Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Wonder Years’ Season 2 On ABC, Where The Williams Family Navigates Changes In 1969 Birmingham

We’re not sure why, but ABC decided to hold Season 2 of The Wonder Years reboot until the summer. It seemed like a weird move at the time, but with the writers’ strike going on, they are probably happy they have fresh scripted content to air. We have been looking forward to the season since the first one ended. Is it the same funny show we last saw a year ago?

THE WONDER YEARS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: As a rocket takes off, the narrator, the adult version of Dean Williams (Don Cheadle), says, “The summer of ’69 was a summer of momentous events. The Russians were involved in a border conflict on the brink of war; inflation was the highest it had been in 20 years; and women didn’t have the right the choose. Glad we don’t live in those times anymore.”

The Gist: What made the summer of ’69 different for 13-year-old Dean (Elisha Williams) is that he was spending it in New York City with his father Bill (Dulé Hill), who got a gig writing songs for Marvin Gaye, instead of at home in Birmingham, Alabama.

Both are struggling a bit; Bill gets derisively tagged “Alabama” by the other songwriters at the record label where he works, and Gaye not only hasn’t picked any of his songs to record, but doesn’t even shake his hand when he enters the office. Dean has been stuck inside their temporary apartment the whole time, under Bill’s commands to not go out or talk to anyone. When their neighbor, Lonnie (Tituss Burgess), comes up the front stoop wearing a dress, Bill tells Dean not to look at him.

Back in Birmingham, Dean’s mom Lillian (Saycon Sengbloh) promises to send boudoir photos to Bill, which should take a few weeks. Lillian’s sister Jackie (Phoebe Robinson) surprises Lillian and Dean’s sister Kim (Laura Kariuki) with a visit; she usually comes around to ask for money, but she’s arrived driving a fancy car and wants to take her sister and niece to a club out of town to see a band.

Dean decides to sneak out one day to get a real New York experience and meet some new friends. What happens instead is some thugs steal his sneakers and belt; he’s locked out because he hides his key in his shoe. When Lonnie finds him, he sits with him on the stoop and feeds him some good Southern cooking until Bill gets home. When Bill gets back, Lonnie invites the newcomers to his apartment, where a reluctant Bill eventually warms up to the drag performer over being from Alabama as well as just making it in entertainment in New York.

Lillian, Jackie and Kim are spotted by a cop while they pick plums on a country road. It turns out that the car Jackie drove down from Atlanta was stolen; she stole it from her boyfriend when she found out she was cheating on them. They all spend the night in lockup, which is when Jackie and Kim find out that “perfect” Lillian has priors: She was arrested streaking across campus as a sorority pledge prank.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We’ll quote ourselves from the review of Season 1: The 1988-93 original run of The Wonder Years, of course, but crossed with another period piece with a famous voice over, Everybody Hates Chris.

Our Take: One of the things that we enjoyed about Season 1 of The Wonder Years, reboot edition, was that it stayed consistently funny throughout the season, even traversing the heavy issues of being Black and in the South in the late 1960s with a balance of seriousness and comedy. That’s a testament to creator Saladin K. Patterson, who decided to remake the original show as a story that was loosely based on his own upbringing in Birmingham, albeit in the ’60s instead of the ’80s, which is when he would have been Dean’s age.

The first two episodes of Season 2 bring those same character-based laughs, with of course the foreknowledge of what we learned about everyone in Season 1. Cheadle’s narration, often in wisdom-with-age contrast to what young Dean says or experiences, brings the biggest laughs. But everyone gets in some good lines in the first two episodes. And pros like Burgess and Robinson fit in well as guest stars.

In the second episode, Jackie has decided to stay in Birmingham, and Lillian reluctantly gets her a job at the state office where she’s an accountant. Jackie charms everyone immediately, but also brings some unneeded drama. Meanwhile, Dean has sneaky makeout sessions with Kesia (Milan Ray), but is also friends with her boyfriend. He imagines himself as a character in one of the bodice-ripper novels Jackie brings to him whenever she visits.

Are these plots more typical of a traditional sitcom from the ’80s or ’90s? Sure. But because the characters are so well-defined and well-acted, we’re OK being in situations where the plots aren’t all that unique.

Sex and Skin: Nothing.

Parting Shot: Bill sees the boudoir shot of Lillian and tells Dean that they need to go back home. Now.

Sleeper Star: Again, we’re going to give this to Laura Kariuki, who plays Kim. Kim constantly challenges her parents’ authority, even though she also respects them, and Kariuki plays that balance well.

Most Pilot-y Line: When Dean walks down the street near his apartment, he sees someone pushing a dog in an old-fashioned pram-type stroller. Is that something people really did back then, even in “crazy” New York?

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’ve gotten to know the Williams family and their circle of friends, as well as the crowd that Dean runs with in school, which is at the heart of what makes this version of The Wonder Years so enjoyable. We’re happy we can finally spend some more time with them, over a year since Season 1 ended.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.