Five Netflix shows to watch if you loved ‘A Different World’
“Relax, relate, release” is easy for Whitley to say because Netflix is reopening Hillman College, and anyone who remembers A Different World knows that relaxing is something impossible with that group.
The show first aired in 1987 with Dwayne, Whitley and the gang finding their feet while Black college life got the spotlight instead of being shoved to the sidelines. Now Deborah Wayne is stepping through those same doors, and being Dwayne and Whitley’s daughter means starting with a clean slate is not on the table. You try keeping a low profile when your family name is already written on every corner of that school.
Old faces are back in the pictures too but don’t count your chickens just yet. This is not meant to be nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, and Deborah has her own crowd and her own mess to wade through.
So if Hillman still feels like old stomping ground, these five Netflix shows should be right up your street without serving the same dish twice.
Five Netflix shows to watch if you loved A Different World
Dear White People (2017–2021)
This 2017 Netflix drama takes you straight to Winchester University, and just know, mate, nobody there is keeping their head down. Sam White runs a radio show with the name ‘Dear White People’, a bold choice, obviously, and once she starts talking, the whole campus seems to have an opinion.
One minute it is a debate; the next minute somebody has taken it personally, and before long you find yourself in the middle of an argument. What did you expect, a peace march? That is where A Different World comes to mind, because both shows get that a university has a dirty habit of testing everything you thought you had figured out.
You turn up thinking you know yourself, then someone comes and questions it while you’re just standing there questioning your whole life and identity. Winchester is sharper and more confrontational than Hillman, but that same growing-up headache is still there.
On My Block (2018–2021)
What On My Block shares with A Different World is that awkward business of growing up in front of people who have known you for years, but it also shows you how it’s a bit hard to reinvent yourself when the people you grew up with call your nonsense before you even put it on the table to sell.
That is exactly what happens when Cesar starts getting pulled towards gang life in Freeridge. His friends Monse, Jamal and Ruby realise they cannot just stand there and watch him disappear into it.
Of course, trying to drag your mate back from a path he thinks he understands puts the whole friendship under strain, and suddenly everybody is changing. Hillman never threw its students into anything this heavy, but the same growing pains are there.
All American: Homecoming (2022–2024)
All American: Homecoming dumps Simone Hicks at Bringston University with tennis to chase and a whole new life to figure out, while Damon Sims shows up with baseball hanging over him and a hell lot of emotional baggage.
But that is college for you, isn’t it? Everybody walks in acting like they have the next four years mapped out when, come on, most people are winging it by lunchtime. And yes, Bringston is going to make you think of Hillman, obviously, but give the show some credit; it does not spend its time photocopying A Different World.
Simone wants independence, and then the sport starts demanding more than she bargained for. Of course, relationships pile on top because, apparently, life never wanted it to be easy for us.
The Parkers (1999–2004)
Nikki Parker is in her late 30s when she goes back to college, and, you know what, good for her, but one tiny problem follows her: her daughter Kim goes there too, to the same campus. Imagine that nightmare!
You are trying to make friends or flirt with somebody, and your mum is coming around the corner. Worse, Nikki has got it bad for Professor Oglevee, so dignity? Yeah, what is that? It might look messy on the surface, but The Parkers have a sweet something behind it.
Nikki became a mum young, put part of her own life on hold and has now decided that she wants another go, while Kim is trying to get her life started without her mum breathing down her neck. So there they are, both trying to move forward but getting in each other’s way at the same time, resulting in fun antics and some bonding moments.
Black-ish (2014–2022)
No campus this time, so bear with us a sec. Black-ish comes at the A Different World connection from the other end of adulthood, with Dre Johnson settled into a suburban life, and then, bam, he remembers that his kids might be drifting away from the Black culture he grew up with.
So Dre starts trying to make sure his kids stay connected to Black culture, which sounds simple enough until he realises they might have their own ideas about what that means. Easier said than done, mate.
If you remember, A Different World watched young Black adults work out who they were; Black-ish asks what happens when those questions follow you home and everything comes on your kids instead. Dre wants to pass something on, fair enough, but he can get so wound up about doing it right that his wife, Bow, practically has to watch him trip over his own point.