HOPE AND WONDER
Reboot of coming-of-age series depicts the effects of '60s turbulence on a Black family
The Wonder Years Wednesdays, ABC
The first iteration of ABC'S The Wonder Years, which kicked off in 1988, featured a young Fred Savage as a kid growing up about 20 years in the past.
The revival of the format, now executive-produced by Savage, along with Lee Daniels, Saladin K. Patterson and Marc Velez, keeps its gaze fixed on 1968, with the adult protagonist telling us the story of his childhood at a distance of more than 50 years.
This Wonder Years seems less interested in nostalgia than in exploring what growing up against history does to one kid. Credit the pilot with brainpower rare for a contemporary network sitcom — its characters' relationships feel vivid and real against the backdrop of changing times.
In the first instalment, we meet young Dean (played as a child by Elisha Williams and in voice-over looking back by Don Cheadle) as his community deals with the still-fresh memories of segregation. Dean has a classmate whom he's got an affectionate eye on (played by Milan Ray), as well as a best friend with whom he shares an easy rapport (Amari O'neil); his sister (Laura Kariuki) is at home, while their older brother is in Vietnam. Now that school is integrated, Dean is eager to play a white team in recreational baseball, but finds his father (Dulé Hill) is significantly less enthusiastic, building to a head at the youth baseball game.
This has the shape of a nicely drawn little vignette, if not one entirely beyond cliché. Hill's character having a domineering side that comes out when he takes a drink is an element the show will have to watch carefully to avoid dipping into the rote and familiar.
But the collision between father's and son's perspectives is halted when, on the baseball diamond, the characters learn of seismic news affecting the nation, and the Black community in particular. The characters retreat back into the warmth of community; their differences feel, in the moment, small.
Anchoring the pilot of a Wonder Years against a tragedy of late-1960s history is nothing new: The first series's opener saw Winnie Cooper (Danica Mckellar) mourning the loss of her brother in Vietnam.
The difference here is one of perspective: The 1960s, in retrospect, were turbulent for all, but the chaos for a Black family, allows for especially potent storytelling.
It was surprising just how much emotion the show wrings from, say, a brief shot of Dean's mother (an excellent Saycon Sengbloh) weeping while folding laundry, unable even to look at the TV set.
But shots like these are fleeting by necessity: In trying to address quite so much in a 22-minute pilot, The Wonder Years can feel rushed, as it takes on subject matter that deserves a bit more breathing room. In this way, the pilot operates in a sort of historical shorthand.
The raw material is here for a strong show: The entire cast, including and especially the younger members are warm and likable, with Williams delivering a refreshingly unmannered turn and Cheadle doing his best to anchor us in the story.
And the pilot's final insight — that these were years of wonder because the family was a single still point in a rapidly changing world — is nicely communicated.
That's suggestive of ambition, which makes a viewer hope this show finds its voice and its pace. That desire to do and say more is so rare on TV nowadays that The Wonder Years feels, like an ultimately welcome dispatch from the distant past.