their cash cow and so they talked the remainder of the cast into returning for a spinoff series “The Conners” with the character Roseanne having been killed off due to a drug addiction to prescription pills that caused a heart attack.
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I was skeptical of “The Conners,” but because I’m a fan of the characters portrayed by John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and others I gave it a chance. I’m glad I did. “The Conners” doesn’t have the iconic status of the early days of “Roseanne,” but it’s still one of the better sitcoms on television and is a nice way to continue the story of the rest of these characters.

The first season finale of “The Conners” aired on Tuesday, Jan. 22 and gave us a handful of cliffhangers to be resolved in what will almost certainly be a renewed second season.

In the penultimate episode of the season Darlene’s (Sara Gilbert) newest beau Ben, played by Jay R. Ferguson in the season’s best guest performance, has asked her and her kids to move in with him and to Chicago where his publication, that Darlene also works at, is relocating. It seems like a no-brainer for Darlene until the love of her life, but also in many ways the biggest disappointment David (Johnny Galecki) returns having broken up with his new girlfriend and wanting Darlene to take him back. What happens here is to be seen in a second season. It’ll be interesting to see if Galecki appears more or even as a regular next season with “The Big Bang Theory” ending this year.

The second cliffhanger resolves what has maybe been the best storyline of the first season of “The Conners” with Becky (Lecy Goranson) getting pregnant after a one-night stand with a co-worker after previously being told that it would be nearly impossible to get pregnant. After not wanting to have a relationship with the baby’s father, who is an illegal immigrant, things start to work out for the two until he’s caught up in an ICE raid and deported back to Mexico. Goranson’s performance in “The Conners” was one of the highlights and frankly surprising aspects of the show’s first season considering the actress really hadn’t been active in the 20 years between the end of the first run of “Roseanne” and it’s return last spring.

The best performance on the finale of “The Conners” came from Metcalf as Jackie showing off why she’s a multiple time Emmy winner. After realizing her boyfriend, played by Matthew Broderick in frankly a disappointing guest turn throughout the season, has been cheating on her and taking advantage of her – something Dan (Goodman) had warned her about – she has a drunken breakdown at the former Lunch Box restaurant (now a Chinese place) that really hits home the struggles she’s had with yet another failed relationship and the death of her sister. It was a tear-inducing performance by Metcalf, who could easily see another Emmy nomination for the performance.

I certainly wasn’t excited about how “The Conners” came about before the season began, but after a solid first season I’m glad this family has been given a chance to both move on from Roseanne and carry on without her. 

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