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Malfallaxx OP t1_j15ee2v wrote

Reply to comment by Cyclone_1 in Watching That 70’s Show for the first time and it’s pretty good by Malfallaxx

I think the grounded aspect has been my biggest surprise and a reason I’m enjoying it as someone from a small midwestern town (though not from the 70s). A lot of the episodes I saw were from later seasons so after the first season and a few episodes into the second I’ve been shocked at how ‘real’ it feels.

It really does just feel like a bunch of midwestern teenagers from a middle of nowhere town hanging out in basement. It doesn’t lean on the 70s gimmick nearly as hard as I expected.

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Cyclone_1 t1_j15f3mi wrote

Yeah, the stuff with Red and his job, the money troubles, the tension between Kitty and Red's mother, the general "feel" of the family life and the day-to-day hanging with friends, it just all was done so much better in those first three seasons.

After that, in my opinion, the show progressively gets worse. While everyone says it's bad when Eric leaves (and I agree), it was still pretty damn bad even prior to his departure. The characters become caricatures to me and get stuck in a really boring narrative loop - which, when you think of it, makes some sense considering it takes place from May 1976 (I think) to December 31, 1979 but in real life the show was on air for what? 8 seasons? If I recall correctly, the show had more Christmas episodes than should have been possible. I think they did one a season which...?

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Malfallaxx OP t1_j15qz6j wrote

Something that’s really stuck out to me is how great Red and Kitty’s relationship is. They’re such a good couple and written really well especially for a sitcom. They have disagreements or arguments but they feel real and never extreme where you doubt their love or commitment to each other.

It’s a shockingly great depiction of a normal, loving relationship that I wasn’t expecting from a random network sitcom of all things lol

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HarrietBeadle t1_j17u3uh wrote

They are both incredible actors, imo a higher caliber than many sitcoms. And there are a lot of fun insults from Red that my husband and I picked up for real life use for a few years after

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Priapraxis t1_j18bptp wrote

I still hear Red's voice whenever I say or think "dumbass"

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sp33dzer0 t1_j15qxta wrote

I just accept that holiday episodes for any tv show are not canon unless expicitly stated.

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