Bel-Air Season 4 Review 2025 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
Will Smith (Jabari Banks) is out for a run. But in his mind, he’s still running from the last-season altercation that resulted in the current disappearance of Geoffrey Thompson (Jimmy Akingbola).
The Gist: Amid Viv’s pregnancy test popping positive, and old troubles in Geoffrey’s life coming back to haunt the Banks family, last season on Bel-Air also saw the beautiful wedding ceremony of Hilary (Coco Jones) and Lamarcus (Justin Cornwell)…followed almost immediately by Lamarcus collapsing. So there are a whole lot of threads to tug on as we begin Season 4 of the show, which will conclude its reimagination of the Fresh Prince’s journey.
As we begin, Viv is still considering how she’ll share with Phil the news of her pregnancy. While her friend is like “Damn, guess you guys really did get your groove back,” having another child later in life would also change their expectation for an empty nest. Hilary is still processing her husband’s passing, but keeping a brave face and speaking at numerous memorial events. (She also has some side-eye for Jordan L. Jones’s Jazz – still some unresolved bad blood there.) And while Will relives the trauma of what he experienced, he feels like Phil might not be doing enough to find out what happened to Geoffrey. Maybe it’s Philip’s ambitious new development – the one he’s got his reputation and money wrapped up in – taking all his time.
Senior Year at Bel-Air Academy. What will it bring for Will and his cousin Carlton (Olly Sholotan)? Both are meeting regularly with faculty advisors about college plans, even if those plans are still in flux. What will senior year mean for their relationships? Will’s staying close with Lisa (Simone Joy Jones), while Carlton, still finding his way back fully after his struggles with addiction, is finding his social expectations challenged. And what will senior year mean for Season 4 of Bel-Air itself? The show’s got lots of threads to pull on, but only eight episodes left to do it.
Since its inception, Bel-Air has had a healthy respect for its roots, and Season 4 will keep that going with the addition of Janet Hubert – Aunt Viv in the original Fresh Prince, here playing a new character – to the cast. They’re also bringing in Tyra Banks and Snoop Dogg, so you know, a little bit of guest star pizazz for the finale run, just to close things out. But for us, it’s what the series has built with its existing core cast that feels most precious as Season 4 begins. Episode 1 is already leaning hard into Will’s mental state. He’s fading out with friends and can’t concentrate on college admissions apps. So it’s clear Bel-Air does not want to just roll downhill to a soft landing. Will might have made it all the way to LA and thrived, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll keep doing so.
We also like how the show is positioning what’s going on inside the Banks family. Hilary feels like she launched herself into married life, only to come crashing down to earth. She exists both inside and outside the family’s central unit. And while Viv and Phil are proud of what they’ve built, they’re facing huge changes just as finally kicking back a little actually seemed possible.
“The maybes,” is how Will puts it to his cousin Hilary. “That’s what keeps me up at night.” He never wants to say he made the right decision, because as Hilary knows, life can change in an instant. We like “the maybes” as an expectation, now that Bel-Air has announced it will officially conclude. Maybe it blesses Will and the Banks fam with a successful cap on their ambitions for a true ride off into the series sunset moment. Then again, maybe not everybody makes it through.
