Wunderbare Jahre

Usually I am adamantly against remakes. So much so that I refuse to watch them. What's the point honestly? Have you seen what they've done to shows like He-Man. Knight Rider or the movie Nightmare on Elm Street? If they remake Three's Company, The Golden Girls or The Wiz (yes, it's a remake but it doesn't count) I'm jumping off the edge of the planet.

Initially I rolled my eyes over Wonder Years 2.0 but when I saw Don Cheadle in the credits I took a chance. I'm glad that I did. The Wonder Years 2.0 makes sense because it's not re-telling the same story about the same family. We are now on the other side of the city with a Black family and this changes everything. I love what they've done so far and I can't wait for them to really dig into this decade from our perspective.

It's 1968 Montgomery, Alabama. Dean Williams (Elisha Williams) is 12, youngest of three, and the narrator (Don Cheadle) of the show. His father Bill Williams (Dulé Hill) is a working musician. The first episode ends with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.

ABC brings back one of its most beloved show. Instead of a white family, they are centering this around a black family. Oddly, they do not change the time period. That is probably its big mistake or a great idea. The idea would be showing another side of the original show. Back in the 80's, 1968 would hold great nostalgic factor for most of the Boomers. By now, it's ancient history and most of the audience were not even alive during that time. What I found is that I'm nostalgic for the 80's TV show. It's a different type of nostalgia and probably not as effective. I do like the characters and the family. It doesn't have quite the same Winnie Cooper. It lasted only two seasons.

I love the premise of the show. As a black American with solid roots in the South, I was disappointed that they opt'd to not have the actors speak with southern accents.

While I love Dule Hill as Burton Guster, his character was a miscast, in my opinion. It would have been better if he used his own speaking voice versus the one he chose.

I do appreciate the topics they discussed, as I found them very relevant and relatable to my life; however, I believe they should have made it about a family in the 80s vs the 60s. Would have been great to see a Cosby Show 2.0 but not trying to actually BE the Cosby Show. I believe it would have definitely been more relatable to a wider audience.

Now I'm usually the first to call out the woke society but the pilot was fantastic. Stop calling it a remake. Stop jumping to conclusions. Give it a chance. Things actually happen this way back then. No matter what you want to believe.

As a black female who watched the original Wonder Years at the age of 10, I feel like whoever greenlighted this series misunderstood why it worked when it did. In the 80s there was a a great deal of 60s nostalgia, especially with music. The Beach Boys we're back on the charts and Frankie & Annette were once again movie stars. Young people nowadays feel the same kind of nostalgia about the 90s, if not later. And quite frankly, 35 years later, I find the characters somewhat unrelatable. In the reboot, I find them downright unlikable. There isn't even a soundtrack so good that I can ignore the unremarkable casting.