The Fresh Prince of Bel Air


 This was a sitcom that was in syndication throughout much of my teenage years, so it was part of the background, like Cheers. I realized on this watch through that I had only watched the first two seasons of it. On rewatching it, a bunch of thoughts flowed through my mind. The most frequent was that this is a very bizarre sitcom. It begins as a typical fish out of water comedy-the ghetto vs the successful black family. But it often strays deep into the area of civil rights and what it means to be a black person in America. Carleton gets rejected by a fraternity because he’s not the ‘right’ sort of black person. The relationship between Carleton and Will eventually becomes the emotional heart of the series. There are a bunch of wacky sitcom hijinx- at one point Will jumps out of a plane as it is about to crash, and somehow survives. Will is portrayed as somehow goofy and yet irresistible for the ladies.  That doesn’t make any sense.  I don’t doubt he’d find a girlfriend, but about 24 per season? Characters on this show appear and disappear. Will has a friend in the first season we never see again. There’s an extra aunt that only appears in one season. Actors are replaced frequently-Aunt Vivian being the most obvious, but one of the aunts is married to a white guy, and they changed the actors without anyone saying anything. Despite those oddities, it manages to be quite funny for a sitcom. It’s the only sitcom I know that actually breaks the fourth wall. Not just once, but regularly. I think this started as ad lib by Will Smith. The other great thing is that there are genuinely moving moments because all of the actors are good at what they are doing. Hilary Banks is probably one of the greatest ditzes on television. Carleton Banks is one of the greatest dorks (and one wonders why the writers never rewarded him). And Will Smith, people forget, is a great, charismatic actor. The goofy shtick isn’t always funny, but when it hits, it hits. One odd thing that is not unique to this show was the filler shows that sitcoms used to have. I don’t know why audiences sat through these, I remember siting through them when I watched this as a kid, but when you are binging the show they make no sense-in one-the flashback was of a scene imagined by Uncle Phil. How is that even possible?  An odd duck of a series ⅘.

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