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Netflix’s A Different World has only been out since September, and plenty of us have already finished every episode, are stuck waiting on season two or still swooning over being introduced to Cornell Young IV.
And while it’s great news that the sequel was such a success that it was renewed shortly after its first run (meaning the new class will be back at Hillman eventually), ummm… what the heck are we supposed to do while we wait?
Thankfully, Kadeem Hardison and Darryl M. Bell answered our prayers, and are giving fans a reason to go back to the NBC original.
Hardison played Dwayne and Bell played Ron on the original series, and both came back for the Netflix sequel. On Oct. 15 they launched A Different World View with Darryl & Kadeem through iHeartMedia and Charlamagne Tha God’s Black Effect Podcast Network. Each week they rewatch one episode of the original show and talk about what was happening behind the scenes, and they’ve said other cast members will stop by as the season goes on.
The two have been friends since they filmed Spike Lee’s School Daze together almost 40 years ago.
They’re going in order, so start where they started, even if season one of the original isn’t the one you remember. Those early episodes centered on Denise Huxtable, and they move a lot slower than the Hillman we all fell in love with. After Bonet left, Debbie Allen came in to produce and direct season two and the whole show loosened up. Over the next few years it took on colorism, date rape, AIDS and the L.A. riots while still making Hillman feel like a place you wanted to hang out. And if they’re spilling the tea right, hopefully Hardison and Bell tell us what it was really like on set after Bonet left.
Since new podcast episodes come out weekly, the rewatch is better with friends than by yourself on the couch. Pick a night and watch whichever original episode Hardison and Bell are covering, then put the podcast on and argue about it afterward. Anyone who went to an HBCU knows this show is best in a room where somebody is yelling at the TV while somebody else defends Whitley no matter what she did.
It doesn’t hurt that it’s homecoming season, either. If you can’t make it back to campus this year, a Hillman night with your old roommates is a decent consolation prize.
Going back to the original also pays off once Netflix brings the sequel back. The new series leans on the old one often, and plenty of its jokes and storylines build on things that happened more than 30 years ago. It even references the moment Dwayne stood up in the middle of Whitley’s wedding to Byron Douglas, and Hardison has said the podcast gives him a chance to look back on that scene himself.
You can find A Different World View with Darryl & Kadeem on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to podcasts, with a new episode every week. The first season of the Netflix sequel is streaming now.