That 70s Show: Season One (review)

If there's one thing That 70s Show proves, it's that idiocy knows no temporal bounds. This inexplicably popular sitcom would be indistinguishable from just about every other sitcom on the air today were it not for the bell bottoms and shag 'dos. Herewith all 25 episodes from the debut 1998-9 season, in which the gang of basement-hanging-out adolescents stews in tedious teen angst -- mostly worrying about how to acquire sex and beer -- while their moronic parents vacillate between willful ignorance of their offsprings' shenanigans and cartoonish overinvolvement in their lives. The writers go overboard with the pop-culture references -- disco, streaking, 8-tracks... no inconsequential item of kitsch is forgotten -- and don't know when to stop: a school lunchroom conference inexplicably morphs into Da Vinci's The Last Supper. Surely, this series will be remembered only for launching the career of the breezy, buoyant Topher Grace (p.s.)... though it also foisted the painfully untalented Ashton Kutcher (The Butterfly Effect) off on us, too, for which it cannot be forgiven. Extras are limited to some fluffy promotional material.