NirvanaWi
That '70s Show is among one of my favorite sitcoms, and that's why I feel a little bad out giving it a 7.0/10 rating, but I felt I had no choice, as the wrapping up of Season 6 to the Season 8 finale was nothing but disappointing to me. I feel the show would have a better legacy if it had actually ended earlier, maybe at the end of Season 6. I thought the cast overall was pretty talented, although if I had a problem with any of the acting it would be that of Laura Prepon. I didn't particularly find her acting believable, it was kind of stiff and didn't seem as authentic as her castmates. I didn't dislike her acting enough to dismiss her, or her character of Donna, it just seems that, compared to her colleagues, she didn't quite have the comedic talents they did. Apparently she was quite new to acting at that time, and maybe that explains it, as people have said she's great on 'Orange Is The New Black' (I have no desire to watch that show to be honest), but maybe she developed better acting skills as the years passed after That '70s Show. Ok, the first 5 seasons were good (although I wasn't a huge fan of the Casey Kelso/Donna arc, although I can understand they needed to throw in something different, some turbulence for Eric & Donna to overcome), and the beginning of Season 6 was promising, but ended in the characters of Eric and Donna doing things that were, up to that point, pretty uncharacteristic of them. Eric, who was always almost obsessively devoted to and wanted to be with Donna forever suddenly gets cold feet and stands her up at the altar. And Donna, who speaks, along with Eric, many times about wanting to escape from their podunk town and move out of Point Place suddenly wants to stay living there and live in a trailer in a dingy trailer park? One could say that Donna's out of character trailer park dream in town spurred Eric to ditch her at the wedding, but I thought it was an insult to viewers to have Donna, then Eric, do things that completely didn't go along with the character that had been established through 5 full seasons. Season 7 was a waste of time. The previous season's ending was explained away that Eric & Donna "just weren't ready for marriage", which is whatever, not too far fetched, but ok. Eric is just being a lazy slob for a year, and him and Donna are still dating, but the Eric/Donna dynamic is just kind of boring and stagnant during this season. Season 8 was terrible in a lot of ways, I'm sure this has been covered sufficiently enough by other reviewers, so I won't get too into it. I just wish this show would have lasted, say, 6 seasons and that Eric & Donna, whether married or just dating, would go off to Madison, get a place, and start college, and Hyde, Kelso, Fez, and Jackie would have their storylines go whatever directions, just not the directions that ended up actually getting written. I just feel like I, and others, invested our interest and time and were rewarded with a great show, only to be insulted during the last two seasons, particularly the last season, it kind of sours the overall show for me, because no matter how great and hilarious the good seasons were, the fact the show went downhill, then out, like it did, is annoying.
keelhaul-80856
This is one of my favorites.Red Foreman reminds me of many old school dads, and while he was a bit too harsh, he is hilarious and realistic.Kitty is funny, and played a good mom role.Donna was annoying.Tommy Chong as Leo was one of the funnier additions to the show.Fez was a good character.Kelso is like so many dumb people with good looks you know in reality.Jackie and Laurie were hot, and funny fighting over Kelso.The theme song is funny enough--Thanks, Cheap Trick.The problem with this show, like many others, is the later seasons. Topher Grace wanted to leave, and they had to work around sending Eric to Africa, Kelso as a cop, Hyde as a black guy(LOL), Fez's homosexual styles, jewelry store nemesis, and unbelievable winning of Jackie, Kelso and his baby mama drama, and the terrible new characters that had to be forcibly written in like Josh Meyers from Mad TV. I like him on Mad TV, just not as a replacement for Eric. That was horribly done. The show was so different by season 8, that you may not even recognize it from season 1-4. It had to rely much more on new characters running a record store, and missing original cast members, and Fez/Kelso renting an apartment, etc. that the whole feel of the show is gone by the last couple of seasons. Seasons 1-5 are a 9 or 10, the last seasons were more of a 4, but I watched to the end, because I grew up with this show, and still get a ton of laughs from many episodes.Another thing that hurt the show was the drug abuse and crazy behavior of the actress playing Eric's sister, who brought a lot of funny scenes in her role as Eric's nemesis, Kelso's temptress, and the town whore who was still the apple of daddy's eye. The actress playing her ended up living out of a car upon leaving, from what I heard. Unfortunate... Many great supporting characters made the show great, and the music was cool.
bkoganbing
Watching That 70s show and especially seeing the fashion I wonder what possessed anyone to wear those bellbottoms which you could so easily trip over and those platform shoes which no doubt gave a whole generation feet issues in their middle age. I had both and they looked good, but a hidden price.Meet the Forman family in whose basement the kids of That 70s Show gathered to talk on life and love. Topher Grace was the host with everyone's favorite den mother Debra Jo Rupp as Kitty and the father Kurtwood Smith who had all kinds of old fashioned ideas and couldn't understand the younger generation.The friends were Danny Masterson who was hip and with it, AShton Kutcher who you couldn't believe was so good looking and had so little upstairs and their new friend who had a name so unpronounceable that they took to calling Wilmer Valderrama FES (foreign exchange student). The girls auxiliary was Laura Prepon who lived next door and was into this newfangled feminism and Mila Kunis who was as emptyheaded as Laura was wise. It was Kunis who had in my opinion the best line in the entire run of the show where she said 'nothing will ever deter me from my life's goal to be a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.Prepon's parents were Tanya Roberts who left the show and her father Don Stark who tried to stay as hip as he could to keep up with the kids and who Kurtwood Smith mercilessly put down for it. Truth be told Stark looked ridiculous, as ridiculous as I would if I now tried to wear 70s fashions. Or even some of today's.Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis had the biggest success since That 70s Show ended, the others have done pretty good. Two that are no longer with us are Brittany Murphy the older Forman sister and Tommy Chong the aging hippie left over from the 60s. This show had some great comedy in it. Wonder what these characters think of the American scene now?
