I'm wit it..... 
Will Smith Producing Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Reboot ( discussion)
Wasn’t expecting much when I first heard about this a couple of years ago.
The trailer looks interesting and has me interested.
Carlton looks rough, definitely interested to see how they do him.
After looking at this, I would be hyped if Bill Cosby did something like this with “Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids”. A live action serious drama based on what’s going on today in Philadelphia Black community.
The trailer looks interesting and has me interested.
Carlton looks rough, definitely interested to see how they do him.
After looking at this, I would be hyped if Bill Cosby did something like this with “Fat Albert and The Cosby Kids”. A live action serious drama based on what’s going on today in Philadelphia Black community.
Would never happen unfortunately..the second he were to announce it one of his accusers would hit him with a civil suit
It looks as terrible as that show with terrance howard
but true
it's gonna be filled with woke nonsense like either carlton or hilary will be LGBTQ
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Yep. I dont want see all that shit...sometimes I just want to sit down, drink on some crown, and laugh my ass off...this looks like its going a different direction....Man I miss the old comedy shows
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Yep. I dont want see all that shit...sometimes I just want to sit down, drink on some crown, and laugh my ass off...this looks like its going a different direction....Man I miss the old comedy shows
Might be viewable. 
They made Carlton a complete asshole with confidence.. Carlton is basically the uppity bad guy in this show
I'll pass this shit look wack.
Looks good to me
Actor playing Uncle Phil in ‘Fresh Prince’ reboot says role is ‘tribute’ to James Avery
“You can’t step into his shoes,” Adrian Holmes told TODAY's Al Roker.
In an era of reboots, Peacock’s highly anticipated “Bel-Air” offers a unique twist.
The series re-imagines the classic ‘90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as a gritty drama. The premise sounds similar: A teen who gets into some trouble in Philadelphia is shipped west to live with his Uncle Phil and family in Bel-Air.
Uncle Phil was originally portrayed by James Avery. Adrian Holmes, who plays the beloved character in this new version, said he treated the part as an homage to Avery, who died in 2013.
“You can’t step into his shoes,” he told Al Roker during an interview with the cast that aired Thursday on TODAY. “I’m just kind of creating my own. For me, it’s a tribute to him, a way of saying thank you to him and what he did for us.”
The show, which has already been picked up for two seasons, is certainly darker than its bubbly predecessor. One character who definitely looks different is Carlton. Originally portrayed by Alfonso Ribeiro, he was beloved for being a square and his penchant for showing off his trademark dance moves. This time around, the character, played by Olly Sholotan, grapples with race and identity.
“I mean, I would say that honestly every aspirational Black person has dealt with that on some level, ‘Oh you talk white,’ or, ‘You act white.’ And I think as a community, we’ve never really asked ourselves, like, what are we saying when we make comments like that, how does that affect people and their development?”
Jabari Banks slides into the role of Will, made famous by Will Smith. He said he’s intrigued by this new take on the show.
“It’s like the idea if you took all of the characters from ‘The Fresh Prince,’ but you dove into each one of their journals,” he said. “And you got to see like, the inside life of these characters that we all know and love.”
Banks is also acutely aware of how “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” catapulted Smith into stardom, paving the way for a stellar career that has now lasted decades. He said he knows he’s not quite there yet.
“You can’t step into his shoes,” Adrian Holmes told TODAY's Al Roker.
In an era of reboots, Peacock’s highly anticipated “Bel-Air” offers a unique twist.
The series re-imagines the classic ‘90s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” as a gritty drama. The premise sounds similar: A teen who gets into some trouble in Philadelphia is shipped west to live with his Uncle Phil and family in Bel-Air.
Uncle Phil was originally portrayed by James Avery. Adrian Holmes, who plays the beloved character in this new version, said he treated the part as an homage to Avery, who died in 2013.
“You can’t step into his shoes,” he told Al Roker during an interview with the cast that aired Thursday on TODAY. “I’m just kind of creating my own. For me, it’s a tribute to him, a way of saying thank you to him and what he did for us.”
