Christmas-themed episodes for sitcoms usually stand out from other episodes of the series by wrapping up in a warm, sentimental, often treacly way. The Wonder Years, however, consistently wraps its episodes up poignantly. Thus, “Christmas” (I’ll put it in quotes when I mean the episode name, not the holiday) feels very consistent within the series…

Our Miss White somehow manages to parallel Kevin’s crush on his teacher with the civil rights movement. It does so with a straight face and without in any way degrading or mocking the civil rights movement. On the contrary, Our Miss White is a testament to the complex and passionate cultural and political landscape of…

“You know what it is? It’s the contacts. Ever since she got contacts, she thinks she’s so cool. She’s turned into a real snob.  You know when my mother took me to get contacts and we found out I’m allergic to them? Well now I’m glad. I’d much rather wear glasses and be a nice…

“Things wouldn’t be the same between us. We were getting older. And whether we wanted it or not, the Lisa Berlinis and the Kirk McCrays were changing us by the minute. All we could do was close our eyes and wish that the slow song would never end.” – Kevin The pilot of The Wonder…

Five episodes in, and The Wonder Years is batting a thousand. The Phone Call is not the best episode of the series yet — that’s either Swingers or Angel — but it again takes a small issue, packs it with significance and stakes, and brings it home with a poignant ending. If this is The…

Angel starts slowly, and, during the first two thirds of the episode, I found myself bothered by the voiceover for the first time. But by the time the credits rolled, Angel had evolved into a truly great episode of television, perhaps the best of the series yet. The episode reminds us that, while The Wonder…

Taking a diversion from the Kevin-Winnie romance, “My Father’s Office” instead explores a character who had been marginalized during the first two episodes: Kevin’s dad, Jack. All we had known from the first two episodes of The Wonder Years is that Jack is hard man. He’s impatient and assertive and comes home tired after every…

Wow, that was fantastic. Even better than the pilot. In just two episodes, The Wonder Years has already started crafting a portrait of the complex, often paradoxical nature of growing up. The closing monologue hit the nail on the head where so many other coming of age tales stumble; growing up is not a linear…

I just watched the pilot for The Wonder Years on Netflix, and I thought it was fantastic, so I felt inspired to write a response to it here. This may be the only episode I write about, or I may do the entire series. You’ve been warned. What I loved most about this pilot was…