Hillman College might be the most vividly realized institution of higher learning that never cashed an actual tuition check. The fictional historically Black college at the heart of A Different World, the generation-defining NBC sitcom that ran for six seasons beginning in 1987, has school colors (maroon and white) and a Latin motto (“Deus nondum te confecit,” or “God is not done with you yet”). It has sports teams, Greek organizations, homecoming traditions.
The campus is constantly abuzz, with political debates animating common rooms and flirtations heating up over comfort food at Hillman’s hangout of choice, The Pit. But what really makes the school is its people—Black teens from every conceivable background forging lifelong friendships under the empathetic eyes of adults committed to helping them thrive and mature. Which is why, even as the TV of the ’80s and ’90s is strip-mined for blandly familiar streaming content, Hillman feels like a place worth revisiting.
Also titled A Different World, Netflix’s just-released revival does precisely that in a 10-episode dramedy set among Gen Z freshmen. Yet it also maintains a strong connection to the past, re-enlisting as an executive producer and director Debbie Allen, the architect of the series’ greatness, and making its protagonist the daughter of the opposites-attract golden couple Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert-Wayne (Jasmine Guy). The new episodes don’t have quite the same spark of energy and wit that made the original a classic; stylistically, they share more with contemporary teen dramas like the HBCU-set All American: Homecoming and the straight-faced Fresh Prince reboot Bel-Air, whose writer and producer Felicia Pride helms this sequel.
But the show does share with its predecessor vibrant characters, appealing performances, and a keen sense of how the personal intersects with the political. It’s more than enough to justify the return trip. Relatable like her dad, a brilliant mathematician from pre-gentrification Brooklyn, but also entitled like her posh Southern belle mom, Maleah Joi Moon’s Deborah Wayne makes an ideal ingénue, prone to frustrating choices yet still somehow charming.
She’s the ultimate Hillman legacy; not only are her parents both grads, but Dwayne is now provost and Whitley (a beauty mogul, to no one’s surprise) is as involved in the alumni scene as you’d expect the namesake of Gilbert Hall to be. So this freshman grew up with campus fixtures like Prof. Freddie Brooks (Cree Summer, reprising her role as Hillman’s resident social justice crusader) and Pit proprietor Nellie Gaines (Famecia Ward, playing the granddaughter of the late Lou Myers’s beloved character, Vernon Gaines).
Along with satisfying the nostalgia of longtime fans, these relationships give the show access to the high-stakes higher-ed bureaucracy students rarely glimpse. It’s an effective setup, although a plot that puts the Waynes’ marriage in peril, calling back to their will-they-or-won’t-they courtship, doesn’t feel entirely earned, let alone necessary. Really, though, the new Different World is about the kids.
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