The Wonder Years reboot aired last night on ABC. I was busy watching Survivor, so I just watched it this morning.
The Premise
The show is set in the late 1960s and looks back at the life of the Williams family, a Black middle-class family in Montgomery, Alabama. As with the original, the show is narrated by the adult version of the youngest kid in the family.
Tater’s Thoughts
I was in college during the run of the original. I’m sure I saw episodes of the show, but I don’t recall watching it regularly, so I was able to look at this one outside of the shadow of the original. I think that is good because the downfall of any reboot is failing to measure up to the original.
The AV Club(the site that now seems to hate everything) headline says it fails to capture the magic of the original. The NBC headline says the opposite. Both reviewed the show based on how it compared to the original. But, this isn’t really a reboot. I see it as more of a new installment in an anthology about life in the 60’s. The only thing that connects it to the original is the name and the time period.
As for the actual show – it is very well done. The dad, the great Dule Hill, is a musician who wants the kids to go to an HBCU and sees no need to desegregate. The mom is strong and supportive and sees the value in learning to mix with people different than them. The older brother is in Vietnam. The older sister is a budding activist. Dean, the narrator, is a 12 year old dealing with trying to fit in and his first crush. They all meld together well to give us a funny, touching look at a different late 60’s experience. The show ends with the family learning of the death of Martin Luther King, so they are not shying away from tragedy of the time.
It was a good first episode. I would recommend it, but caution against comparing it to the original. It is not meant to be the same.
The World's Common Tater 
I never watched the original, but I do love Dule Hill…maybe….I watched ordinary joe. I like the premise. I don’t know if they can pull it off
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I hope they can pull it off. It is an interesting premise
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I never watched the original. Having grown up during that era, I’m not sure I want to see yet another take on what it was like. It sounds just as well done as the first one was, and I see no need to compare it to the original. Perhaps they should have come up with a different title?
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I see why it is the same name. Fred Savage is one of the producers and directed the first episode. It has the same general narrative style, similar kids and is set in the same time period.
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I watched the original run of that show. It was a great show. But instead of a reboot or calling it The same it should’ve been called its own thing. Like film, tv is stuck in reboot mode. Sounds like a great show from a black persective. Maybe it should be called The Wonderous Years
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Or add a subtitle The Wonder Years: Montgomery. Same universe, different place
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Yeah, that may have been good too
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I didn’t watch the original, but after watching a couple of episodes here and there, I kind of wished I had. I definitely want to tune into this one.
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I feel like I need to go back and watch the original
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