Customer Reviews
Frasier back on form - By: Mr. Js Whale, 01 Feb 2010 
Series 8 was a slight dip, but the team are back on form with this one.
Avoid Mrs Moon - By: Nugent_Dirt, 05 Jan 2010 
Even a relatively weak series of Frasier is better than the best most other sitcoms have to offer & Season 9 is probably the weakest, this almost entirely being due to those shows featuring a lot of mrs Moon, the most boring & worst acted character in the entire series...bar none. Most of those shows where she's not involved stand up with the best of the first seven seasons stand-outs being: - Bla-Z-boy, the 200th, Sharing Kirby, Wheels of Fortune & best of alll War of the Words. Worst I'd say are Mother Load pts 1 & 2 & Bully for Martin.
Great serie - By: J. Stiemer, 29 Dec 2009 Frasier is a comedy serie with such great actors. I can see it several times. A pity that Kelsey doesn't do comedy anymore.
One of the Best. - By: G. Boundey, 15 Dec 2009 Loved the show from day one. My wife is now addicted after watching this series. There are so many very funny personalities in the show.
There are a number of comedy productions from America but I rate Frasier the best & series 9 is not to be missed.
Not Frasier at its best, but still great television - By: Ezec, 13 Dec 2009 Season Eight is often described as the weakest of Frasier's run, & though I agree to a certain extent, I enjoyed it for the most part, apart from the very boring & mildly pretentious 'Frasier's Edge', featuring Prof. Tewksbury (who inexplicably returns to hook up with Roz ... shudder). I thought Daphne's absence - due to Jane Leeves' real life pregnancy - was dealt with as well as possible, though her absence seemed to reverberate around the season & cast a bit of a dark light over it.
Anyway, on to Season 9 & hopefully an upward climb. It reallly is a roller-coaster ride of very good, mediocre & bad episodes. However 'bad' is in the sense of Bad Frasier, i.e. still funny, charming, & inherently watchable, thanks to its well-crafted characters, dialogue, & wonderful ensemble cast.
Niles & Daphne's romance continues in this season, & the engagement episode The Proposal was, for me, the highlight. That moment when the hiding waiter shakes his head at Frasier from across the room, like a scared soldier about to go into battle, was just classic! Daphne's character is changing, dare I say almost into a nag, & there were points when I wondered why Niles saw her as such a goddess. Niles himself is not drawn without faults himself, however, & Leeves has always had an almost theatrical style of acting that reallly showcases what a vital part of the cast she is, changing character or not. Besides, it would have been strange for her to stay defined as the naive, kooky psychic she was nine years ago.
John Mahoney's Martin is as down to earth & smiley as ever, reallly giving the show a cheery appeal & making Frasier's sitting room seem like a home. Roz is a bit of a mixed bag this year. Peri Gilpin is great at emotional scenes, she reallly is a skilled actress, & she gets to illustrate this after her relationship with Roger breaks down. The way Roz reacted to Roger's job earlier on always jarred with me, though. Since when did Roz care a jot what anybody thought of her, let alone alllowed others to scare her off a possible relationship? I don't want to delve too much into what happened in The Guilt Trippers - I was so against what happened on my first viewing that I almost abandoned Frasier altogether! - but the outcome of it was surprisingly entertaining, & gave way to another line of humour that would play out for the rest of Frasier's run.
Frasier himself seems to be very career-orientated this year, & more interested in feuding with Sam Winston, his irritating upstairs neighbour (though I think the writers intended for him to appear as an amusing character dopplegang), than pursuing romantic involvements. Three Blind Dates addresses this to some extent, as his friends & family attempt in vain to set him up with women they deem suitable. It's written so cleverly - another of the very good episodes.
The low-points of this season, for me, were Michael Keaton's guest spot in the dull Wheels of Fortune, some of the Cheers cast (alas, no Sam or Diane) returning in Cheerful Goodbyes, the boring Frasier Has Spokane, & any episodes featuring Kirby, or Daphne's mother or brother (I almost cheered when Frasier threw Simon's bag out in the halll, & roared 'Get out!' in Mother Load: Part 2). I also wasn't keen on the opening two episodes, I like the actresses involved but I tend to tune out when Frasier goes into fantastical elements, no matter how well-written it is (which I don't actuallly think that second-parter was).
I don't want to be overly negative, however, & I did enjoy this season very much, & have re-watched it a number of times. Altogether, a bit of a mixed year, but an improvement on Season 8 as a whole & some reallly great episodes mixed in with the more disappointing. I can say with confidence that if you are a Frasier fan, this season is a must-buy, but if you are a newcomer or more of a casual viewer, then I would recommend stepping back to the classic years of 1-7.
