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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
15
Mixed:
15
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews
Feb 11, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Impressive realization of that speculative trailer. ... “The Fresh Prince” provides “Bel-Air” a solid foundation that manages at once to honor the original — and not just in the way that Will wears a ball cap sideways and his Academy jacket lining out — while taking it somewhere new; it’s more exploration than exploitation.
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The Daily BeastFeb 9, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The reboot is a good antidote to a show like Euphoria that demands viewers piece together a lot of scattered images, dialogue and ideas to find a cohesive story. But Cooper and the show’s team of writers and directors are competent enough that we can simply enjoy ourselves.
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Feb 11, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Nobody asked for a dark, dramatic reimagining of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," which makes the new series fitting that description, "Bel-Air," better than it has any right to be. Premiering Super Bowl Sunday on NBC's streaming service Peacock, the opening episodes establish a catchy beat, with the main question being how long they can sustain it.
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Feb 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
[A] series that actually isn't bad. ... Much as there is to like about "Bel-Air," including and not limited to its style and a soundtrack mixing '90s hip-hop classics with modern-day vibes, the three episodes available to review never rise to the level of essential viewing.
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Feb 9, 2022
Season 1 Review:
“Bel-Air” becomes a familiar mix of shows like “The O.C.,” “Empire,” and even “Gossip Girl.” (To wit: “Bel-Air” features “Empire” writer Malcolm Spellman on its EP roster and shares at least two writers, JaNeika and JaSheika James, with HBO Max’s “Gossip Girl.”) The dialogue can be snappy, even as it’s committed to saying the quiet part loud (i.e. rejecting subtext for much blunter text).
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Feb 11, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Despite the glossy production values and the game efforts of an attractive and gifted cast, “Bel-Air” goes over the top far too often, relying on heavy-handed symbolism, passionate and actor-friendly monologues delivered at the merest hint of a conflict — and fights, whether it’s verbal altercations, physical clashes or the threat of gun violence.
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The TimesFeb 15, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The best thing about it is Jabari Banks, who brings his own charisma to the Will Smith role. He is required to turn in a "deeper" performance. Also good are the action scenes the basketball games and gang scenes but whether that will be enough for former fans to watch a whole, morally earnest series spinning off a 30-yearold sitcom we'll see.
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RogerEbert.comFeb 10, 2022
Season 1 Review:
It’s one of those shows where characters too often sound like mouthpieces for writers instead of real people. They’re too often explicitly stating their messages instead of conveying dialogue that sounds realistic. But then that starts to shift in episode three. ... If the writing can lean into the characters and let them breathe, “Bel-Air” will work.
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Feb 9, 2022TV Guide MagazineMay 25, 2022
Season 1 Review:
About as fresh as the fourth season of a teen melodrama on The CW, albeit with rougher language. ... Still, it's early days, and whenever Banks pours on Will's charm, one can hope Bel-Air will rediscover some of the original series' sense of fun. [14 - 27 Feb 2022, p.7]
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Feb 9, 2022
Season 1 Review:
The reality of Bel-Air has its moments, especially whenever it stops trying to draw attention to the story’s sitcom roots. But once you take away the nostalgic link to a beloved series from decades past, the end result is just a decent approximation of a CW drama like All-American, which has a very similar culture-clash premise.
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ColliderFeb 22, 2023
Feb 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Suck all the joy, exuberance and wondrous charisma out of “The Fresh Prince” — a worthy launchpad for an actor who, in his prime, was widely considered the biggest movie star in the world — and you’re left with the gloomy and plodding “Bel-Air.” ... A suffocating self-seriousness overhangs “Bel-Air.”
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Feb 9, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Especially after the pilot, which Cooper directs with moody flair, all tie-ins to the sitcom feel forced, like Will turning his prep school blazer inside out to cement his status as a fashion plate. Of course, without the Fresh Prince references, Bel-Air is almost entirely humorless, a chilly act of over-compensation.
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Feb 14, 2022
Season 1 Review:
Bel-Air strives for authenticity in the most thinly drawn manner possible. ... The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air [had] the exuberant chemistry of a cast that felt like a living, breathing Black American family. Bel-Air lacks such chemistry, curdling the dynamics meant to enliven the series.
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