REVIEW #170 Bel-Air (Season 1)

Bel-Air is the highly anticipated remake of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, following Will as he moves to Bel-Air from Philadelphia after ‘getting in one little fight and his mum got scared’. Although this time the series takes a new direction as a Drama rather than a comedy sitcom. 

I will be honest, Bel-Air had no right being this good and it absolutely proved me wrong. I, like many others thought it was a silly idea to remake an absolute classic but the new direction has created a drama series that I  thoroughly enjoyed. Despite sharing the same characters and core foundations of its predecessor, it felt unique and oddly refreshing. The casting was brilliant, with Jabari Banks tackling the role of Will and with the odds stacked against him, he smashed it out of the park! The same can be said for Olly Sholotan who played Carlton, who took the character in a completely new direction which really impressed me. The whole cast impressed me to be honest, the acting elevated this drama and made the themes and storylines so much more hard hitting. It’s clear there was a lot of investment in the cinematography because this in no way looks anything like a sitcom, it has such a cinematic feel to it. I’ve used the word already but ‘elevated’ really does summarise this remake. I can’t quite understand the low ratings given by Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb. I guess there is an over saturation of dramas centring around high school kids, but nonetheless I’m glad Bel-Air was made. It tackles a lot of thought provoking social issues and I guess that might not be to everyone’s taste, especially if they went in expecting a comedy. However I welcome the dramatisation and I’m excited to see what’s next in season 2.

Thanks for reading.

Callan