by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Hollywood has a history of leaning into trends. One of the trends right now is taking an old show and flipping the script to show a different perspective. Between How I Met Your Father focusing on a female protagonist and Bel-Air leaning more into drama, Hollywood is trying to capitalize on existing properties for fresh ideas. Even network TV is getting into the trend, with The Wonder Years focusing on a Black family in Alabama, instead of a white family in a no-name suburb of small-town USA. This iteration of the classic series follows the Williams family in Alabama during the late ‘60s. Shown from Dean’s (Elisha Williams) perspective, we see his interaction with his friends and family at school and home.
The Wonder Years hinges on two crucial questions: Is Dean an interesting enough character to follow, and is his family compelling enough to follow episode to episode? The answer to both of these is resoundingly yes. During Season Two, we see a lot of growth with Dean that helps shape his worldview. He has a romantic storyline, gets involved with two different activities in school that he didn’t originally do in Season One, and struggles to build bonds with his family. Williams is outstanding as Dean, and I buy him as a leading character who is growing up during a turbulent time. He is largely insulated from a lot of the social issues his parents deal with, but he’s getting to the age where he begins to notice when something doesn’t feel right about some situations. There’s an episode where he has a sleepover with his only white friend at school, and Dean doesn’t understand why it’s a big deal for him to sleep at his house. The two families then bond over their shared experience, with Dean’s family sharing how they’re treated because of the color of their skin, and his friend’s family talking about their religion affecting the way people treat them.
Don Cheadle is a great narrator as an older Dean, and one of my favorite parts of the show. In the original series, Daniel Stern helps the audience understand Kevin’s thought process and feelings. Thankfully, Cheadle injects a lot of comedy and helps the audience see how the events of the show affect Dean’s life down the road. I appreciate this perspective because it gives more gravity to the lessons we learn in each episode.
Dean’s family gets called out for treating him like an afterthought. It’s hard for Dean to stand apart from his family, especially since everyone has more seismic stories. His brother Bruce (Spence Moore II) recently came back from the Vietnam War, his sister Kim (Laura Kariuki) is in the middle of her college decision, his mom Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh) has recently been promoted at work, and his dad Bill (Dulé Hill) is trying to make it in the music industry his way while balancing his family. This season, we get to see many storylines involving Dean with all his family members, so we see their relationship building. All of this culminates in a chaotic season finale where Dean finally dares to call them out for their lack of focus on him. It’s a pivotal moment for the family, and Dean as a character. He finally stands up for himself, and his family needs to start taking notice.
Other than Dean, The Wonder Years reboot hinges on Hill’s performance. Bill has a lot of great stories for Season Two in which he has to learn to be a father to growing kids who are dealing with issues that are harder to deal with. This isn’t to say Lillian doesn’t have any of these stories, but Hill steals the show at least a few times each episode. Bill’s music career also pops up a few times during Season Two. The first and final episode of the season bookmark his music career in a good way, and help give clarity about whether he made the right decision choosing his family instead of his band. These moments of clarity come up often in Season Two, with Lillian even lamenting about the choices she makes regarding college and what she chooses to do with her time when she’s not working or with her family. As a parent, I appreciate the episodes where they talk about living with the choices you make, and thus, no decision is ever wrong.
Season Two suffers from a few problems. I felt the drastic reduction of episodes from Season One to Season Two. Whereas Season One has 22 episodes, Season Two only has 10. Because of the smaller episode count, there simply isn’t enough time to cultivate a long and compelling story. Each episode is largely standalone and doesn’t connect to much of the story. In addition to this, some of Dean’s school friends are sidelined for a large portion of the season. His friends were some of my favorite parts of Season One, so to have less of them in Season Two, especially during a pivotal time in his middle school life, makes me sad.
I’m concerned about the future of The Wonder Years. It’s usually not a great sign when you lose one of your top showrunners due to misconduct, and then have your second season move to the summer AND have an episode reduction. The characters and story are starting to find their grove, and I hope ABC has the guts to keep this story going. Representation matters, and ABC sure could use another show to carry the load that Abbott Elementary is singlehandedly lifting for the network. The Wonder Years is a favorite of mine on ABC, and I hope it gets another chance to prove why it deserves to stick around for years to come.
Grade: Liked it
The Wonder Years is currently streaming on Hulu
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