Pop Culture Pick: Saved By The Bell – The (New) New Class
Head back to Bayside...
Image Credit: Peacock
Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, get your books and give yourself a look as you head back to Bayside High.
My experience with Saved By The Bell stretches back to my own teenage years, where I’d watch it on a Sunday morning back in the UK, chuckling at the antics of Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Slater (Mario Lopez), Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley), Kelly (Tiffani Thiessen), Screech (Dustin Diamond) and Lisa (Lark Voorhies) as they navigated high school life in amped up comic form, the studio audience cheering, oohing and aahing them on. Zack always had a scheme in mind (and could stop time, a power I dearly wished for), Slater, was the wrestling jock best pal with insecurities, Kelly the beautiful cheerleader, Jessie the “brain” and always ready to call the boys on their nonsense, while Screech was the cheerful hyper-nerd and Lisa the fashion-obsessed spoiled rich girl with a heart.
Now, because everything has to be revived, rebooted, re-imagined or retooled, the concept is back under the direction of Tracey Wigfield, who has worked on shows such as 30 Rock, The Mindy Project and her own previous series, Great News. Her sensibility melds well with the style of the original show, and the new Bell takes pains not to change too much about the concept, aside from switching to a single camera style and updating the issues that are discussed. But there is a fresh focus, as Zack, now the governor of California, has closed several schools in the state, forcing students to move from lesser performing seats of learning to the rich, privileged likes of Bayside. Which means that new arrivals Daisy (Haskiri Velazquez), Aisha (Alycia Pascual-Pena) and Devante (Dexter Darden) must figure out the shiny, wealthy, weird world of the school. Already swimming well in that particular social pool are Mac Morris (Mitchell Hoog), who is a chip off the old Zack block, football hunk Jamie Spano (a little too close to his mother Jessie, who works at the school as a counsellor) and mean girl Lexi (Josie Totah), who ends up showing more subtlety than the character might first suggest. In fact, all the characters have solid arcs among the goofy comedy and need to squeeze in appearances from almost all the original cast save the late Dennis Haskins (the older show’s Principal, Mr. Belding) and the controversial Diamond, though his character is referenced in a throwaway line.
What is impressive about the new show is how it juggles a lot at once – there are current issues, such as racism, rich vs. poor, sensitivity and more – discussed, which can co-exist with nostalgia (with both Jessie and Slater working at the school, there are plenty of call backs to the original show). Those who have no working knowledge of the series will find the likes of Velazquez, Pascual-Pena, Totah and co. appealing and funny, while those (like myself) with memories of the 1990s series are rewarded with a handful of scenes that reunites the old gang. Gosselaar and Thiessen only pop in from time to time as the image-obsessed governor and his “wellness” company founder other half, while poor old Voorhies crops up in one scene at the other end of the phone. Still, Lopez and Berkley are good value as the grown Slater and Jessie, who clearly still have a spark of affection for each other, even if she’s married and he, as described by one of the students during an episode is “a single childless adult who parties with kids”.
Does it completely work? There are perhaps one or two too many jokes about Jessie’s caffeine pill problem from the original series (sure, it’s a cultural touchstone for fans of the series, but just one would work) and it’s sometimes guilty of working overtime to overcome the general feeling that this is a show that didn’t need to exist, but for the most part, this refreshed Bell succeeds in mixing the old with the new and not letting the joins show too painfully. An argument could be made for finding it a subtitle – The New Class was obviously taken, but couldn’t they have come up with something inventive, so it didn’t fall into that strange pitfall of follow-ups, sequels and reboots that bear the exact same name as the original? Saved By The Bell: The Next Generation, anyone? Maybe if Star Trek hadn’t beaten them to that one.
As a fan of the original series (who appreciates how cheesy it must seem to those watching today), it was a welcome return, even if it did make me feel approximately 564 years old.
The first season of this new Saved By The Bell is on Peacock.