Sophia Michaels
When one empire falls, another rises a decade and a half later. In the latest trailer for That ’90s Show, the original That ’70s Show crew – Eric (Topher Grace), Jackie (Mila Kunis), Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Donna (Laura Prepon), and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) – commence the official passing of the torch to a new generation of teenagers causing trouble in the Forman basement.
“Why did you open our house to chaos again?” Kurtwood Smith’s Red asks his all too welcoming wife, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp). “All the dumbasses were gone.” Since the original series ended, the pair has slipped into the role of grandparents to Eric and Donna’s daughter Leia, and almost by default to Kelso and Jackie’s son Jay.
Leia feels like she has big shoes to fill when it comes to filling her teenage adventure punchcard with as many holes as her parents and their friends did all those years ago. When she settles in with her grandparents in Point Place for a short visit, the teen girl –whose only claim to fame back in Chicago is her success in debate club – decides she should maybe extend her visit through the summer, letting a newfound group of friends kickstart her self-reinvention.
She starts getting her punches in early, watching fireworks on a roof with a keg she obtained without being carded and hotboxing the garage with some weed her new crew found among the junk her parents and their friends left behind.
In the nineties, the fashion is different, but the antics are all the same. Leia, Gwen, Nate, Nikki, Ozzie, and Jay are the new Donna, Jackie, Kelso, Fez, Eric, and Steven.
That ’90s Show premieres Jan. 19 on Netflix.
