New ‘Wonder Years’ Depicts ’60s Turbulence, as Told by Don Cheadle: TV Review

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“Succession,” which launches its third season Oct. 17, is not a show that will back away from a challenge.The end of the second season radically clarified the series’ vision.

With three days of playback factored in Premiere Week rankings have shifted a bit, with a number of popular returning series getting strong lifts.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticIn the middle of the night, a young woman grabs her daughter and runs, using what little gas is left in her car to flee her abusive partner.That’s the way “Maid,” a new drama on Netflix, starts, as Margaret Qualley’s Alex runs from her daughter’s brutish father (Nick Robinson). What the show does well, in the episodes that follow, is to depict the ways in which, for many people trapped within the lower echelons of the economy, clean breaks are impossible.

NBC won Premiere Week (Sept 20-26) in total viewers and adults 18-49 based on Live+Same Day ratings. Underlining the continuing decline in live viewing, only one of the Big 4 broadcast networks cracked the 1 adults 18-49 rating and none came close to 10 million viewers.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticSay this much for Netflix’s new documentary “Britney vs. Spears”: It certainly wasn’t made with the objective of pleasing her fans in mind.The documentary, directed by Erin Lee Carr, is intended as an exploration of the pop star’s current struggle to escape the conservatorship, run by her father, that controls her life.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans EditorInspired by the 1988 comedy of the same name, “The Wonder Years” rewinds to 1968 for a coming-of-age series starring Elisha “EJ” Williams as Dean Williams and Saycon Sengbloh as Lillian Williams.Music plays a major role in show, seeing as the character of Dean’s dad is a working musician, and co-composers Jacob Yoffee and Roahn Hylton were tasked with creating a sonic landscape to connect the era with the story.“Our hope is that people feel the humanness of the

Mónica Marie Zorrilla The much-anticipated reimagined reboot of “The Wonder Years” debuted on ABC last Wednesday night during Premiere Week. The coming-of-age dramedy, starring Elisha “EJ” Williams and narrated by Don Cheadle, drew in 3.07 million viewers and a rating of 0.6 in the key, ages 18-49 demographic per Nielsen’s Live+Same Day overnight ratings.

The Wonder Years is officially premiering tonight on ABC!

Danielle Turchiano Senior Features Editor, TVABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” exists in the same universe as the original 1980s and 1990s coming-of-age sitcom, but creator and showrunner Saladin K. Patterson considers Kevin Arnold’s story, as told then, to be a parallel one to Dean Williams’ story, which is being told now.Both versions of the show are set in 1968 and told from a young boy’s perspective, in addition to that boy’s adult self narrating with present-day perspective.

last year’s LGBTQ-inclusive “The Christmas House” and 2014’s “The Nine Lives of Christmas,” as well as films featuring on-screen reunions between “Back to the Future” stars, “Wonder Years” alums and “Fuller House” cast members.With 41 titles coming in 2021 across the Hallmark Channel, sister network Hallmark Movies & Mysteries and streaming platform Hallmark Movies Now — the largest slate of Christmas movies Crown Media has ever put out — the Hallmark parent company is only unveiling a portion

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic“I’m not ready to be a human pop star,” a contestant on Fox’s new show “Alter Ego” tells us. “I want to be a digital pop star.”That’s the “Alter Ego” proposition in a nutshell.

is a coming-of-age comedy that sees Dean Williams turning back the clock to the late 1960s as he recounts the story of growing up with his family in Montgomery, Alabama. While the series follows the template of the original, which starred Fred Savage as Kevin Arnold, the cast of the reboot tells ET this version is more than just a copy. “It’s a remix,” says Elisha “EJ” Williams, who takes over the central role as 12-year-old Dean.

ABC’s reboot of “The Wonder Years” offers an interesting, though not groundbreaking, alternative to its forerunner.It’s been 28 years since we watched Kevin Arnold (Fred Savage) come of age as a suburban, middle-class, whitebread teenager starting in 1968: love, loss, discovery, life lessons, the works — aided by his goofy best friend, Paul Pfeiffer (Josh Saviano) and his unrequited love, Winnie Cooper (Danica McKellar), with Daniel Stern providing the voiceover narration as an adult Kevin to as

ABC is entering the 2021-22 season as only one of two broadcast networks with live-action comedies on the fall schedule.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticAround the midpoint of Mike Flanagan’s new Netflix horror serial “Midnight Mass,” in the middle of a conversation about loss, Kate Siegel’s character Erin asks Zach Gilford’s Riley: “What happens when you die?”Humanity’s been grappling with with that big question for millennia, and a single conversation likely won’t crack it.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticJames Wolk is a naturally appealing TV lead. So much so that viewers may even forgive the early scenes of his new drama “Ordinary Joe” for casting him as a college senior.Wolk, at 36 a veteran of projects including “Mad Men” and “Watchmen,” first came to audiences’ attention on network TV, and it’s to network TV he returns this month.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticFox has lately made its name, and its success, on televised music competitions — everything from “The Masked Singer” and “Dancer” franchises to a revived “Name That Tune” to the amiably strange “I Can See Your Voice.” And so it makes a certain kind of sense that this fall, it launches a new scripted series about … the inner workings of a reality-TV contest.On “The Big Leap,” various Detroit residents are wooed by a series of the same name, one that aims to find

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticThe first season of “The Morning Show” ended in an explosion; the new one begins, as the experienced TV viewer might expect, with characters picking up the pieces. But that’s about the only thing that’s predictable this time around.In its second outing, Apple TV Plus’ drama has placed a premium on the twist — stomping through 10 new episodes with forced complication and out-of-character behavior.