The 70s should have stayed in the 90s.
In 1998, when “That ’70s Show” premiered on Fox, his affection for the bygone era of bells and classic rock was charming. Mainstream nostalgia favored the Americana-steeped 1950s and 1960s, but the often stoned and often silly teenagers, including Eric Forman (Topher Grace), Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon) and Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis) were irreverent, silly, and fun. With his nerdy earnestness, over-the-top perms and Farrah Fawcett vague, “70s” was fully in on its own joke.
Sadly, the same can’t be said for its sequel “That ’90s Show” (streaming now, ★½ of four), a new Netflix series that attempts to transport the Forman basement into a new decade. Suffice it to say, like a lot of TV’s pointless remakes, reboots, and revivals of recent years, “90s” doesn’t capture the magic of “70s.”
Forced, unfunny and devoid of any charm, “90s” feels like a sitcom parody rather than an actual TV show. The jokes don’t land, the actors are poorly cast, and all the Kutcher and Kunis cameos in the world can’t make a bad script good. “’90s” feels like a show created by committee and focus group: boring, bland and just familiar enough to make you ache for the original, which airs on Peacock.
Like “’70s”, “’90s” is about a group of Wisconsin teenagers and their antics while their parents are away. Only this time, the group includes Leia (Callie Haverda), Donna and Eric’s daughter, and Jay (Mace Coronel), Michael and Jackie’s son.
Of course, the setting literally has to be the same place, the basement of Eric’s childhood home, where his parents Kitty and Red still live (Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, the only regular cast members) . To put this into a format that resembles the original, Donna and Eric agree to let Leia stay at her grandparents’ house for the summer after she makes some friends in the neighborhood (sure, why not?) .
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Leia and her good-for-nothing new friends smoke weed, kiss and get drunk in the basement, while Kitty and Red try to remember how to be parents and hang out with a revolving door of characters from the show original, all with considerably more wrinkles and more gray hair. (These cameos include Kutcher, Kunis, Grace, Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama’s Fez; original sixth cast member Danny Masterson is not involved after the actor was accused of rape.)
The original series clearly understood life in the ’70s – and more importantly, how audiences from the time it aired (1998-2006) viewed life in the ’70s. But the new iteration has only ‘a vague conception of the 90s. The original never really felt historically accurate either, but the 1970s version it created was a fully formed world that helped its comedy and romantic drama.
The 1990s of the new series are a dull, monochromatic era in which everyone’s clothes are pulled from the same Delia catalog. The frame is incidental, probably chosen because it’s been twenty years since the “70s” made their bow and the nostalgia of the 90s is in fashion, and it shows. To really evoke the 90s, you need more than cordless phones and “Clerks” references. (A short-lived 2002 Fox spinoff, “That ’80s Show,” starring Glenn Howerton, had similar issues.)
It’s not just the lackluster attempt to recreate the ’90s that’s problematic here: the new show lacks the spark that ignited the original. A combination of bad writing, bad casting, and a lethargic atmosphere makes the “90s” an unfortunate chore to watch. As much as these kids try, they can’t capture lightning in a bottle like Kutcher, Kunis, Grace, and Prepon did. They don’t have the magnetism, their characters are neither endearing nor sympathetic nor even very interesting. They’re just kind of there, dressed in flannel.
Sequels and TV reruns aren’t going anywhere given the state of Hollywood, but is it possible the powers that be are trying a little harder to make them watchable?
In the meantime, it would be best if we just said “goodbye, Wisconsin” to this particular one.
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