‘A Different World’: A New Generation of Hillman College Students Grapple With Questions of Life and Society

Alci Rengifo

There is a lot going on at Hillman College in Netflix’s version of “A Different World.” The campus is still full of young Black students figuring out who they are. Romance is everywhere, and the old guard is never too far away. But this time around the biggest challenge isn’t getting through college. It’s getting out from underneath the shadow of the college that came before. That confusion makes sense. Nearly forty years after the original series debuted, this new “A Different World” arrives with an enormous amount of history attached to it. Created by Felicia Pride, the series brings back familiar faces including Jasmine Guy as Whitley and Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne while introducing a new generation of Hillman students. At the center is Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), the daughter of Whitley and Dwayne, an impulsive and good-hearted freshman who seems determined to make plenty of mistakes before she figures herself out.

There is something almost amusing about how much the show initially wants us to remember. The buildings carry familiar names, old characters wander through campus, and conversations constantly remind us that Hillman has a history. Dwayne is now the school’s provost while Whitley has become a successful cosmetics entrepreneur, and their marriage of more than 30 years is itself going through a crisis. The show is clearly affectionate toward the original series. But sometimes it is almost too affectionate. The returning characters are enjoyable, particularly for anyone who remembers the original, but there are moments when “A Different World” seems more interested in celebrating what Hillman used to be than exploring what it can become. That could be a problem because the younger cast is more than capable of carrying the show themselves. Deborah is surrounded by a lively collection of students, including Shaquille (Cornell Young IV), her childhood friend and fellow freshman who is pursuing a football career, and roommates Kojo (Chibuiken Uche), an outgoing Ghanaian-Nigerian fashion student, and Rashida (Alijah Kai), an ambitious criminal justice major from Compton. Once the series begins spending more time with them, the atmosphere changes.

The show becomes looser, funnier and more genuinely interested in the strange little problems that make college life feel like college life. Romances become increasingly important, particularly the complicated history between Deborah and Shaquille and the immediate attraction between Kojo and Rashida. A fourth episode centered on the beginning of cuffing season is where the series really starts to settle into itself, allowing the younger characters to exist without constantly reminding us whose children they are. This is also where “A Different World” starts doing what its predecessor did so well: making bigger ideas feel connected to ordinary young people.

The original series was never afraid to tackle the social issues of its time, and the new version follows that tradition. The modern Hillman deals with contemporary concerns while also confronting questions about the future of historically Black colleges and universities. The series wants to talk about race, identity, privilege and the responsibilities that come with attending an HBCU, but it generally keeps those subjects connected to the lives of its characters rather than turning every episode into a lecture. That balance is not always perfect. Some of the heavier subjects can feel rushed, particularly because this first season only has ten half-hour episodes. The show occasionally introduces an idea just as it seems ready to explore it more deeply, only to move on to another storyline. Several relationships and supporting characters could use more breathing room. Ironically, the biggest problem with this “A Different World” is that there simply isn’t enough of it. The original series had the luxury of long seasons, allowing its characters to develop gradually and letting storylines unfold at a more leisurely pace. The new series sometimes feels like it is trying to squeeze that same experience into a fraction of the time. Some plot developments arrive quickly, and some of the emotional transitions could use another episode or two.

Still, the young cast has enough chemistry to make the abbreviated structure work more often than not. Moon gives Deborah the right combination of confidence, vulnerability and impulsiveness, while the ensemble creates the sense of a genuine group of students rather than a collection of characters assembled merely to continue an old franchise. And that distinction becomes increasingly important as the season progresses. “A Different World” is most successful when it stops trying to prove that it belongs to the original series and simply becomes a college show about young people. The nostalgia is fun, and seeing Whitley and Dwayne again carries an undeniable emotional charge, but the real promise is in watching Deborah and her friends establish their own version of Hillman.

There is something fitting about that transition. The original “A Different World” was itself about young people inheriting a complicated world and trying to figure out what they were going to do with it. The new series understands that the responsibility of a new generation is not to recreate the past but to build something different from it. By the end of the season, Hillman starts to feel less like a museum dedicated to a beloved sitcom and more like an actual university again. The old characters become part of the institution’s history rather than the entire reason for its existence. That is when “A Different World” finally lives up to its title. It may take a few episodes to get there, but this new Hillman eventually discovers that the best way to honor the past is to give its newest students enough room to screw things up, fall in love, make mistakes, have fun and figure out what kind of adults they want to become. But somewhere along the way, that messiness starts to feel like the point.

“A Different World” season one begins streaming Sept. 24 on Netflix.