Ham – The season 2 premiere begins with Doctor Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and Alan Cornwall (Nicholas Lyndhurst) anxiously awaiting the arrival of their specially ordered Spanish Ham. A curious Eve (Jess Salgueiro) not only receives an invite, but she’ll learn that the ham is an attempt to recreate one of the finest meals either has ever had. David Crane (Andres Keith) soon becomes the focus when he shows up with his stack of liability forms pertaining to his summer in Cameroon tagging feral chimps. Frasier makes an ironic joke about Alan inspiring David for the trip just as Freddy Crane (Jack Cutmore-Scott) shows up. This will ultimately lead to Frasier learning that Alan was also the inspiration for Freddy dropping out of Harvard.
Take The L, Crane – Frasier is still moping over his discovery when Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoye) shows up at his apartment the following morning to plead Alan’s case. She’ll spend a few minutes sharing the story about the time Alan stopped her from running off to California with a guy named Christopher, who is shortly revealed to be the owner of a very successful biotech firm. Despite this, it is the notification of the ham passing Customs that inspires Frasier to make a move.
After a very brief reconciliation, Frasier and Alan shift their goal to locating a tin of quince paste to go along with their ham. Alan eventually ventures off to search the common area while Frasier stays behind to comb the office. This will reignite the feud after Frasier finds an Enchanted Snooker Ball (British Inspired Magic 8-Ball) and suspects that Alan used it while advising Freddy to drop out of Harvard.
Jamon Wry – Just as David takes possession of the ham, Eve shows up with the Sangria. David’s plans to impress Frasier by keeping following his order to the T and keeping the ham in pristine condition for his arrival go out the window the minute he tastes it thanks to Eve. At the same time, Frasier has gathered Olivia and Freddy in his office to confront Alan about making decisions with the knockoff 8-ball. Although Alan attempts to justify his decision by mentioning what is known as ‘the revealed preference theory, Eve is no happier by the discovery than Frasier. Freddy, on the other hand, gives the impression of not caring and soon leaves. Frasier will follow after canceling what he’s begun calling Ham Day.
High On The Hog – By this time, Eve and David have eaten a giant hole through the center of the ham. Things will only get worse from there when Eve leaves to retrieve stuffing herbs from her apartment. Attempting to follow the other instructions, David will go from the ham on a cake to getting it stuck in the garbage disposal.
Kids Say The Most Spot-On Things – Freddy’s meeting with the scouts at the firehouse is headed in a similar direction as he explains to them how he became a firefighter. Discussing his decision and everything that ensued makes him realize how wrongly he approached the task. It also helps that the kids are there to point and question every possible wrong turn he took. Once he reaches a point of total embarrassment, he’ll distract them with the station’s Dalmatian, Sparky.
David and Eve are in the process of making his already bad situation surprisingly worse when an arguing Alan, Frasier, and Olivia return. While Eve steps away for some unexplained reason, David is immediately relieved to learn that Ham Day has been canceled. That relief returns to misery when he learns they want to split the ham as quickly as possible and get away from one another. Thankfully, the arrival of a frantically regretful Freddy takes prominence.
Freddy will briefly distract them by getting them to share the origins of Ham Day, which turns out to be a rather whimsical tale of friendship and courage. Eve returns with what appears to be a plate of ham directly after Frasier and Alan apologize. Although the ruse works perfectly, a guilty David will end the episode by ratting on himself.
Frasier Review
Not an all-around horrible way to begin the second season. I liked that Alan and Frasier’s friendship was tested and resolved with a whimsical tale of shared adventure. It was also nice to see all the main characters in one episode together. I even enjoyed the way Freddy’s story was approached and the scouts at the firehouses were decently funny. Parts of the Eve and David debacle were a bit much at times, but all in all, a good start that easily deserves a 5.6 out of 10.
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