Here Are 6 Reasons To Love The New "Bel-Air" Series On Peacock
Bel-Air signifies an evolution of culture in film, music, and messages by bringing The Fresh Prince into a time when hip-hop has evolved and the country is talking about race differently.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is one of the most beloved, canonized, safeguarded successful shows in television history because the cast and crew charismatically connected people with an idea — the idea that a family’s love could be redeeming and grant Will Smith a chance at a life even better than the one he already had. It’s an incredibly inspiring story that touched the hearts of communities for six seasons. From music to fashion, handshakes to pickup lines, the Carlton dance to the auntie gang, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was the culture.
When Will Smith moved to Bel-Air in the original 1990 series, he came with a chip on his shoulder that he expressed through comedy.
NBC / Via media.giphy.com
As the character Will Smith matured while dealing with love, loss, peer pressure, and the rejection of his father, most of those dramatic moments occurred sandwiched between carefully crafted jokes and studio audience laughs. Nonetheless, we witnessed a young Black man’s story of maturity — though it’s a fictional series — through some of life’s toughest moments while laughing. What happens when the same narrative is told without the comfortable distance that comedy brings? How does that change the way audiences view Black men's experiences, emotions, and communication?
Here are six reasons why you should be tuning in to the dramatic reimagining Bel-Air.
1.See the Fresh Prince through a new set of eyes.
By October 2019, the Hollywood Reporter announced that Will Smith would be developing a series based on the trailer by Cooper.
2.Experience the soundtrack because it’s a whole vibe that can activate learning moments.
The fact they started Bel Air off with “first thing first RIP Uncle Phil.” ????
J. Cole opens the song with bars that make hip-hop heads everywhere stop whatever they are doing to let his words hit their heart.
Another prominently known song on the playlist is Meek Mill’s “Dreams and Nightmares,” which is from his 2012 album of the same title.
“Music can also help clients identify emotions and reframe cognition,” says the therapist Cendrine Robinson in HuffPost Black Voices.
In an interview with the Fader, Meek Mill was asked about Robinson’s research. The rapper replied, “That’s what I make the music for, to be able to touch people. Even if you didn’t come from the hood. You don’t have to come from the streets.”
Bel-Air’s soundtrack is worth listening to closely while watching the show because, in filmmaking, there are often messages behind music choices. On Bel-Air, the character Will Smith is in real danger which is a build from the original series where writers wrote a lighter version of the Philly gang's storyline. To me, it’s an intentional and relevant departure that is intriguing because it relates to the real-life experiences of people like Meek Mill and the youth Robinson engaged during the therapy program in Washington, DC.
3.Tap into the show's podcast too!
Bel-Air stretches the original Fresh Prince script a lot so it gives space to add in little plot twists here and there. These filler in Will’s background are good. So far nothing bad to say about this show yet. #BelAir
4.To get to know the cast of Bel-Air and how their characters flip into fresh versions of themselves.
Starring as Will Smith in the show is Jabari Banks, who happens to be from West Philadelphia, where the real Will Smith and the character are both from.
Hollywood Life shares that this is Banks' first television role. The musical theater graduate found out that he got the part when he logged into a Zoom call and saw Will Smith looking at him from the other side of the screen. “I didn’t think it was real,” Banks told the Associated Press.
Jabari Banks is a great casting choice because he has the authentic twentysomething-West Philly experience that this dramatic series requires. Not to mention he — as my grandmother would say — “favors” a young Will Smith. I imagine that the young actor has had some opportunity to study Will’s demeanor while working together on the show.
Adrian Holmes is Phillip “Uncle Phil” Banks. He was born in North Wales, UK, has Barbadian roots, and grew up in Vancouver.
Adrian comes into Bel-Air as a more seasoned actor with over 100 credits, including appearances in projects such as Elysium and Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles.
Holmes has maybe even bigger shoes to fill than Jabari Banks because Uncle Phil is one of Hollywood’s most protected characters due to the stellar performance of the late James Avery. Screenrant calls the new take on Uncle Phil “dangerous” because one of the storylines follows the patriarch’s extralegal business dealings and influence on the criminal justice system.
Hot Uncle Phil
The gorgeous Cassandra Freeman hails from West Palm Beach, Florida, and has made appearances in Luke Cage and The Last O.G.
Freeman gives us the third iteration of Vivian “Aunt Viv” Banks as she takes on the role after Janet Hubert and Daphne Reid did in the '90s. The writers delivered Freeman’s Aunt Viv as a soft yet powerful woman who has no trouble disciplining her son and nephew — hoping to spare them from Uncle Phil’s upset.
Will’s mom is Aunt Viv’s sister, which drives Vivian to fight to protect the young Philly kid — he’s her blood. And here lies the conflict between Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv on Bel-Air.
Cassandra Freeman and Adrian Holmes portray an ultra-wealthy Black power couple amid a political campaign with a troublesome nephew coming between them. It’s a far cry from the roles that James Avery, Janet Hubert, and Daphne Reid stepped into where Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv were most often on the same team railing against Will for his antics or whichever authority figure profiled and unfairly punished him. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air series from 1990 had an air of “after school special” whereas Bel-Air is giving more “nighttime soap opera.”
Geoffrey is played by Jimmy Akingbola, who is from London.
