ABC's Emmy-winning "dramedy," now available through Netflix instant streaming, looked back nostalgically but pointedly at the late 1960s and early '70s, when the Vietnam war was raging overseas and the sexual revolution was making heads spin at home. As the series begins, 12-year-old Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) is entering seventh grade, and by the end of his first day in middle school, love and death have intertwined in such a bittersweet way that The Wonder Years's pilot episode became, in my opinion, one of the most memorable debuts in TV history.
Although The Wonder Years was conceived in the late '80s as a family show that could appeal to both baby boomers and their children, the fact that every episode is told from the point of view of Kevin, who also narrates the various trips down memory lane as an adult 20 years later (Daniel Stern provides the voice-overs), makes it ideal viewing for tweens of today's generation. Part of the show's evergreen appeal is that it proves adolescent hell remains the same throughout time, whether you're carrying a transistor radio in your hand or an iPod.
The Wonder Years's peripheral focus on American history of the '60s and '70s can be used for educational purposes to explain how soldiers in wars fought by the U.S. used to be drafted for service, how the "hippie" counterculture compares with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement of today, and how vastly technology has changed in 40 years (a family's first color TV back in those days is almost the equivalent of a family's first smartphone today). The Wonder Years also provides touching lessons about loyalty to friends, the danger of classroom gossip, and respect for institutions that are slowly dying but still matter (in one episode Kevin gets a part-time job working at a mom-and-pop hardware store whose business has fallen off since the new mall opened). —Robert Cass
No comments:
Post a Comment