Bel-Air's “dark and gritty” nature was undermined by the family-friendly vibe of the series

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"It was stuck between a dark drama and a lighter sitcom where every episode seemed to end with someone proclaiming how proud they were of Will and espousing the virtues of a family who has your back," says Dustin Rowles of Peacock's drama reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. "It ended up being what many expected: A family drama that would have fit right in on the CW network because, for all the talk of its darker elements, it could never really go for it, nor could it shake off the trappings of the original series. In the end, it felt like a conceit that a committee of studio execs took a hammer to until nothing was left by a bland, familiar paste."

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• Bel-Air showrunners on the Lou storyline: "Will had been defined in large part by his father abandoning him, and had built up a shield for himself based off of that," says co-showrunner Rasheed Newson. "We wanted to up-end what, in the original series, was pretty straightforward: Lou was an unreliable deadbeat. We wanted more layers, where you could sort of understand why Lou might have made some of the decisions he made."
• Bel-Air fans weren't prepared to see Marlon Wayans in a dramatic role