Most of the original cast members made at least a cameo in season 1, and we hope we get to see even more of them the next time around. However, maybe what the show needs most of all is to dedicate more time to the new characters. Red and Kitty are still great, and Eric, Donna, and Fez are a lot of fun to see interacting with each other as full-grown adults, but if season 1 had one big weakness, it was the kids.
Some of this is inevitable, after all. When watching the first few episodes of “That ’70s Show,” there are plenty of moments that feel a little awkward, like the show hadn’t quite yet figured out what the group dynamic would be yet. Most notably, there was a Hyde/Donna/Eric love triangle that was abandoned early on, as well as the fact that Donna had a younger sister in the pilot who was never mentioned again. But the first season still worked as well as it did because the focus was mostly on the kids. There was plenty of time given to work out the kinks.
But whereas the original show only needed to balance itself between two generations of characters, “That ’90s Show” has had to balance three, and the teen characters have suffered the most from this. While we can’t complain about all the old characters returning and delivering on the nostalgia this show promised us, we hope season 2’s longer episode count allows the teen characters some time to come into their own.