He played Ollie on Apple+’s Ted Lasso and Valentine in the series In the Long Run alongside Idris Elba. Geoffrey is the Banks family house manager who was known for being a rather shady and quick-witted butler when Joseph Marcell played the role. Marcell often disrupted Will’s antics and cleaned up the family’s mess — figuratively and literally. As The Fresh Prince series continued, Marcell's Goeffrey became one of Will's biggest champions. Akingbola’s Geoffrey is less of the classical “saucy butler” than Joseph Marcell. He's more of a wise guardian to Will who acts as his employer’s confidant and fixer.
"The original Geoffrey was the suave Roger Moore-type James Bond and in our version, he’s more Jason Bourne. He’s got an edge and a swagger to him," says Akingbola.
Akingbola told the Hollywood Reporter that when he got information about the role, casting directors were looking to cast the character as a man in his 50s, but they told him to ignore the age. After his producer session with Bel-Air director and executive producer Morgan Cooper, Akingbola felt he screwed up his chance at the part. "I just resigned myself to the fact I’d messed up. I really wanted to come off the call. It was a massive audition I thought I’d messed up. But apparently, they said I was their first choice," he said.
Carlton Banks is played by Nigerian American actor Olly Sholotan, who was born in Atlanta, Georgia.
Sholotan’s portrayal of Carlton is a young man who is manipulative and constantly on edge such as the way he controls his image at school by spreading lies and how tense he is in almost every interaction with Will.
This is quite a change-up from Alfonso Ribeiro’s version of the role as a happy-go-lucky lovable, clueless guy who’s always second fiddle to his cousin, Will. Sholotan’s Carlton doesn’t have the relief of comedy to deal with the pressure of being a Banks or failing in romance. Bel-Air’s Carlton lives in the world of drama where the stakes are high but you can’t just laugh, so you stuff it all inside until you crack. In the first episode, Carlton attacks Will and shoves him into a pool. There's also Cartlon's need to fit in at school, so much so that Will confronts him about his white friends using the n-word so casually. It's quickly clear that Sholotan has range because Carlton's emotions switch up more than Chicago weather.
CoCo Jones is the young actor from Columbia, South Carolina, who takes on Hilary Banks.
Prior to joining the Bel-Air cast, “at 12 years old, Jones won the third season of Radio Disney’s ‘Next Big Thing’ talent competition and, subsequently, she performed her debut single 'Stand Up' on the channel’s sketch comedy series ‘So Random!’”
Jones becomes Hilary Banks after Karyn Parsons portrayed the character in the 1990s as a beautiful, bubbly, fashionable airhead whose saving grace is that she matures into someone who becomes very caring. The Hilary that Jones brings is a highly intelligent, chic, young Black female entrepreneur with aspirations of being a professional chef. Hilary seeks independence as she struggles to make decisions that she thinks are best versus what her mom advises. Surely Hilary’s independence is to be put to the test as the romantic part of her storyline continues to develop.
Akira Akbar performs the role of Ashley Banks on the show, but some may have seen her in Captain Marvel or Good Trouble.
Actor and producer Tatyana Ali originally played the role of Ashley on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Ali’s portrayal started out as Will’s cute little cousin who admires his fresh flair and turns to him to help her get rid of a bully. Akbar maintains the sweetness of Ashley Banks that Tatyana Ali brought to the screen, but let’s see how puberty and social media will cause her character to develop into someone more complex.
Jazz is played by Jordan L. Jones, who has appearances in Snowfall and Rel prior to Bel-Air.
Like Jazz, Jones is a Los Angeleno who hails from Inglewood instead of Compton, like the character. Jordan told Screenrant how he relates to Will and Jazz in different ways. While he brings 90% of himself to Jazz, Jordan also says he relates to Will. “My mom took me out of public school, put me in private school. That was my first time, when I was younger, being a fish out of water. Honestly, I wasn't used to anybody else but Black people,” he shares.
DJ Jazzy Jeff played a version of himself as the original character in the 1990 series. On the show, Jazz becomes Will’s local homeboy, whom he can relate to because Jazz is from the streets too. Jazz does things like spend his days wooing affection from Will’s cousin Hilary and getting literally tossed out of the mansion by Uncle Phil.
Jordan’s iteration of Jazz is actually so smooth that he lowkey doesn’t have trouble catching Hilary’s attention. He runs a record store where Ashley hangs, which seems like a good kick-off to the original series storyline that explores Ashley’s — and Tatyana Ali’s — love for music.
5.So you get the vibes on Twitter of this soon-to-be cultural phenomenon. Like this post about Geoffrey being fine.
They made Geoffrey a little too fine I fear #BelAir
Or how Aunt Viv and Uncle Phil are walking Black Excellence.
Aunt Viv & Uncle Phil Is just all types of #BlackExcellence And Fione! #BelAir
6.To be the fan who grows with the artist they admire.
When Will Smith took on his starring role in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he was likely hoping things would work out, but he could not have imagined more than 30 years later, the sitcom still impacts so many people. The fact that he's developing the reboot, not because some studio said, "Hey, this is a great 'intellectual property,'" but because a fan-made trailer got so much praise on the internet, is a testament to the way Will approaches his art.
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook Studios is responsible for developing Bel-Air. The casting choices show intentionality and authenticity when it comes to how the creators want the story told. The storylines stay true to the integrity of the original series while reflecting contemporary times. It is an artist’s job to challenge patterns, assumptions, and break new molds. My favorite artists are ones who stick to their good values while making me feel uncomfortable.
Yes, I do love the moments when I cry laughing to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, like that time Will tossed Carlton into a wall like a rag doll when they were in a dance contest.
How are you feeling about Bel-Air so far? Let me know in the comments section below!
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