ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” offers an interesting, though not groundbreaking, alternative to its forerunner.
It’s been 28 years since we watched Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) come of age as a suburban, middle-class, whitebread teenager starting in 1968: love, loss, discovery, life lessons, the works — aided by his goofy best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) and his unrequited love, Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), with Daniel Stern providing the voiceover narration as an adult Kevin to as Kevin to put it all into 20/20 context.
In this new version it is, once again, 1968. Twelve-year-old Dean Williams (Elisha “EJ” Williams) is a middle-class kid with a nerdy school friend, Brad Hitman (Julian Lerner), and an unrequited love, Keisa Clemmons (Milan Ray). But that’s where the similarities end. Same year, world’s apart. Hard stop.
Here, Dean lives in racially charged Montgomery, Ala. and attends the desegregated Jefferson Davis Junior High, where he doesn’t feel always feel comfortable with some classmates and teachers. The opening lines of the series refer to Dean getting the “police talk” from his parents “about how to handle yourself around cops”; the presidential election “that created a racial divide” in the country and the current flu pandemic “that they said would kill a million people around the world.” Wink, wink.
Dean’s father, Bill (Dule Hill), is a college music professor and “funk musician” with a song getting radio airplay (his mantra for any occasion: “Be cool”); his mother, Lillian (Seycon Sengbloh), is strong and supportive. Dean’s older sister, Kim (Laura Kariuki), is a budding activist who drops references to Black Panther Bobby Seale and H. Rap Brown. (Bill: “You’re going to college — I’m sure the revolution’s going to need a good dentist or accountant.”) Dean’s older brother, Bruce, is serving in Vietnam (he’s “away,” Lillian says euphemistically). Oscar winner Don Cheadle narrates each episode as Dean’s older alter-ego, a la Daniel Stern.
As its heart, “The Wonder Years” is your standard-issue network sitcom but with a bit of an edge and it’s all-about diversity here — there was none in the original — which is the point. There’s constant tension boiling under the surface (some things never change) and, on the other hand, there are the sitcom-y tropes, including the exasperated baseball coach (the always reliable Allen Maldonado) and the class bully who has it out for Dean. The opener relies a bit too much on topical late-’60s reference points (including mentions of “I Spy” and Eldridge Cleaver) in its rush to make sure we know that it’s 1968 in the deep South. We know. The series premiere ends with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
“The Wonder Years” was shot on location in Montgomery, so that’s a plus (the original series took place in a nameless suburb, though Kevin wore a Jets jacket); this version was created by TV vet Saladin K. Patterson (“The Big Bang Theory,” “Dave,” “The Last OG,” “Two and a Half Men,” “Psych”) who knows his way around a 22-minute sitcom vis-a-vis pacing, both for comedic and dramatic effect. ABC provided only Wednesday night’s series opener for review, so it remains to be seen how the series will evolve going forward as Dean Williams navigates his life and the world around him.