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Wheres the story about the tech bro whos doing something?
Wheres the story about the Black guy whos MacGyver?
Where is our Black Indiana Jones?
But I doubt such reform is possible.
Consider for a moment Hollywood in 1929.
One wouldnt look to that time as a paragon of progress for the Black filmic image.
With the talkie, the Negro is at his best.
Now he can be heard in song and speech.
Whats crucial here is that Carlton stops Will and goes so far as to side with Connor.
The locker room gives way to the chintzy interior of the Bankss mansion.
Its just a word.
He aint with the culture and clearly you aint either, Will counters as the two cousins stand vis-a-vis.
Today, Uncle Phils emphasis onrespectabilityandupstanding behaviorhits differently.
The combative relationship between Carlton and Will is the most important driving force inBel-Airs first three episodes.
Their anger toward what the other represents spills forth from kitchen arguments to fights at school parties.
Bel-Airstrives for authenticity in the most thinly drawn manner possible.
I can handle mine.
I aint ever had no daddy, Will cries to Uncle Phil.
I been my own man.
Vulnerability is often chased with posturing sans interrogation.
Uncle Phil believes it can be reformed.
Will believes, rightly, that its working exactly as designed.
Theres potentially fertile ground here.
(Spoiler alert: It isnt.)
Bel-Air within its marketing and the visual landscape of the show itself is obsessed with royalty.
Time and again Will is shown, in daydreams, wearing a golden crown atop a throne.
At one point his mother says, Your crown is still waiting, son.
