Hangin out, down the street....same old thing we did last week.
Mike The Miz
Newsday Staff Writer
The basement air remains hazy, Kelso's still stupid, no one knows where
Fez is from, and we can't print the seven-letter word inevitably spit
by derisive dad Red.
Some things never change.
But others do. And "That '70s Show" hasn't felt like That Cool Youth
Sitcom for some time now. Its "kids" seem as if they ought to be
raising teens of their own, or maybe joining parents Red and Kitty
Foreman on that planned move to Florida. Their vintage fashions are now
so far, far out, they're practically back in. Shag carpet, anyone?
Time may have been kind to the flashback stereotypes when Fox premiered
the show in 1998, but we hit overload on that circa-1975 avocado green
and harvest gold awhile back. Ditto the Jackie's-loose gags, water
tower tumbles, World War II jibes (do younger viewers even get those?),
and even the doper jokes. Hard to believe now, but the pilot episode's
pot-smoking "circle" was hugely controversial at the time. How dare
they!
How dare they, indeed. How dare they keep the machine cranking out '70s
episodes when the time frame should be 1985 already. How dare they,
after classic clown Ashton Kutcher (who played Kelso) departed, and
rock-steady center Topher Grace (as Eric) left the show, and producers
added Tommy Chong as Leo to overdo the doper thing. Then came Josh
Meyers as Randy, who works with Leo at Hyde's record store. He
resonates mostly as the modern equivalent of Beau De Labarre, the bland
Southern stud somebody thought would juice "Welcome Back, Kotter" back
in that '70s show's final season - when it, too, should have given up
the ghost along with its ensemble's youth.
Nobody in TV wants to say goodbye to a (once) sharp thing, so they just
keep it comin' till it's dull. This week's hourlong "'70s Show" finale
recycles the same old comic riffs - out of love, one might say,
especially during the several greatest-hits clip montages of Red's
(Kurtwood Smith) foot-up-butt jokes, Kelso's stupidity-slaps, and those
Eric-Donna flirtations imbued with such cool sweetness by Grace and
Laura Prepon. But too many of those riffs feel revisited here to fill
time. Pothead Hyde (Danny Masterson) actually "using sobriety as a
crutch"? Oy vey, as they say in Wisconsin. (I've been there. They do.)
This double-shot finale - which is set on Dec. 31, 1979 - isn't much of
an episode on its own, but it's not much of a wrap-up, either. It's
just sort of there - which may, after all, be appropriate, considering
its characters' lack of progress in life. Kutcher returns to revive
kooky Kelso, which would feel welcome if it didn't serve to magnify the
vacuum his departure left behind. The forever-referenced prospective
visit home by Eric also presents mostly a reminder that things here
aren't what they once were. And never could be again.
Except for Fez. Wilmer Valderrama is still inscrutably, adorably,
spontaneously loopy. Love that guest visit from his proper British
homeboy. Where the heck are they from?
Luke Nichols
"Mike The Miz" <Mottola...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1147981196....@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
Wilmer was the worst part of That 70's Show.