To be honest, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was one of those programs which I’d watch if it was on, but which I never payed any serious attention to. However, the project detailed here may change that. It seems someone took the premise of the show, about a young black man from Philadelphia who gets into trouble and has to move in with his wealthy Californian relatives, and reread it to give it a much more serious tone. He made a spoof trailer for it (a very well made one in fact – he obviously wasn’t just a casual fan) and put it on Youtube. That apparently caught the eye of Will Smith himself, and, according to the report, the reboot has now been commissioned for two seasons. From the look of it, I think the new program might be worth watching: it has a far grittier feel to it than the original comedy, and will deal with issues like class. Obviously only time will tell whether the new version is any good or not, but I like the idea of someone taking a lighthearted sitcom and refashioning it so it becomes a comment on contemporary society.