That said, I'm enjoying this show. The thing about the original is that it was very political, so it doesn't actually take that much to get it to work as a drama.
Hillary is an influencer who's very into cooking, Geoffrey is the 'house manager' and his last name is not Butler, Viv is an artist as opposed to a ballet dancer, and she's still also a History teacher.
Basically everyone is on point except Carlton, and it's not the actor's fault. I just don't think the writers could figure out how to translate him into drama.
haven't watched this yet but i'm surprised and bummed to hear that about carlton because i feel like there is A LOT of material (and potential material) to his character that would translate perfectly to drama
also re: carlton yeah if the show IS good so far then i am cautiously optimistic they are taking the approach of not wanting to give something about him away too early. though still a shame even if so that it's not being executed in the most elegant way so far
It IS a good show, yeah. The thing with Carlton is that in the first few eps he was positioned as an antagonist to Will (which also happens in the sitcom, but in the sitcom Carlton gets to be funny) and because Will's coming out of trauma and Carlton is a spoiled rich kid, there's not much room for sympathy for Carlton
They do make a good job at portraying he has Issues and is feeling replaced. I just think he should be charismatic and that's not coming across at all.
yeah agreed. like my GUESS just based on this information + knowing the sitcom would be that they're either building toward him getting humbled in some significant way or else he's overcompensating for... [something], or both, but
while that kind of thing can obviously result in pivotal character motivation / development it also shouldn't like... be the whole of what ends up making a character likable* (or just tolerable)
(*and obviously i don't mean like, non-antagonistic or whatever else necessarily, but just like, from an audience perspective of being engaged with and invested in them etc)
oh yeah, I'm 5 eps in and he's so far framed as Will's main antagonist/point of conflict in Bel-Air, which is interesting. I have no idea kf where it's going either bc while the character's drives mostly mirrors what I remember from early Fresh Prince, I don't think the arcs can follow the sitcom past that.
Like Hillary wants a job and to be independent, Ashley is finding herself, Viv is seeking professional fulfillment, Phil is hot now running for DA, Carlton desperately wants to be cool.
But I think mirroring the sitcom setting is gonna start and end with the first season bc the drama goes off the rails real fast. I'm gonna finish shotgunning it tomorrow.
hot nowrunning for DA, Carlton desperately wants to be cool.