The show, which has already been picked up for two seasons, is certainly darker than its bubbly predecessor. One character who definitely looks different is Carlton. Originally portrayed by Alfonso Ribeiro, he was beloved for being a square and his penchant for showing off his trademark dance moves. This time around, the character, played by Olly Sholotan, grapples with race and identity.
“I mean, I would say that honestly every aspirational Black person has dealt with that on some level, ‘Oh you talk white,’ or, ‘You act white.’ And I think as a community, we’ve never really asked ourselves, like, what are we saying when we make comments like that, how does that affect people and their development?”
Jabari Banks slides into the role of Will, made famous by Will Smith. He said he’s intrigued by this new take on the show.
“It’s like the idea if you took all of the characters from ‘The Fresh Prince,’ but you dove into each one of their journals,” he said. “And you got to see like, the inside life of these characters that we all know and love.”
Banks is also acutely aware of how “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” catapulted Smith into stardom, paving the way for a stellar career that has now lasted decades. He said he knows he’s not quite there yet.
Aunt Viv and Hilary are beautiful, Ashley is adorable and overall the family looks realistic, I haven't seen a Black TV family look this realistic since Family Matters.
Judging from the trailers, the updates to the characters seem to work well, and these are updates that were necessary due to the fact that this is a drama and not a 90s sitcom but at the same time, they still invoke the spirit of the original characters.
Judging from the trailers, the updates to the characters seem to work well, and these are updates that were necessary due to the fact that this is a drama and not a 90s sitcom but at the same time, they still invoke the spirit of the original characters.
'Bel-Air' is a dramatic 'Fresh Prince' that's more ridiculous and less charming
'Bel-Air' is a dramatic 'Fresh Prince' that's more ridiculous and less charming.
Bel-Air review: A dramatic Fresh Prince that's more ridiculous and less charming
Will Smith's beloved sitcom becomes a silly drama that's not soapy or serious enough.
Darren Franich
By Darren Franich
February 09, 2022 at 09:12 PM EST
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"Nostalgia's a hell of a drug," says Carlton Banks (Olly Sholotan). And Carlton should know, because all that Xanax he snorted literally starts pouring out of his nostril! Welcome to Bel-Air, a Fresh Prince update that replaces the laugh track with dramatic intensity. The reboot (debuting after the Super Bowl on Peacock) winds up overly sensitive yet also way too ludicrous, trapped between dueling instincts for soapy animosity and bland aspiration.
The concept remains unchanged from the '90s sitcom. A kid from West Philly moves across the country and up several economic stratospheres to live with his aunt and uncle, their kids, and their butler. The kid's name is Will Smith (Jabari Banks) — canonical, sure, and never not strange for a regular person to be named Will Smith in 2022 without other people constantly asking follow-up questions. The Bel-Air premiere remixes the original cheeky rap intro into an extended prologue about gang violence and police brutality. This Will is a top basketball prospect who winds up with a target on his back after a pick-up game goes the wrong way.
Will's mom (April Parker Jones) has a simple solution. She sends him to live with her sister Vivian Banks (Cassandra Freeman) in a gigantic Bel-Air mansion. And I do mean gigantic. In Fresh Prince, Will's aunt and uncle were rich, but sitcom rich, like the-house-is-mostly-a-couch-to-sit-on rich. In this new streaming world, Vivian and Philip (Adrian Holmes) live in a palace with a San Simeon-sized pool, and their ambitions know no bounds. He's running for district attorney. His daughter Hilary (Coco Jones) is an influencer with 75 thousand followers and counting. At school, middle child Carlton is a popular athlete. Youngest kid Ashley (Akira Akbar) seems nice, and will presumably take over the Federal Reserve in season 2. "I mean, look at us!" Carlton tells his siblings. "Pure, unadulterated Black excellence!"
