Tina

I like the show but some parts of it was cheesy and I don't like the Asian kid He doesn't seem to bring anything but snark. I grew up in the 90s so this is targeting to my demographic. I wish it had a more 90s feel because that wasn't it. (Maybe the DARE shirt was 90s but thats it, no lingo?) Nikki was probably my favorite out of the kids.

I like the OG casting. It's the best part.

And Eric saying "Leia Tatooine Forman" was epic

MistyMountainHop

That would've been a way to go. I don't think it would've had anywhere near the draw T9S's current premise has (despite its many flaws). But your idea is a reasonable alternative (although I'd prefer no reboot / continuation; just come up with new ideas for new shows ... but easy $ to be made with less creative effort [or, perhaps, quality? People can work plenty hard on something, and it still won't necessarily be good or great,] so here we are ).

Oz is, unfortunately, mostly a punchline giver and observer. He interacts with his friends, but we don't see what actually bonds them. Interacting and bonding aren't the same thing, but the T9S writers don't yet seem to understand the difference.

Leia and Gwen bond. Why they're friends makes sense. Same with Gwen and Nikki and their one episode showing them (for the first time in however long they've known each other) bonding.

Nate and Jay are both variations on Kelso, but also see them bond and understand the why of their friendship.

Because Oz is too busy flitting in and out of scenes to deliver punchlines and sarcastic observations, we never see him truly bond with any character except Kitty.

On T7S, Fez bonded -- not just interacted -- with Hyde, Jackie, Kelso, and Donna (to a lesser extent) but not Eric except for their one episode in season 6. That's way too late to show any depth to Eric and Fez's friendship. We do get throughout the series, however, that Fez deeply cares about Eric. But we're never given (shown or told) any reason why.

I agree that T9S barely feels like The '90s. The dialogue has a ton of pop culture references from the time, but the T9S creators and writers might have wanted to watch My So-Called Life and some other shows of the era that really captured what being a teen in the '90s was like.

Eric: Leia Tatooine Forman --
Donna: I never agreed to that.

I did @ that exchange. The pilot leaned too hard on the Star Wars references, but I'm not surprised it did.

fall into your smile

Not much makes sense re the ogs...at least in my opinion.

MistyMountainHop

It doesn't. That's because the timeline of That '90s Show starts near the end of season 4, cutting out the other half of T7S (except for a detail from season 7 and one from season 8).

rishik5

So...
One more season. One more chance to ruin some wonderful things from original show.
I'm so excited

MistyMountainHop

At least the season is sixteen episodes, which will let the writing potentially breathe (up to the T9S showrunners and writers to give the new characters depth or to keep to the plot-and-punchline formula they stuck to in season 1 -- with some character development on the side).

I want to know the why behind these characters. Why doesn't Leia feel she hasn't experienced any awesome at home? We get vague answers instead of substance. With two loving parents whose teenhood we watched in T7S, one would think they would want Leia's life to be full of awesome and have done their best to give it to her.

Instead, she has one day at her grandparents' house, witnesses new neighbor Gwen rocking out, and Leia has an epiphany about her life's lack of awesomeness. Clearly, it was building since she was distancing herself from Eric, but the she's-a-teenager explanation is generic and answers nothing.

Does she have social anxiety? Did she get stuck with a bunch of dud kids in her school for years with whom she can't connect / who don't connect with her (it happens).

She's also fourteen in T9S, season 1. She only got her period then? It's possible but unlikely. Eric telling Red and Kitty this fact would've likely happened the previous year. The decision for it to happen in "That '90s Pilot" was to let the audience know she's a teen™, along with Kitty's highly inappropriate and OOC comment about Leia's growing breasts upon Leia first arriving at the Formans' house. The specific words Kitty uses to say this to Leia, too, are icky -- written for "the laughs". But nope. Not funny. Icky.

Kitty would've talked to Leia in private and been way more gentle and nurturing about it. Kitty was a nurse for most of her life. She wouldn't use the language she does in "That '90s Pilot" to describe Leia's anatomy. We know from Gregg Mettler's interview about how much "research" he did to remember who the T7S characters are. He looked at Wikipedia. That kind of laziness shines through T9S.

Writers are supposed to research. A good portion of fanfic authors knows the T7S characters inside and out, down to minor details (e.g., Hyde prefers cherry flavored drinks, but root beer is his soda of choice). We write for free out of our love and passion for these characters, spending hours and days, weeks and months (and sometimes years) on our stories, doing a ton of research when necessary on a variety of subjects.

People who have the privilege and resources -- and are getting paid -- to bring these characters back to life onscreen have the responsibility of doing the same level of research as those of us who write these characters for no financial compensation or gain. But it's from the love we have for these characters that we delve deeply into who they are through writing and make new stories for them. It's not about money. It's about creativity and connection.

The fact two of T7S's creators first idea for That '90s Show was that Eric had a fling with a random woman, which produced Leia -- a child he didn't know about until she was fourteen speaks volumes about how much care and knowledge they have for the T7S characters. The folks at Netflix knew better and said, "No. Try again." The creators of T7S had to be told be people who'd never worked on it to come up with a different idea for its main character because the creators' initial one was too outlandish (and, not to mention, completely OOC for Eric).

So with these sixteen new episodes, the T9S creators, showrunners, and writers have the opportunity to course-correct on many things. I don't trust them to do it. And Jackie's character is forever screwed in the T9S alternate future of T7S. But at least the potential to make the show better is there. I hope it's not wasted.

Grazzhopper

Oh, the show got renewed, eh? No worries, Netflix won't do season 3.

rishik5

I most certainly hope so
Started my rewatch of the original show recently and it's like a balm to the eyes.

Grazzhopper

So the show did something good, it made you go back to an old favourite.

rishik5

Yeah. But i've actually recently realized that all i watch now are my old favorite shows

Grazzhopper

Less disappointment for sure.

Anyway, most of the times old tv shows shpuld just be left alone instead of getting continued or rebooted years later.

rishik5

And what happens most of the times is the exact opposite

Grazzhopper

It's true, the fools!

Artemis

With the board closing, just wanted to share that there's a thread over at Netflix for this spin off.