Browsing through some of the reviews I find online, all I can see is people complaining about how they turned this show into PC nonsense, and changed the characters up to something unrecognizable compared to their original versions.
Really? Did we watch the same sitcom growing up?
Are we forgetting about the episode in the original where Carlton and Will were arrested just for being a certain skin color?
Are we forgetting about Carlton almost overdosing on pep pills?
Are we forgetting about Carlton packing heat after he and Will got mugged?
Are we forgetting about Phil being confronted in his old neighborhood because he "abandoned them" when he became wealthy?
Yes, the original was a lighthearted sitcom, so obviously their main focus wasn't on the drama, but dang it if it wasn't there at all. People are saying the tension between Will and Carlton in this reboot feels forced? Re-watch the first few seasons of the original show. I'd hardly call them besties in that either.
This new version being a dramatic retelling, they are taking sitcom characters and translating them into actual well rounded human beings.
Carlton, who was an uptight, stress-prone, daddy's boy who was always jealous of Will's natural charm and intelligence, is now relieving his tension with drugs, and is resorting to down-and-dirty tactics that sitcom Carlton would just as easily do, but the nature of the show he was on, simply wouldn't let him.
Hilary, who was a superficial airhead in the original to the point of it being a parody of herself, is mooching off of her parents' money in this one and trying to make it as an influencer while waiting for a career to fall into her lap. That just screams "updated Hilary" to me.
I could go on, but the fact of the matter is that this show took a very lighthearted setup, gave it some much needed weight for this type of storytelling, and casted some truly brilliant actors in this. Banks is an amazing Will, and Holmes is a great uncle Phil.
As a sidenote, I'm usually the first to point out "forced PC-ness", but you simply can not do a show about African American families, especially a wealthy one like the Banks family, and not have it come up at some point. The original knew it, this one knows it, and they both did it well within the confines of the style of show they're presenting.
I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of this season.
I'm a sucker for a story.
Seriously, anytime I hear, read, or see a story--in any form--I always want to know what happened next. I still remember years-old incidents where somehow--flipping channels, being at a friends' house, a technical problem, etc.--I saw only part of a movie or show; to this day, I wonder what happened before or after what I saw. True, some tales are not worth telling; if it's morally offensive, I don't want to hear any part of it. However, as long as it isn't sinful, pretty much any story can grab my attention.
So, despite the critical drubbing this movie got, I found it to be a captivating tale of redemption, with a charming historical setting. The performances were wonderful, and the production values were amazing. It seems to me that the critics were just too hard on this movie because it fell into the genre of Christian cinema. I would say that we need more films--and, for that matter, television shows--like this.
Then again, I'm such a sucker for a story that I stayed up past midnight to finish watching The Witches of Oz, which had the worst special effects I've ever seen, so, maybe I'm not a fair judge. To adapt an old song lyric, "Here I am now; entertain me!" That's what this movie did; you may feel differently.
(I do want to issue a content concern: This film has a surprising amount of violence; more than I would expect in a "PG". The initial shock I had while watching this is akin to what many people felt when Prince Caspian first came out. While there's no blood or gore, the intensity of the action made me feel like this should have been "PG-13" instead.)
