PHILADELPHIA — In the opening scene of Peacock's "Bel-Air," Will (Jabari Banks) blasts Freeway's hit song "What We Do" from an app on his smartphone.
I knew then that this was not my beloved "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." We were still using pay phones when the NBC sitcom was on in the 1990s. And though it's a Philly classic now, "What We Do" wasn't released until 2003. In the new show, Aunt Viv (Cassandra Freeman) is a repressed artist, Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes) is a buff — let me repeat — buff candidate for district attorney, the Banks' family's butler (Jimmy Akingbola) is an English man with Jamaican roots and an enforcer. And in the most jarring change of all, Carlton (Olly Sholotan) is mean and addicted to Xanax. This lacrosse playing Carlton is not likely to break out into a Tom Jones'-backed jig any time soon.
Now well into its 10-episode arc, "Bel-Air" is a Twitter fave and critics' dumping ground. Angelica Jade Bastien wrote in Vulture "Bel-Air" lacks the chemistry of a living, breathing African American family.
