More Clarissa

Clarissa taught me more than anyone else who actually set out to teach me anything. My parents, my teachers, friends—none of them got through the way that show did. It was scripture for me on all the stuff that mattered. Still is. I find myself rewatching those old episodes late at night and I’m still pulling something from them.

Reboots are everywhere right now, so Nickelodeon decided to make new Clarissa episodes. Melissa Joan Hart is coming back, this time as Clarissa’s mother. The logic is straightforward—the show resonated with people, people are nostalgic, so make more. Same reason Roseanne came back, Dynasty came back, MacGyver came back. It’s what the studios are doing now.

Most reboots are genuinely terrible though. The Gilmore Girls revival was painful. Fuller House was bloated and pointless. Someone greenlit the Jersey Shore revival and for that alone deserves to be ashamed forever. So I’m not walking in with hope.

But maybe this one could work. Hart actually understands Clarissa. There’s something potentially interesting in the idea of her as a parent now, watching her own kid navigate the same anxieties she spent years working through. Maybe they won’t fuck it up. Probably they will, but maybe not.

At least the old episodes are still there. Still hold up. Still teach you things.