The Wonder Years

I was a little skeptical about this reboot, but I actually found it to be pretty good. It's a charming show about a 12 year old boy discovering his path in life. It's a charming premise, and it's handled well. The show can also be deep and emotional, with the death of Martin Luther King affecting everyone. Some issues is that a little to much happens in this episode, and there could be a little less of Don Cheadle's narrating. Not that he does a bad job, he does a great job, be he sometimes talked over scenes that shouldn't have needed narration.

But besides that, it a charming take on the Wonder Years, that's also deep and emotional.

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.

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.

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.

That is the question the main character Dean Williams (Elisha Williams) shouts out in church at Sunday mass much to the dismay of his parents. Little do they know that their young son Dean just got his heart broken by witnessing his two best friends kissing in the pilot episode. A-List actor Don Cheadle narrates each episode through the eyes of the series young star Dean Williams.

For those negative IMDB reviewers who just couldn't wait to knock the series on the first day the series was aired, you better be prepared to eat your words as I see a very, very bright future for this re-boot 1960's TV series as seen through the eyes of the narrator Don Cheadle, an African American who lives with his middle class family in a middle class neighborhood.

This families stories, episode after episode, will gradually reflect back on any middle aged viewers who also lived through this period (as I did) whether you are black, brown, white or yellow skinned.

As the late great John Lennon wrote, "all we are saying is give peace a chance". All I am saying, is give this 1960's re-boot TV series as seen through the eyes of a middle class African American family a chance too!

I give the series an 8 out of 10 IMDB rating. Just one last comment, I love Dean's bicycle with the high handle bars and banana seat. Now those were the "Wonder Years".