panman3

After watching with The Fresh Prince in mind, this series is not only weird, but not interesting at all. It totally escapes me why they would reuse the characters from the original series and even advertise referring to TFPOBA. There's nothing in common at all. It can't even be classified as a mediocre spin-off.

The series tries a strange dramatic take on the original quest of Will going to live with his uncle and aunt. The drama doesn't work. The stories are flat, dialogues have a forced feeling about them and topics are mostly the terrain of spoiled rich people and shallow influencers which only serve content as a means to kill spare time for bored audiences.

Nothing authentic, nothing original, nothing nostalgic, just filling material for TV stations trying to bridge the gap between late late night shows and nightly tv shopping on repeat.

Arcadia is an ambitious series with the sets and digital effects effectively creating a dystopian atmosphere. The locations in brutalist style look amazing and are stealing the show. Digital additions like extra floors and walls work like a charm.

Unfortunately that's where the good ends, and the bad and the ugly start.

There seems to have been no money left for proper casting, acting coaches and most importantly enough takes. The acting is bad with most actors performing as if they are reading the lines for the first time from a cardboard somewhere behind the camera. Any self-respecting director would simply request a new take, but real talent can't be faked obviously, neither on director nor actor side.

The toe curlingly bad story is also making the entire show more of a torture than a joy. Been there, done that. Nothing new, nothing original. 'Good artists copy, great artists steal', but the makers did neither properly.

If you don't like the first episode, don't bother to keep watching, waiting for this plane to lift off. It's not happening.