Any fan of Disney Channel from the early 2000’s can take a seat, breathe, and relax. Raven’s Home is FINALLY here! After it was announced back in October 2016, the internet and early That’s So Raven fans pretty much went into a frenzy. Imagine the announcement of Girl Meets World 2.0. While we don’t have GMW anymore (RIP), we can all at least enjoy some Raven Baxter back on our small screens!
And, oh snap, did they do it right!
On July 21st, the first episode titled “Baxter’s Back!” premiered where we pretty much got the gist of what has happened in Raven Baxter (Raven-Symoné) and Chelsea Daniels’ (Anneliese van der Pol) lives since we last saw them. The cast packed their bags and moved from San Francisco to Chicago!
Raven divorced her husband Devon Carter (Jonathan McDaniel) and Chelsea now lives with Raven since she recently divorced her husband, who cheated on her while stealing money from their joint account. Should we even be shocked at the fact they even mention all these details considering it’s a kids show? No. We all should know That’s So Raven was all about pushing the envelope. The same should go for Raven’s Home!
Raven now has a pair of twins Nia (Navia Robinson) and Booker (Issac Brown), while Chelsea has the too-smart-for-his-age kid, Levi (Jason Maybaum). The kids’ next door neighbor, Tess (Sky Katz), rounds out the squad who may remind viewers a bit of Eddie, who we have yet to see make an appearance.
In “Baxter’s Back!”, we find out Booker has received Raven’s psychic abilities and he’s figuring out what it means. Raven has not yet revealed to her kids of her abilities so as of now, the kids are the only ones who know about Booker’s newfound skill. However, Nia was not on board since she believes psychics aren’t real. That is, until she gets hit with a punching bag that Booker predicted seconds before it happened since he saw the future.
Meanwhile, Raven has her own vision thinking Nia is upset and believing everything is all about Booker and that Raven picks favorites. As always, Raven jumps to conclusions to try and prevent a vision from actually happening when ultimately, as we all know, it just ends up happening anyway. So while Raven focuses her attention on Nia, she neglects Booker, who is aiming to talk about his new power. Instead, he decides to keep it a secret.
In episode two, “Big Trouble in Little Apartment”, we see the struggles of sharing a small apartment with a party of five. Nia seeks out comfort from Booker, who ignores her to make sure Levi feels at home so he won’t leave. When she feels as if she’s not being heard from anyone in the household, Nia reaches out to her dad to ask if she could move in with him. Little does she know, Devon just accepted a new job… in Texas.
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Raven and Booker are both delusional to Nia’s feelings until they finally put the pieces together and follow Nia’s meeting with her dad. Meanwhile, Chelsea takes that time to revamp Nia’s room to make it her own personal sanctuary and grabs bunk beds for Chelsea and Raven to share. They’re officially roomies!
The series itself is off to a great start. The characters are still the same characters we all grew to love and cherish: the over dramatic Raven Baxter who jumps to conclusions and the ditzy Chelsea who throws in some weird comments, but it’s OK because it’s Chelsea! The tie-in with Devon still tugs at our hearts since we all know the Devon-Raven rollercoaster ride they were on back in high school. We still have yet to hear why they actually divorced, but we’re sure we’ll hear more on that later.
The only thing that could make the show better is if Raven’s mom and dad made a grand entrance, which we’re sure will, or at least could, happen in episodes to come. Is her dad still the head cook at the white house? What is Cory doing? Will Eddie have a cameo? Will there be a Boyz N Motion reunion tour? What if Alana Rivera becomes Raven’s baby-sitter after all these years? We have so many questions that are left unanswered.
We also want to know if this series will touch on more of the pressing topics that That’s So Raven was really known for from body shaming to discrimination. Girl Meets World was on the brink of pushing the boundaries in that aspect but we’re hoping Raven’s Home can continue this.
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What do you think about Raven’s Home? Check out new episodes every Friday on Disney Channel.
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