The nine-episode, second half of Fuller House season 5 has just arrived on Netflix, and if you aren’t ready to say goodbye to D.J. (Candace Cameron Bure), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), Kimmy (Andrea Barber), and the rest of the family yet, we suggest that you don’t watch the entire final run in one seating.
In January 2019, Netflix announced that the sitcom’s fifth season would be its last. While the streaming service didn’t provide any reason for not renewing the series for season 6, it seemed that the show’s cancellation was due to poor viewership. According to data analysis company Jumpshot, Fuller House suffered a 52% drop in viewership between seasons 1 and 2. And when the figures reportedly fell another 10% between seasons 3 and 4, many people thought that it would be the end of the series. But the streamer handed out a fifth-season renewal for the show, allowing the writers to craft a satisfying ending for the characters that fans have loved since the ‘1980s.
A sequel to the ABC comedy series Full House, Fuller House debuted on Netflix in February 2016. Like the original series, which ran from 1987 to 1995, the follow-up is also set in the Tanner childhood house in San Francisco, California, and follows the story of recently widowed D.J., who accepts the help of her sister Stephanie and their longtime friend Kimmy in raising her three sons. In the final batch of episodes, the trio prepares for their triple wedding and celebrates all of the memories that have led them there.
Though season 5 marks the end of the series, both Barber and Cameron Bure are hoping that they’ll be able to reprise their respective roles in a potential “Fullest House” sequel series 10 to 20 years later.
“I don’t know what the television landscape will be in 10 or 20 or however long it will take for us to be the grandmothers of the house … [but] I really want to play this character and see where she is and see her grow,” Barber said in a recent interview with TV Insider. “We’ve seen Kimmy, D.J. and Stephanie since they were 5 and 10. Let’s continue it into our 60s. Let’s see them as the Golden Girls of the new generation. I’m ready.”
“We talk about that all the time and put it out there so much,” added Cameron Bure. “Who knows what will happen in 10 or 15 years. Never say never. If there is another opportunity, I know all of us would reprise these characters again.”
In addition to Barber, Cameron Bure, and Sweetin, other original Full House cast members who have returned for the sequel series were Bob Saget, John Stamos, Dave Coulier, and Lori Loughlin. New cast members, meanwhile, include Michael Campion, Elias Harger, Soni Nicole Bringas, Dashiell & Fox Messitt, Juan Pablo Di Pace, John Brotherton, Ashley Liao, and Adam Hagenbuch, among many others.