Saved by the Bell reboot wants to be "woke" -- but also wants to hand-wring over the impossibility of ever being “woke” enough

Vox

Tracey Wigfield's Peacock reboot "wants to be a sincere meta-parody," says Aja Romano. "Those two impulses don’t quite gel. (Peacock's) Saved by the Bell revival reboot tries admirably to update a frequently problematic show for a new 'woke' generation. (This show is begging me to describe it as 'woke,' especially with quotes, so fine, show, you win.)" Romano adds: "In its attempt to be sincerely woke in a parodic context ('Stop having empathy for the wrong person!' Daisy snaps at one point), the reboot sometimes teeters on the brink of becoming a completely non-woke meta-parody of wokeness. That’s probably not what the show’s writers intended, but it’s the risk you take when the show’s attempts at sincerity are part of the joke. The whole conceit of reviving an un-woke ’90s series for a much more progressive 2020 audience is an exercise in tongue-in-cheek self-awareness. (See a string of similar recent ’90s reboots, from 90210 to Dallas.) So it’s perhaps inevitable that the reboot becomes not just a parody of the original Saved by the Bell, but also a superimposition of modern-day political sensibilities onto the old show’s concepts to see if they can coexist. So we get a show that’s rife with constant send-ups of ’90s teen comedy and self-parody." ALSO: Saved by the Bell uses "the Trojan horse of IP" to make a classic 1990s teen show feel like 30 Rock.