Fuller House, the highly anticipated reboot of 90’s classic Full House, recently dropped into the heavenly plains known as Netflix.
Since then, the world has had a lot of feelings about the reemergence of the Tanner clan, and we’ve put our real lives on hold in order to deal with them.
We’ve talked about the power of nostalgia and how it dominates our current pop culture landscape.
We’ve talked (extensively) about the sexual innuendo artfully weaved into the script and questioned our confusing feelings about the uncomfortable evolution of Uncle Jesse.
Listen to Rosie Waterland, Laura Brodnik and Alex Greig have a heated discussion about Fuller House on The Binge, post continues after audio.
However, there was one beautiful moment in Fuller House that made the audience stop in their (bingeing) tracks. One moment, tucked away quietly at the end of episode five, that was devoid of canned laughter tracks or awkward winks to the audience.
And yet, no one is talking about it.
The scene takes place in the nursery of DJ’s youngest son, Tommy. Stephanie has just jetted back from Italy and DJ is teasing her younger sister about becoming too attached to her kids, laughing that she’s been “sucked into the vortex of motherhood.”
As she talks, we watch Steph cast her eyes towards the floor as they slowly fill with tears. Then, she punches every single 90’s Full House kid squarely in the stomach with one simple line.
“I can’t have children.”
It’s a horrible thing to have to say out loud, a horrible thing to hear a loved one say, no matter what age you are or what TV shows you watch.
The issue is not that a woman should be devastated that she cannot have children, but that it’s heartbreaking to badly want something you cannot have.
For those of us who grow up alongside Stephanie Tanner, who shared our childhoods with her, the words hit especially hard. Many women have lived the reality of that fictional scene and many real tears would have been shed alongside the ones that fell on that sound stage.
For a show that’s been ridiculed by audiences and critics alike for it’s cheesy story lines and wooden acting, Fuller House hit just the right note.
DJ simply reaches over and hugs Stephanie, who says ” I found out a while ago that it’s just not going to happen for me.”
She then continues “I wasn’t really thinking about starting a family. But then I moved here and really got to know your kids and feel what it’s like to have a family of your own.”
Too often, we see a ‘Hollywood version’ of infertility on our screens. Story lines where characters miraculously overcome their infertility issues and become mothers to healthy, bouncy babies or else easily adopt beautiful babies into their otherwise picture perfect families.
Or, at the other end of the spectrum we see infertility treated as a post apocalyptic end-game (think the blockbuster Children of Men) or as kitschy, knee slapping comedy. Like the Tine Fey/Amy Poehler film Baby Mama, where Fey’s character hilariously finds out that that pesky infertility diagnosis was not so bad after all, welcoming a healthy baby with no medical intervention.
Watch the trailer for ‘Fuller House’ here. Post continues below.
We’ve yet to see if Fuller House will go down any of these routes in their second season (probably not the post-apocalyptic one, but we’ll see), but in that moment there were no grand plans or statements about miracle babies.
It was not a problem that was solved in the episode, or even that season.
DJ, to her credit, didn’t try to brighten the day by saying it was all going to be ok. She just did what every sister should do in that moment. She held her and said “I’m so sorry, this breaks my heart. We appreciate you and we love you.”
So, in the midst of talking about everything our favorite 90’s reboot got wrong, let’s talk about the one thing they got right.
Because it’ s just as important as Uncle Jesse’s abs.
Listen to the full episode of The Binge here:
<imgsrc=”//ad.effectivemeasure.net/emab?emcid=2976&camid=1803″ width=”1″ height=”1″ />
Top Comments
As someone going through secondary infertility, I am lucky to have my firstborn so I am spared the pain of not knowing what it's like to be unable to have any children at all, but I can really empathise with her character. I was so moved by that scene and glad whenever infertility - in any form - is sensitively covered on TV - fictionally or in reality. It makes me feel less alone, even if it's in a silly reboot of a hilariously cheesy 90s show.
My heart goes out to you. I get where ur coming from and do hope you get the outcome your trying for. I personally found telling everyone i was on treatment therapeutic as so many people i know have been silently going through the same thing opened up. it also stopped the questions and comments and allowed me to focus on my family i have and the rigorous rounds of treatment .
I have miscarried twice since having my first child late in life (who's now almost 5) and am now at an age where it would be very unlikely to conceive without a donor egg. I know how you feel. Grateful to have one child, would have liked a second.
Thank you so much for your thoughts. Yes, telling people in my life a few months ago was so freeing and has helped me so much to not feel alone and to not carry it all on my shoulders. I had no idea what some of my friends had gone through until I shared my own story! I wish more people talked about it! x