“Bel-Air” is a remake of the iconic African-American sitcom  “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”̈  The show was released during Black History Month  Feb. 13 on the streaming service Peacock. It follows a seven-teen year old boy named Will Smith (Jabari Banks) who moves in with his aunt and uncle at their house in Bel-Air  after he gets arrested for pulling out a gun on a gang member. This TV series showcases comedy, the importance of family, also black wealth and excellence in a visual format. 

Examples of Black success include characters like Hillary (Coco Jones). Hillary is an example of black excellence because in the show she is a successful culinary social media influencer and has a huge following on TIkTok and Instagram. The reason why she is one of my favorite characters is because she dropped out of college to pursue her cooking and eventually become who she is today.    

Another character that represents black success is Philip Banks (Adrian Holmes). Phillip is Will’s (Jabari Banks) uncle in the show. Banks is a very successful lawyer currently running for district LA district attorney. One of the problems Philip faces is trying to get the black community in LA to vote for him and his campaign. He also has trouble cooperating with the LAPD because in one of his campaign rallies he said he would defund the police.  Banks shows black excellence by being a very successful lawyer while living in a very wealthy part of LA. This is important to show that a black can be as successful as a white man. 

Lastly a character that is not in the show as much, is Jazz (Jordan L. Jones) now even though he presented as Will’s (Jabari Banks) sidekick we see that Jazz owns a record/music store and that he grew up in Compton.  If you didn’t know, Compton is a mostly an African-American city in California. Even though it’s just a show, it’s still cool to see someone who grew up in a city that wasn’t that wealthy have a business and are continuing to grow their business. 

What I took away from the show was that African-Americans can be just as successful or even more successful than the person right next to them.

So overall I would rate this 

 ‘Bel-Air’ ★★★★★