“A Different World,” the Netflix reboot of the sitcom about life at the fictional Hillman College, spends too much time trying to be two things at once.
Like so many reboots, this version practically breaks a sweat attempting to appeal to the nostalgia surrounding the original, which aired on NBC from 1987 to 1993. Multiple characters from the first “Different World” return, most notably Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison) and Whitley Gilbert (Jasmine Guy), married Hillman alums who are recurring regulars in the Netflix iteration. References to specific episodes and moments abound. (Yes, Dwayne’s famous “Baby, please!” from the season five finale is mentioned more than once.) The same key spots on the Hillman campus, including Gilbert Hall, the women’s dorm named after Whitley’s wealthy family, and the Pit, the school cafeteria, remain central backdrops. The theme song is even the same, although it gets a soulful, slow, jammier spin via a performance by Brandy,
But this new “A Different World,” created by Felicia Pride, whose credits include “Queen Sugar” and “Bel-Air,” also wants to be its own distinct, contemporary thing. So what was once a traditional, three-camera sitcom is now a single-cam dramedy. The primary stars of the show are a bunch of young, impossibly attractive college students, some of whom have direct connections to figures from the first series. While its predecessor addressed the social issues of its time, including the HIV/AIDS crisis and the Rodney King verdict, this “Different World” seeks to do the same in 2026. One episode raises concerns about ICE; frustrations over the lack of federal funding for historically black colleges and universities like Hillman run throughout.
A Different World – Season 1. (L to R) Jordan Aaron Hall as Amir, Cornell Young IV as Shaquille, Chibuikem Uche as Kojo, Dasan Frazier as Xavier in Episode 108 of A Different World. Cr. ELI JOSHUA ADE/Netflix © 2026Essentially, Pride and her team are trying to lay the outline of a new “Different World” on top of the first’s framework and hoping all the lines and edges sync up perfectly. But they don’t, quite, especially in the first half of the season. Like a college freshman, “A Different World” needs a semester—read: five episodes—to start to figure out its own identity. By the end of that first year, aka season one, it starts to gain more confidence. (Wondering where I learned to layer so many analogies into a single paragraph? That’s right: college!)
While Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet) was initially the main character starting college in the first “A Different World,” a spin-off of “The Cosby Show,” the protagonist this time is Deborah—pronounced with an emphasis on the “bor”—Wayne, daughter of Whitley and Dwayne. Played with low-key defiance by Tony Award winner Maleah Joi Moon, Deborah is financially privileged but academically challenged. Her family connections have guaranteed her a place at Hillman, coincidentally alongside her ex-boyfriend, Shaquille Johnson (Cornell Young IV), the school’s star quarterback and son of Dwayne’s BFF Ron Johnson (Darryl M. Bell), who also acts as his son’s overbearing manager.
Deborah and Shaquille are both entitled in certain ways. After skipping all of summer practice, Shaquille rolls up on campus in a sports car and expects to be able to start in the first game of the football season—his coach, played by Method Man, has some other ideas—while Deborah spouts off about her connections and maxes out her parents’ credit card. But the students who become part of their shared social circle don’t all come from cushy backgrounds. Deborah’s studious roommate Rashida (a charming and spirited Alijah Kai) is a Compton, California native who works at the Pit to put herself through school, while Andre (Jordan Aaron Hall) is attempting to get his life back on track after spending some time in juvie. Andre is also gay, a fact that his friends and the show treat with appropriate nonchalance.
The romantic entanglements of the main college-aged characters and, to a lesser extent, the adults, become more and more of a focus as the episodes progress, to the point where “A Different World” feels less like a coming-of-age comedy and more like a lightly steamy primetime soap. This might be less of a problem if the show didn’t constantly feel compelled to remind us of its roots by having figures from the original waltz into their kids’ dorm rooms or show up for campus events.
A Different World – Season 1. (L to R) Kadeem Hardison as Dwayne in Episode 105 of a Different World. Cr. Quantrell Colbert/Netflix © 2026It makes sense that Whitley and Dwayne, separated and grappling with whether to divorce, are so front and center in Deborah’s life. Dwayne works at Hillman as the university’s provost and, later in the season, in a more prominent position, while Whitley proves to be the helicopter mom you always knew she would become if she ever had kids. (Perhaps because their relationship is so fraught, the chemistry between Guy and Hardison feels more forced than it should.)
But the parade of cameo appearances—there’s Jaleesa (Dawnn Lewis)! And Kimberly (Charnele Brown)! And Charmaine (Karen Malina White)! And Gina (Ajai Sanders)! And others that Netflix would prefer I not mention for spoiler reasons!—comes across mostly as fan service. To be clear: many “A Different World” fans will probably appreciate that service, which can be fun at times. But it also smacks of the dutiful.
Even though the NBC series sprang from “The Cosby Show,” it became a groundbreaking success in its own right as the first mainstream series to show what life looks like at an HBCU. It deserves to be remembered fondly and held up as a significant piece of television that paved the way for more recent depictions of college life like “grown-ish,” “Dear White People,” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” But too often, this “A Different World” feels so beholden to where it came from that it can’t quite break any new ground of its own.
All 10 episodes of season one were screened in advance for critics.
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