This network television season has heavily focused on pushing for diversity. ABC especially has been the frontrunner in this push. First with its drama “How to Get Away with Murder,” featuring talented, powerhouse actress Viola Davis in the leading role and second, with family sitcom “Black-ish,” featuring an all African American cast – both of which have been huge hits for ABC. Even ABC’s most popular sitcom “Modern Family” is arguably diverse, including a gay couple and a Colombian family in leading roles. It is not surprising then that ABC picked up “Fresh Off the Boat,” a sitcom adapted from chef Eddie Huang’s bawdy and sophisticated memoir of the same name. Most notably, “Fresh Off the Boat” is the first sitcom in twenty years to feature an all Asian American cast with the last one being Korean American comedian Margaret Cho’s “All American Girl” (1994).
Eddie Huang has been incredibly outspoken and critical about “Fresh Off the Boat,” voicing his frustrations to Vulture magazine in a self-written piece about how ABC is trying to further Americanize and “white-wash” the unique experience and perspective that Asian Americans offer, to make him into a mascot for America, and to top it off, how it’s strayed from his real-life story. That said, Huang still praised “Fresh Off the Boat,” which premiered Wednesday February 4th, calling it one of the best sitcom pilots he’s seen. It’s funny, refreshing, and subtly provocative. Rightfully so, he calls it a milestone in both television history and U.S. history. How long have Asian Americans waited to see a show that they can begin to relate to? A show with a full-fledged Asian American cast playing three dimensional, complex characters – not just characters which embody yet another variation of a racist Asian stereotype.
The show, like “Everybody Hates Chris,” is narrated with the same cheesy voiceover by the star of the show himself, Eddie Huang. The show opens up with an eleven year old Huang (played by Hudson Yang) moving from Washington D.C.’s Chinatown to Orlando, Florida with his family due to his father (played by Randall Park) opening a Wild West themed restaurant there. The family includes Huang’s adorable younger brothers (played by Ian Chen and Forrest Wheeler), grandmother (played by Lucille Soong), and mother (played by Constance Wu). From the start, the cast is dynamic and charming. Each character is equally as funny as the other but perhaps the best performance belongs to Wu. While Park’s character is the all-too familiar optimistic, loving father seen in just about every sitcom, Wu’s character is the opposite. Her character is witty, sharp, proud, and realistic to the point of being pessimistic. She balances her character’s disdain and bewilderment and delivers it perfectly with an almost deadpan expression that most definitely says it all.
The pilot is admittedly not as funny as expected. It’s more an introduction to the cast and a sneak peek into their lives and struggle with assimilation, especially in a racist society that mocks outsiders. In the episodes after the pilot, the show quickly finds its groove and the jokes are more fast-paced and smarter, delivered flawlessly by each character. What “Fresh Off the Boat” especially excels in is its handling of racial dynamics. Like “Black-ish,” it deals with race head-on and with a matter-of-fact attitude. The father embraces every aspect of American culture that he can and he’s the most eager to assimilate. The mother and Huang have trouble fitting in and adapting to life in a suburban white community. Huang is an outsider at school, obsessed with hip-hop as that’s his only way to even try to fit in with the others. He’s called names and excluded by his classmates while his mother has trouble fitting in with the suburban housewives, who she has nothing in common with. In fact in the pilot, Huang is called a “chink” by his African American classmate while his mother has a culture shock from shopping in an American grocery store versus the outside Taiwanese markets in Chinatown. Maybe it’s not as in-your-face provocative or angry as real life Huang had hoped but it still deals well with the racial dynamics between Asian Americans and other races. The perfect balance of comedy and reality.
The pressure on “Fresh Off the Boat” to represent Asian Americans given that it’s such a landmark show is immense. And of course, the show will not represent every single Asian American perspective or story. The characters are not representative of every Asian mom or dad or brother. Asian Americans as a group are so diverse, how can it? It won’t even get Huang’s story 100% right but what “based on a true story” show or movie ever gets the story 100% right? That doesn’t mean that “Fresh Off the Boat” isn’t worth a view. It is a hilarious and promising sitcom that gives viewers a real and honest story and offers a perspective that shouldn’t be so rare to see on television. “Fresh Off the Boat” is the show that finally gives a voice to a group that has been underrepresented, denigrated, mocked, and silenced in Hollywood for decades. It’s an accomplishment and hopefully with its success, more doors will open for Asian Americans in Hollywood and more shows like “Fresh Off the Boat” will air.