Throwing everything you know out the window is how I would sum up Bel-Air. It is a dramatized version of the beloved 1990s sitcom, made by independent filmmaker Morgan Cooper in 2019. In Cooper’s version, Will Smith runs away from a tough life in West Philadelphia and into the arms of a wealthy family in Bel-Air. I can’t imagine Cooper ever thinking his version would go viral, but it did, and now Smith gets to live the life of a director in his first episode. What did happen, however, was a show and it has been described as confusing and oh-so-joyless.
Smith moving to LA is not the issue here. The issue is described as an “incident” in a Philadelphia basketball court. The new take on the show displays an allusion to Smith’s run-in with a gang, which escalates into serious threats of gun violence and jail time. If I thought things could not get any worse for Will, I was wrong. Once he gets to Bel-Air his so-called bailers are serious operators, which of course is the biggest understatement I have ever come across.
Uncle Phil has evolved into a well-muscled focused lawyer aiming to be a district attorney and own a huge mansion instead of just a house. Aunt Viv is a sophisticated artist with socialite status. Cousin Hilary is an Instagram influencer, which seems to be the new norm nowadays, while her brother Carlton has changed the most: instead of being the preppy buffoon of the past, he is now a pseudo-shakespearean vortex of toxic pride and fractured self-image who is to be Will’s nemesis.
Like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Bel-Air seems to have kept some parts of the premise, character names, and some of the titles from the original show. Having things in common means enabling comparisons, which are not in its favor. One of many sitcom format magical properties is that they possess the ability to make dramatic moments really moving for the audience. This differs when the clown mask is pulled off them, for example, the Fresh Prince one where Carlton and Will are on the receiving end of racist policing or the one where Will’s irresponsible father makes an entrance and then walks out on him. That kind of comedy is filled with gags, which gives these episodes great power because they surprise the audience.
There’s an episode an hour long, giving the creators plenty of time to tackle race, class, and coming-of-age so they weave a drama out of it. But in the end, it is flat and profoundly subtler than what the material constitutes to challenge and dissect unlike the original.
The original characterization, or lack thereof, of The Fresh Prince sitcom does not suffice for a straightforward drama. Will, for instance, has been reduced to a shallow interpretation of himself. In a desperate bid to adapt to his modern surroundings complete with walk-in closets, Lexuses, and neon-lit pool parties the new Will, played by the restless Jabari Banks, is an annoying, stubborn teen who has no judgment. He becomes an exaggerated caricature of unbecoming grievances towards Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes), a stiff scold who seems to be more bothered about how Will’s actions impact my campaign.
The primary purpose of the drama is to use the idea of an affluent family caring for a disadvantaged relative to expose the guilt of the black upper middle class. However, the absence of carefully calculated scripts means that the show’s approach to issues of race and ethnicity is surprisingly simplistic, especially in light of other more recent series like Dear White People, She’s Gotta Have It, or Black-ish that have tackled the same themes more successfully.
In one scene, Will is enraged when a young white student uses the N-word, and in another, Hilary is offered a job with a magazine but is told she will first have to tone down her blackness. Both are as embarrassing as they are over-simplistic, as they are set up in such a way that the answer is far too obvious. Of course, these are still live issues and any reminder of them is valuable, but while the previous examples put forward a compelling stance on race and violence, and dared to develop challenging drama out of it, Bel-Air does no such thing.
Maybe it is targeting a younger audience, as episode two showcases the typical plots of a high-school drama. That is also unlikely to succeed the concept of Will trying out for the basketball team or some trivial storyline just doesn’t fit with the rest of the show, which is so monotonously intense that every character’s dialogue is either a self-praising speech or an insult. Coco Jones as the funny, energetic Hilary lightens the mood, but not by much.
There was a time when Will from west Philly was far from home. The show he was in was self-aware, and shamelessly accurate about where it rips off from. Bel-Air finds that a difficult trick to replicate.
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