School is back in session at Hillman College. Nearly 40 years after Jasmine Guy’s Whitley Gilbert and Kadeem Hardison’s Dwayne Wayne graced our screens as the leads of the 1987 sitcom “A Different World,” the characters are back with a sequel series (all 10 episodes are now available to stream on Netflix) that both continues the story and breaks new ground. And while some of what’s presented in Netflix’s version 2.0 works well enough, the series’ overly dramatic lean detracts from what could’ve been a livelier run.
Representing the new class enrolling at the Virginia HBCU is Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), Whitley and Dwayne’s daughter. She’s a vivacious free spirit (the youngest of the couple’s three children) who doesn’t hesitate to stick up for what’s right. Deborah befriends new roommate Rashida (Alijah Kai), a booksmart criminal justice major who resists getting pulled in by college’s social distractions. The new cast also includes Amir (Jordan Aaron Hall), an out and proud pysch major/resident barber; Hazel (Kennedi Reece), a small-town religious type; Shaquille (Cornell Young IV), the college’s new star athlete and Ron Johnson’s son; and Kojo (Chibuikem Uche), a Ghanaian-Nigerian fashion entrepreneur.
Moon, the best of the new bunch, brings heaps of energy to her character. With Dwayne back in a prominent role at Hillman and Whitley now well-established as an affluent beauty mogul, the pressure is on for Deborah to figure her life out and follow in her family’s success. But her struggle to settle in, both in campus society and her studies, puts her at odds with her parents, and gives Moon plenty of spotlight moments to shine. The rest of the freshmen, however, are much slower to develop, often skewing toward one-note, especially in the season’s first half. (I’ve seen all 10 episodes.) Love triangles quickly form, but feel more soapy than magnetic. Other conflicts, like Shaquille’s trouble balancing sports obligations with college life, Amir’s unfortunate housing crisis, and Kojo’s budding fashion career, also don’t move the needle much.
Plenty of legacy characters flock back to Hillman
“A Different World” 2026 does, however, do a considerable job of justifying the presence of its legacy cast. Dwayne’s role as provost gives him and Whitley enough of a reason to lurk around (though having your parents fluttering about your college? Talk about a buzzkill). Cree Summer’s Freddie Brooks is a Hillman professor, while Ron (Darryl M. Bell) is on hand as his famous son’s manager. A bevy of other OGs — Kimberly Reese (Charnele Brown), Jaleesa Vinson-Taylor (Dawnn Lewis), Col. Bradford Taylor (Glynn Turman), and Lena James (Jada Pinkett Smith) — also pop in, though some of these appearances veer toward fan service.
As a big fan of the original, the shift from multicam sitcom to single-camera dramedy is a jarring one, however, shooting on location at real Atlanta HBCUs (Clark Atlanta University, among others) does add a sense of realism to Hillman’s look. (Get a taste of the show’s new vibe by watching the trailer here.) But the biggest surprise — and a rather unwelcome one — is just how dramatic and serious this different “Different World” feels.
Hillman goes through an institutional crisis which simultaneously riles up the student body and puts a damper on the kids’ freshman year. That’s not the only downer. The aforementioned troubles in paradise present more heartbreak than humor. That’s not to say that the original series shied away from real-life issues. Just the opposite. The 1987 show tackled topics like date rape, racism, and politics throughout its six-season run, always examining how those issues affected the lives of its Black students. But showrunner and producer Debbie Allen balanced those special presentations with light and panache, letting us see through to the core of who its characters were. And the show remained a comedy, through and through.
In the redux version, Dwayne is bogged down by the college’s financial problems and his own issues with Whitley (a spoilery development I won’t elaborate on here). But trying to reconcile the Dwayne and Whitley we once knew with these newer, older, and very serious versions delivers diminishing returns. While it’s unreasonable to expect the couple to be the same lively youths of yesteryear, Whitley’s character feels stripped of her riotous flair, while Dwayne is devoid of his slick confidence and joy. The characters are seemingly too stressed out to bring the fire we know the actors are capable of. This isn’t a rebuke on Guy and Hardison, but rather the material they are given. (Guy’s original-series performance is not only transcendent, but remains incredibly underrated to this day.) Have we all forgotten how to relax, relate, and release? Maybe some more visits to Dr. Langhorne are in order come a potential Season 2.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: “A Different World” is far too light on the magic and charisma that made the original special. Despite its slow start, those who stick with it may find enjoyment in Maleah Joi Moon’s strong showing and the sequel series’ familiar faces.