Of course, one is disappointed when high expectations are not met, and the 2019 trailer created just that: what if the hilarious comedy series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air with Will Smith would not be a sitcom, but a drama? It was thought-provoking, debate-provoking, and suspenseful: What would filmmaker Morgan Cooper do if he could actually turn the trailer into a series? He got it from Smith himself, who is now a producer.
Cooper does in Bel Air everything he promised in his trailer: It’s a gritty series about a lost boy on the streets of Philadelphia who’s even more lost in filthy rich Bel-Air. To the teenage anxiety comes racism, the debate about social advancement and forgetting or denying one’s roots, the fight for equality. All of these themes were there in the original, but the reason they came across so intensely there was because they were being projected against all the slapstick – or as Zora Neale Hurston wrote in her essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me”: “I feel then blackest when placed in front of a snow-white background.”
So if in the original teenager Will and his cousin Carlton are harassed by the police just because of the color of their skin. When they are scorned by black people because, in their eyes, they’ve become too rich and, well, too white. When Will talks to his uncle Phil about civil rights activist Malcolm X. Those are badass moments, and any ’90s kid who still remembers the theme song (“This is a story all about how my life got flipped turned upside down…”) knows those scenes – most jokes on the other hand, have long been forgotten.
Cooper has now created a drama in pitch black, very far removed from the original except for the underlying theme; and it stays permanently in pitch black because the supposed contrasts are just clumsy screenplay stylistic devices for conflicts and their resolution. The white classmate who uses the N-word to Will (Jabari Banks) is such a blunt nut that the real reasons for her insensitive ignorance are never worked out. The bosses of the magazine where Will’s cousin Hilary (Coco Jones) wants to work are such stereotypical racists that it’s no surprise when they tell her to tone down her blackness a little.
The magic of the original lay in the character of Uncle Phil, now just career-minded
Due to the lack of nuance, the lack of contrast (tragedy always arises from comedy), the characters become one-dimensional and therefore uninteresting – the magic of the original lay in the character of Uncle Phil; an African American who tells his black nephew that he has no idea about Malcolm X and that he should find out more. Who gives a speech that black people should never, ever, ever be ashamed of financial success. In the new edition, Uncle Phil is only keen on a career, cousin Carlton is a villain of Shakespearean proportions, cousin Hilary is an influencer – which is why one should ask whether there is actually any other activity for young women in the world view of Hollywood authors apart from social media. self marketer.
Serious topics projected against all slapstick: Will Smith (right) and Joe Marcell as butler Geoffrey in the original.
(Photo: imago stock&people)
However, when there is only drama, only problems and only alienated characters, then the issues that are so important become blurred into an irrelevant mush – especially since these issues are already present in dramas like Dear White People and She’s gotta have it were shown more nuanced and intense and the subject “poor boy in a rich family” was filmed in dramas in a grandiose way, with light-skinned (O.C., California), African Americans (All American) and cross-racial (Blind side).
The expectations of the new edition were immense, NBC has ordered ten episodes for its streaming portal Peacock and has already ordered a second season. This gives Cooper time to develop the series, to nuance it, to make it more relevant. For now, it’s just a pitch-black message against a pitch-black background.
Bel-Air, ten episodes, on Sky.
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