Flipping popular culture on its head is a not-unpopular pastime: “Mary Poppins” envisioned as a horror movie, “The Shining” with a giggle monitor, “Seinfeld” with the giggle monitor stripped out — there may be a effectively of these items operating deep into the web. In 2019, Morgan Cooper, a Kansas City, Mo.-based filmmaker, went additional, producing an authentic, up to date, completed dramatic twist (in trailer kind) on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” a sitcom that premiered across the time he was born. It was not a joke however a thought experiment — and finally, if “ultimately” can be utilized to explain one thing that occurred 12 hours after the piece appeared on YouTube, a calling card. Will Smith‘s production company got in touch, and now we have “Bel-Air,” the impressive realization of that speculative trailer, premiering Sunday on Peacock.
The opening quarter of the pilot breaks out into drama the backstory “The Fresh Prince” encapsulated each week in its rapped opening credits. Jabari Banks plays Will Smith (originally played by Will Smith), a West Philadelphia teen who runs afoul of a local gangster on a basketball court. (This being a drama, something heavier than being spun around in the air by a bully is required; it also involves a gun, a trip to jail and a threat to his life.) Before Will knows it, literally, his mother (April Parker Jones) has packed his bag and is driving him to the airport, having arranged for him to stay with the Bankses in California, people he barely knows in a place that does not interest him (not being West Philadelphia, with its cheesesteaks and water ice).
Missing the car sent for him, Will falls in with Jazz (Jordan L. Jones, in the role originally played by DJ Jazzy Jeff Townes), in signature sunglasses, a colorful rogue rideshare driver (and, according to his card, a DJ) who delivers Will, by a strangely inefficient route, to Bel-Air and the Banks mansion, where nearly every room is big enough to house a house. (“You did not tell me that your family was white,” Jazz says. As dramatically unburdened comic relief, I hope to see a lot more of him.)
Not every situation comedy would work equally well reimagined this way — “Gilligan’s Island,” you possibly can refit as a Pirandello play, perhaps, nevertheless it’s laborious to think about milking an ongoing drama out of that unlikely crew. (Then once more, “Lost.”) But “The Fresh Prince” supplies “Bel-Air” a strong basis that manages directly to honor the unique — and never simply in the way in which that Will wears a ball cap sideways and his Academy jacket lining out — whereas taking it someplace new; it’s extra exploration than exploitation.
It helps that “The Fresh Prince” stored its deal with household, which we’re instructed greater than as soon as right here is the factor that basically issues, and that household issues stay unchanged by the ages. Cultures will all the time conflict. (“The Fresh Prince” is one thing of an artifact, but it stays reliably humorous and on level.) Socially and politically, alternatively, the present local weather calls for of the premise one thing apart from a lighthearted neon-colored comedy. “Bel-Air” goes all in on class distinction, racial and financial privilege and distance traveled from one’s roots.
It helps too that the characters usually are not drawn as extremes — much less so than within the state of affairs comedy, in some instances — and that the drama, for all of the confrontations these early episodes comprise, stays shy of melodrama. There are situations the place the writers’ need to make a level is a little too plain — T.J. Brady and Rasheed Newson, whose shared credit embody “The Chi,” “The 100” and “Army Wives,” are the showrunners — however for probably the most half character leads the way in which. These folks will drive one another (and themselves) loopy, however none of them are evil, and they’re simple to be round.
As characters in a serial drama, the Banks household will face challenges that may’t be framed between punchlines or resolved in half an hour. They are practically all in flux, having, like their new mansion-mate, to determine who they’re. Aunt Viv (Cassandra Freeman), portrayed right here as a once-rising artist, has put apart her paints and canvas to boost her youngsters and assist her husband; she teaches artwork on the college stage, which should get some textual respect.
Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes), nonetheless a profitable lawyer, strict and never unwise, is operating for district lawyer, an echo of authentic Uncle Phil’s run for a choose’s seat; his reminiscences of seeing A Tribe Called Quest “at the Civic Center with Biggie and Wu-Tang,” like his predecessor’s love of James Brown, recommend he can let his hair down — or might, if he had hair. He is stern with Will (“A real man takes the time to consider the consequences of his actions; a real man knows when to let go of his pride and make the most of a second chance”) and inspiring, giving him a copy of Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” “about a boy who finds the courage to follow his heart. In pursuit of his personal legend.”
Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola), instantly “G” to will, is not a snooty butler however the “house manager,” Jamaican by the use of London, who drinks (I’m going to say) Scotch and shoots pool with Phil. As is often the way in which when the wealthy are portrayed on tv by somebody apart from Julian Fellowes, the working class that retains a mansion buzzing — housekeepers, cooks, gardeners (besides when some D.H. Lawrence plot line could also be afoot) — are, paradoxically right here, invisible.
Among Will’s cousins, Hilary (Coco Jones) will get an aspirational improve, Carlton a little bit of an emotional downgrade, and Ashley (Akira Akbar), after being allowed a line about “global warming and the polarized political climate in this country,” is basically despatched to her room with a pat on the pinnacle.
Hilary continues to be a little bit of a materials woman — a social media influencer, inevitably — but in addition an aspiring guru of meals, one thing her sitcom predecessor solely knew methods to eat. Carlton (Olly Sholotan) is instantly aware of Will’s capability to steal a portion of his household’s consideration — and that of his outdated girlfriend Lisa (Simone Joy Jones). Captain of the Bel-Air Academy lacrosse workforce (“I do kind of run the place,” he says of the very white faculty Will will attend), together with his sights set on Princeton, there’s something unstable in him, and his rivalry with Will is extra aggressive, much less passive, than within the sitcom of outdated. He’s nonetheless quick, however that the drama spares us jokes on the topic just isn’t the least of its good factors.
There aren’t any weak spots within the forged; everybody brings the suitable authority to their position. Most essential in fact is newcomer Banks, a superb choice. He’s lengthy and skinny like Will Smith (the particular person), with the standard of nonetheless rising into himself, and whereas one may argue “Bel-Air” is its personal present, and that shouldn’t matter, it does, given the identification of the participant and the half. Otherwise, why not name the character Ed Jones and set the present in Southampton, or Atherton? Sliding down a bannister or simply strolling into a room or flashing a smile, Banks initiatives gentle and excessive spirits, however he’s useful throughout the emotional spectrum, and as an actor, he’s a nice listener; the digital camera will typically grasp on his face whereas he’s being spoken to, simply to observe him suppose. He seems good on a basketball court docket. And he’s from West Philadelphia too.
Only three episodes (of the primary season’s 10) have been accessible for assessment, so it’s unimaginable to understand how storylines will develop or be launched over the long term. (A second season was ordered on the time of the primary.) Obviously there might be capital-D drama, and darkness, and presumably hazard; hints as to the final are launched. And, as earlier than, there might be classes to study. Sixteen-year-olds don’t know every thing, and the “Fresh Prince” model, operating again to the music movies, has by no means been shy of self-deprecation, of not merely taking part in the idiot however typically being one. (That “Bel-Air” is a mainly teen-centric present that doesn’t rob older generations of knowledge makes it really feel satisfyingly old style.) Will is streetwise sufficient to have stayed out of bother till the pilot episode, however there may be an innocence about him, a naïveté that makes his projected self-assurance palatable.
“I’m not a thug,” he’ll say, “I’m a smart-ass.” He’s a good child, and pretty much as good youngsters have by the historical past of fiction, he may even have one thing to show.
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Times.