Characters old and new come together for a rather decent first outing
BY: JACOB POLITTE
Managing Editor
“That 70’s Show” was always a show with heart, as long as that heart was a big stoner.
It was a show that launched the careers of much of its ensemble, and was genuinely funny in a way that many sitcoms these days cannot recapture.
Reboots and revivals are often tricky to pull off successfully, as many fans often have high expectations for what they want to see and aren’t always happy if they don’t get it.
“That 90’s Show,” set 15 years or so after the conclusion of its predecessor, drops viewers back into Point Place, Michigan. Not much has changed, except for maybe the layout of Donna Pinciotti’s old house. And of course, the new kids that are now running amuck across town.
Donna and Eric Foreman (Laura Prepon and Topher Grace) are back in town from Chicago visiting their parents for Fourth of July weekend in 1995, and their daughter Leia joins them, quickly falling in love with the small town in the process. After making her thoughts clear to her father, she gets to stay with her grandparents for the summer.
Red Foreman (Kurtwood Smith), aside from gray hair and a slightly softer personality, is still very much Red Foreman. And his wife Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) is literally the exact same; she shows no sign of having aged at all. Kitty might as well have hopped in a time machine back in 1979, because she looks, sounds and acts the exact same. Instead of being jarring, it’s actually very comforting. Red and Kitty were always sort of surrogate parents to Eric’s group of friends, and they jump right into doing the same for Leia.
Smith and Rupp carry the show in its first few episodes while the new cast figures out its chemistry, but by the mid-way point of the 10 episode season, everything gels. The new gang shares some similar traits to the old one and there are a few obvious counterparts, but there are enough differences in personality and backstory to help them stand out on their own. The show is genuinely funny and adapts its 90’s theme exceptionally well.
In the background, it’s worth noting that the original gang (all of whom make appearances except for Danny Masterson’s Hyde, whose absence is never explained) never really interact with each other, although to be fair Grace, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ appearances are all brief; only Prepon and Wilmer Valderrama’s Fez make recurring appearances. It does seem, however, that aside from the original group’s couples, there has been a sort of schism that has separated them. Perhaps that will be addressed in a possible season 2.
The only true thing that hampers proceedings is the fact that there weren’t more episodes. Perhaps a renewal from Netflix can fix that issue by ordering more episodes, if Smith and Rupp are game for it.
