Ashton Kutcher is back on the small screen in Netflix original show The Ranch – a slow starter that has the tools to make one of the better sitcoms of recent years.

In a TV reunion that has That 70s Show fans celebrating, Kutcher plays ageing football player Colt who returns to his family ranch in Colorado after 15 years to find his brother Rooster (Danny Masterson, or ‘Hyde’ from That 70s Show) and father struggling through a drought.

Although at times The Ranch can fall victim to tired and predictable gags, its dramatic moments are powerful, and bolstered by a cast with serious pedigree.

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Alongside Kutcher and Masterson are Golden Globe nominee Sam Elliot (Thank You For Smoking, Up in the Air) and Oscar-nominated Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment, Shadowlands), both making their sitcom debuts as the brothers’ recently-separated parents.

Kutcher and Masterson have been trying to reunite since That 70s Show. Photo: Getty/Supplied

The show opens with Kutcher returning to the ranch after years of squandering his talent, much to his Dad’s chagrin.

Kutcher has called the show a study on “generational masculinity”, and it’s clear the brothers struggle to relate to their gruff, Republican father.

“What the f***’s on your feet?” demands Colt’s father of his trendy Ugg Boots only minutes into their reunion, “They’re ladies shoes!”

But their Dad’s Obama-hating, climate change-denying ways are one of the show’s strongest selling points; not because viewers will necessarily agree with them, but because The Ranch shows us a different perspective of America from the Los Angeles or New York-Liberal view we usually get.

Unlike Two and a Half Men, Modern Family or How I Met Your Mother, The Ranch is set in a small farming town in Colorado, where paying too much for your jeans is embarrassing and the majority of people live off the land.

As per usual, Kutcher is likeable in the main character slot, meaning you forgive him for going into Seinfeld territory and sometimes laughing at his own jokes.

Kutcher and Masterson told Mashable in January they had been trying to work together on a show for ten years.

Kutcher has a baby with wife Mila Kunis – another That 70s Show alumnus. Photo: Getty/Supplied

“We talked about whether we should we do something hip and cool and single camera,” Masterson said.

“[But] we decided let’s do something people will watch.”

And The Ranch is certainly watchable – in the same family sitcom, easy-laughs style of Kutcher’s most famous TV foray: Two and a Half Men – which shares the same creators.

The comparisons to television’s once most-watched show don’t stop there, and they’re not all flattering.

Colt’s jokes about sleeping with younger women (“You’re 22? Even better!”) aren’t groundbreaking, nor are his Dad’s various ways of calling his sons ‘pansies’.

But the show certainly has its moments, like the bubbling tension between Colt and his father over the football talent he wasted, or the very real problem of living on a grass-fed cattle farm where it hasn’t rained in years.

In a move that shows it’s not afraid to continue to shake up the industry, Netflix released the first 10 episode of The Ranch last week, and will release the final 10 episodes later in the year.