BEL-AIR
Jabari Banks as Will and Jordan L. Jones as Jazz in 'Bel-Air' | CREDIT: PEACOCK
I think that line is sort of meant to be ironic, the same way that Carlton is sort of Bel-Air's first major villain. Their life looks glamorous — closets full of fashion, an arcade room, friends in high places — and hides some notable secrets. Hilary left college last year and has lived at home ever since. Carlton takes rich-kid drugs, and Will's arrival sends his cousin spiraling for various reasons. Will sparks a relationship with his dad, upends the social order in school — and starts making moves on Carlton's ex-girlfriend. There remains the fascinating danger that Will is just more authentic than Carlton, the proverbial Black Guy on the Lacrosse Team, and their outright hostility to each other forms the backbone of the three Bel-Air episodes I've seen.
Carlton as Draco to Will's Harry? That's certainly an angle. One problem with Bel-Air is that there's a criminal back in Philadelphia who wants to murder Will — like, murder him until he is dead — which removes all the danger from the internal family squabbling. (It doesn't matter if your cousin is a goon when someone is trying to kill you.) Adding reality spoils this premise in so many ways; it makes no sense to seek top-secret witness protection in a house with a political candidate and an Instagram influencer. Peacock officially describes Bel-Air as a "dramatic take," yet the show bungles basic rules of drama. Shocking cliffhangers quickly get resolved. Philip keeps solving major legal issues with Lawyer powers.
As Will, newcomer Banks can be charming, though the show keeps awkwardly shoveling emotional weight on his shoulders. He suffers from personal trauma, and he's an amazing basketball player, and he has to be the Voice of Social Conscience when Carlton sees nothing wrong with his white teammates saying the n-word, and he helps Philip get back in touch with his roots just in time to impress the local power broker. It's a lot — and you have to remember that in Fresh Prince, there was no real distance between the fictional Will and the real Smith. You always felt the rapper-turned-actor standing a few steps back from the sitcom world with a cockeyed can-you-believe-this grin. There was a generosity in his confident sarcasm, a playful awareness that he could hit all these marks blindfolded. (Put another way: I make this look good.)
Even in the dramatic context, Bel-Air could use more of that sardonic spirit. There are stray moments of observational hilarity. In his first basketball game for Bel-Air, Will sidles up to a player on the opposing team. "You really from Malibu?" he asks. "You really from Bel-Air?" the guy responds, with a wink — another non-white athletic star from a rich white enclave. Conversely, too much of Bel-Air is just too much, representing that old rebooting instinct to make everything extra something. Do we really need a cool Carlton, a sexy Uncle Phil, or a sad Will? Bel-Air wants to modernize its source material, but I worry the main appeal for the post-Super Bowl crowd will be posting side-eye social memes. It's the opposite of fresh: Nostalgia from hell. C
Yep. I dont want see all that shit...sometimes I just want to sit down, drink on some crown, and laugh my ass off...this looks like its going a different direction....Man I miss the old comedy shows
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Man please. Jesus, God, no! Please!
Wonder if there will be remakes of the episodes Papa's Got A Brand New Excuse or Bullets Over Bel-Air..
First 3 episodes are decent to me, outside of the weave, Hilary is sexy, Vivian is a sexy Milf. The directing is pretty good. Not that funny, but I like what they did with Carlton's character.
Phillip Banks is cool, pretty good actor.
Phillip Banks is cool, pretty good actor.
I will definitely check this out.
I kept hearing bad reviews outside the board.
I kept hearing bad reviews outside the board.
Yep. They've taken all of his flawed behavioral traits to the extreme and it WORKS. Dude is dark. |
same, loved the first episode...scenes in philly were on point and authentic
Loving Uncle Phil...the type of black man we need to see more of on TV..successful, powerful, upstanding, family oriented, straight and unapologetically black.
Love seeing the sista from the Juneteenth episode on "Atlanta" as Aunt Viv. Hilary's cute and enterprising instead of simply an entitled princess, Ashley is the conscious, woke, gen zer, Carlton has the polished elitist veneer with a dark soul underneath. I'm digging it
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