spin off
“The Wild Nineties”: Now the next generation rules
Spin-off with new faces: Netflix shows “The Wild Nineties”. . photo
© Patrick Wymore/Netflix © 2022/dpa
Fans of the sitcom “That 70’s Show” rejoice. After more than 15 years, things continue in Wisconsin. The teenagers of yore are just marginal figures. For this, their children conquer the party cellar.
It was like “Friends” without the big city: The sitcom “The Wild Seventies” was one of the longest-lasting clique series around the turn of the millennium. Smoking weed, fear of the future, first great love: From 1998 to 2006, the US broadcaster Fox staged the adventures of Eric (Topher Grace), his girlfriend Donna (Laura Prepon) and their teenage clique in rural Wisconsin in the 1970s.
For the actor Ashton Kutcher, who played the actually rather small role of slow-witted Michael Kelso, the series was not only a stroke of luck professionally. He met Mila Kunis – aka Jackie the Bitch – while filming. Kunis later became his wife in real life. 200 episodes were shot of the series, which was characterized by lovingly chosen space-age furniture.
Now Netflix is building on the successful model. And it’s not just for the fans that more than one and a half decades have passed. The series also starts much later – and is called “The Wild Nineties”. It has been available on the streaming service since this week.
Eric and Donna are still there. But the kids of yore are only marginal figures – now married and parents of a daughter: Her name is Leia (Callie Haverda) and is an outsider in her native Chicago. Leia spends the summer of 1995 at Eric’s childhood home and befriends rebellious neighbor’s daughter Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide). Of course she also falls in love – of all people – with Jay Kelso (Mace Coronel), son of Michael Kelso. “As handsome as his father and as clever as his mother,” the father praises him. A new group of teenage friends soon forms in the backwater town of Point Place. And Leia is faced with the question: Should she go back to Chicago?
So many new faces in the spin-off. But fans of the classic can not only look forward to guest stars from the past. Classics like the problem talk in the garage driveway are making a comeback. And the windowless party cellar from back then, where many a joint circulated and many a joke was made, is still there.
The wild nineties