Warning! SPOILERS for Bel-Air episode 5.
Peacock's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as a modern drama, and it also fixes a major Will story problem from the original show. Both shows follow the same general premise: a teenager is forced to move from his home in West Philadelphia to the affluent Bel-Air community with his aunt and uncle. However, Bel-Air's take on the story is much more dramatic fare. The original show ran for six seasons in the '90s, with its success catapulting Will Smith's acting career.
Bel-Air stars Jabari Banks as Will, and it shakes up the sitcom's formula in a number of important ways. From the get-go, Bel-Air is hugely different from Fresh Prince, with a number of its storylines and character arcs reimagined to better fit within the new format. Some of these changes have yet to pay off, but one of them is already fixing a problem with the original series' main character.
In Fresh Prince, Will is forced by his mother to move to Bel-Air, but in the new show, the narrative sees legal troubles force Will out of his Philadelphia home. However, by resolving these troubles early on, Bel-Air gives Will more agency over his own life, allowing him to make choices regarding his own future from the off. This is something that Fresh Prince didn't ever truly explore, and it already gives the reboot a narrative edge over its forebear.
While some of Bel-Air's cast of characters have yet to be fully explored, this early Will development is an encouraging sign that the show will continue to tell interesting new stories about its characters. Giving Will more freedom over his own life empowers him in a way that Fresh Prince never really did, especially early on in its run. In fact, Bel-Air's Will already seems to be a far more driven and introspective character, which is fitting within Bel-Air's revised story.
Fresh Prince did also give Will the opportunity to return to Philadelphia, but it didn't do so until he was much older and already an adult. By allowing Will that agency so early in its run, Bel-Air establishes the difference between the two versions of the Banks family. Uncle Phil and Geoffrey's dangerous criminal twist is essentially the reason Will's given that freedom of choice - something which wasn't an available narrative device in the much more lighthearted original sitcom.
In fact, Will's character in Fresh Prince was much more directionless and less driven than his Bel-Air counterpart. This worked well within the sitcom's tone as Will's aloofness often made for comedic situations, but in Bel-Air's more dramatic take, Will needs to take his life decisions far more seriously. In fact, Bel-Air's handling of the idea points out just how little agency Fresh Prince's Will took over his own life, making the new version of the character a much more confident and driven iteration who's willing to make the hard choices for his future.
New episodes of Bel-Air stream Thursdays on Peacock.