Roseanne Season 10, episode 1 recap: Twenty Years to Life

Roseanne Season 10, episode one leads off with a home run.

Roseanne is back and grittier than ever. It still has the same flash and humor, but the commonality hits much harder and realistic than the original series did. Major topics in this episode include political disparity and surrogacy.

The opening scene is fresh but familiar as Roseanne, wearing her chicken shirt, wakes up a sleeping Dan because she is worried he may be dead. Dan shoots up with his C-Pap mask and wants to know why everyone thinks he is dead!

The Conners are not living a great retired life. Darlene has moved back in with her two kids, Harris and Mark. Also, the medical insurance is not giving them enough. Dan comes in from the pharmacy with a bag of meds for both him and Roseanne. Impersonating Sammy Davis Jr, and singing “Candy Man.”

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Their medical insurance doesn’t cover what they need, so they entertain themselves with you get two of these and I get three. Dan quips “I got half the drugs for twice the price.” Through this we learn that both have depression, Roseanne has a bad knee, high blood pressure, cholesterol issues, and needs anti-inflammatories.

As they both squabble over their medication, Darlene points out that both Roseanne and her Jackie haven’t spoken in over a year. The reason is silly. They both voted differently. One has taken the conservative approach while the other the liberal. The shrine of Jackie in her police uniform with a black ribbon over the frame signifies that their sibling relationship is over.

Darlene’s son Mark walks in and he is wearing purple tights with a bright unicorn shirt and a multi-color choker. There is no mistaking he is into girl’s fashion. At one point, we learn that he paints his nails and Dan is back doing his drywall business, as Mark thinks his grandpa’s fingers are well painted. “That’s drywall, son.”

Darlene’s daughter, Harris, enters and she has a mouth with an attitude just like her mother. She needs to babysit while Darlene is job searching. Harris would rather hang out with her one potential friends. This basically gives Roseanne the entryway of telling her granddaughter that she will do what her mother says. Harris storms off and yells to the adults that they all “suck!” Dan enjoys the interaction and states: “I haven’t seen that movie in 20-years! Classics really do hold up.”

When Jackie shows up to take Darlene to the interview, she is ready for war. Wearing a “Nasty Woman” shirt and a pussycat hat. Her first words to her sister are, “What’s up deplorable.” Roseanne quips back with “Snowflake” and the political feud is on.

Later, Jackie returns with Russian dressing for the dinner salad and tells DJ’s daughter that girls can be whichever they choose. Roseanne says Jackie believes that girls can be presidents, even if they are “liar, liar pantsuit on fire.”

As Jackie and Roseanne continue to battle it over politics, Becky steps-in and announces she is having a baby and will be Andrea’s surrogate. Dan doesn’t like the idea, but Jackie informs him that it’s Becky’s body and she can do whichever she likes. Roseanne agrees and this sends an already angry Dan into the garage. He believes that the baby should stay with the birth mother.

Even though it appears as Darlene is only there to help her struggling parents. Roseanne knows the real reason as she finds her daughter’s severance pay and an unpaid traffic ticket. Darlene her mother sit together and have a heart-to-heart. Darlene is suffering, struggling to pay the bills and is single. She tells her mother “I thought I was going to be a huge success by now. I thought I could buy a huge house, so I could hold over your head.”

Both Jackie and Roseanne eventually come together and find common ground. They talk through their differences and understand each other over their political discourse. Jackie apologizes. However, as Roseanne is, she doesn’t apologize, instead forgives her sister. Jackie realizes this is best she can do, and they hug.

We finally get the Becky-to-Becky (Andrea) face-to-face meeting at the end. They both exchange lookalike jokes and Andrea tells Becky she would like to meet the Conners and has some questions for them.

Next: Roseanne update: Jackie Harris

Notes:

• Jackie lets DJ know that she is thankful for his service, and DJ notifies her that he left the Army three-months ago, even though his wife Gina is still overseas in Syria.
• We learn that Roseanne is an Uber driver.
• The same couch. Old fridge moved to the garage.
• Dan and Roseanne youngest son (Jerry Garcia) is on a fishing boat and can’t be reached.
• We are unsure of DJ and Gina’s relationship status outside of marriage.
• Darlene mentions she does not have a mate. Does that mean divorce or other?
• Dan finds Roseanne’s novel in the garage. He says it would have been better if the most interesting character was not killed off.
• Jackie has a life coach degree

Episode Rating: 4.5 out of five

Roseanne airs Tuesdays only on  ABC.