In which I ruin all your childhood nostalgia
Posted: December 12th, 2011 | Author: Steph | Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »Guys, I’m sorry, but The Wonder Years is not very good.
Here are some reasons why:
- Most of it doesn’t actually take place in the 1960s. The show begins in 1968, so the majority of the seasons depict the ’70s. And who wants to watch that? Everyone knows all the best nostalgia comes from the ’60s. Plus, during the last season, the costume department gets way lazy and the kids look suspiciously ’90s.
- There are no B stories, at least up until the last season. Each episode has just one plot. If the plot is bad, that’s a long 23 minutes.
- And some of the plots are pretty bad. Kevin’s mom worries about him playing too-rough football? For 23 minutes?
- The heavy-handed narration by Future Kevin means the actors do all these long pauses while he’s talking, where they sort of have to emote without moving. It distracts from the otherwise-pretty-good acting.
- Winnie’s kind of annoying.
- Most of the better plots can be seen again a few years later on Boy Meets World.
- Where the hell is Paul for most of the last season?
But it’s not all bad. A few highlights:
- One of Wayne’s pet names for his little brother is “scrot.” You couldn’t get away with that on TV these days!
- The so-obviously-Snuffy-Walden theme that plays every time Winnie appears on screen.
- Excellent guest turns by the likes of John Corbett, David Schwimmer, Alicia Silverstone and Juliette Lewis.
- Teenage friendships and relationships are portrayed somewhat schizophrenically, which is good because that’s how they really are. One day you’re up, the next you’re down, the next your best friend is at country day school and then he’s back and then he just kinda disappears. Hey, it happens.
- This website’s existence.
[...] for Now and The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt — Remember when I was complaining about “The Wonder Years”? These two books are what that show could have been — late-60s teen boy nostalgia done right. [...]