As someone who lived in suburbia and attended middle school and high school during the late 1960's and early 1970's, I identify with much that I see in "The Wonder Years." Like the show's narrator, I, too, remember counterculture students and status quo school administrators; devoted, optimistic homemakers and overworked, short-tempered fathers; adamant supporters of the space program and U.S. involvement in Vietnam, and advocates of social welfare and world peace; adherents to the sanctity of marriage and the traditional family, and those influenced by the women's liberation movement and the sexual revolution. I also remember middle and high school relationships and same-sex friendships, and some situations in "The Wonder Years" don't jibe with what with I knew.
Some people might tell me that in the name of entertainment I should accept a few of the less plausible scenes -- Kevin Arnold's getting tagged in the hall between classes with a round house right by the girl he opposed in a school election, for example -- and not look for a television show to accurately emulate life as I have experienced it. Because of the narrator's tone in some situations, however, I get the feeling that the makers of "The Wonder Years" expect the audience to take what they see and hear seriously, though I find myself thinking, "This would not have happened," usually in response to whenever Kevin and Winnie, as middle-schoolers, share some exclusive time.
A physically mature 7th or 8th grader might kiss his girlfriend on the mouth, not the much more youthful, innocent pre-adolescent who could pass as a 5th-grader, such as Kevin Arnold of the show's first couple of seasons. I generally don't see anything wrong with Fred Savage's and Danika McKellar's acting, but in those romantic scenes when the two embrace they come across more as two children attempting to behave like adults rather than two precocious kids acting on their feelings for each other.
I don't have the same reaction to Winnie's and Kevin's romance when, as 17-18 year-olds, they watch a movie at the local cinema, study together at the kitchen table, or argue through some misunderstanding. In any case, the episodes including Paul, and especially those involving more significantly a member of Kevin Arnold's family -- his mother's pursuit of work outside the home and the brother's decision to forsake college and marry instead both moved me -- tend to suspend my disbelief.
Some people might tell me that in the name of entertainment I should accept a few of the less plausible scenes -- Kevin Arnold's getting tagged in the hall between classes with a round house right by the girl he opposed in a school election, for example -- and not look for a television show to accurately emulate life as I have experienced it. Because of the narrator's tone in some situations, however, I get the feeling that the makers of "The Wonder Years" expect the audience to take what they see and hear seriously, though I find myself thinking, "This would not have happened," usually in response to whenever Kevin and Winnie, as middle-schoolers, share some exclusive time.
A physically mature 7th or 8th grader might kiss his girlfriend on the mouth, not the much more youthful, innocent pre-adolescent who could pass as a 5th-grader, such as Kevin Arnold of the show's first couple of seasons. I generally don't see anything wrong with Fred Savage's and Danika McKellar's acting, but in those romantic scenes when the two embrace they come across more as two children attempting to behave like adults rather than two precocious kids acting on their feelings for each other.
I don't have the same reaction to Winnie's and Kevin's romance when, as 17-18 year-olds, they watch a movie at the local cinema, study together at the kitchen table, or argue through some misunderstanding. In any case, the episodes including Paul, and especially those involving more significantly a member of Kevin Arnold's family -- his mother's pursuit of work outside the home and the brother's decision to forsake college and marry instead both moved me -- tend to suspend my disbelief.