4), an advertising campaign derided as racist popped up and was quickly pulled down. Then, just about a week before its premiere (Feb. It was about craving the chance to be himself.Read more TV Pilots 2015: The Complete Guide His story was never about craving acceptance, as the characters of Fresh Off The Boat so often do. And maybe that’s what has adult Eddie Huang so angry. But there’s also something to be said for Emery not “wanting it too much.” He isn’t as hung up on race as every other character on this show, and in return no one is hung up on his race. Yes, there’s a lot to be said for the fact that as one of the youngest Huang’s Emery is one of the Huang’s more fully assimilated into America. “Why aren’t chicks bringing me soda?” Eddie asks. His brand new girlfriend brings him a soda. Neighborhood kids wave hello to him on the walk to the bus stop. He makes at on of friends his first day of school. There’s a running joke that while his family is baffled by Orlando, and Eddie struggles dally to fit in, Emery is just sort of…fine. In some strange way that mostly no one will agree with, I think middle child Emery is the most interesting character on this show. In fact, surprisingly, this show is both funnier and more moving when it centers less on race and more on family dynamics (a reason I enjoyed the second episode much more than the first, an episode about Jessica home-schooling her children and Eddie bonding with his father.) Constance Wu as the Huang family matriarch is the far-and-away highlight, and Randall Park as the puppy-like father is close behind. It’s actually funnier than most sitcoms on ABC. This, assuming a member of the Huang family can’t speak English.īut in the end, Fresh Off the Boat is an ABC family sitcom, and as far as that goes it is funny. Rest assured, on more than one occasion someone speaks slowly Just. “She’s cutting equal parts because of Communism,” a neighbor says of Jessica’s cake dividing. Occasionally the broad strokes are painted so broad, it comes back around to a satire of a satire. Of course the Huang’s new white neighbors are going to be insensitive, it’s a given because of the story, but man are they cartoon-ishly insensitive. Huang would have zero reservations.īecause sometimes the tone of the show veers head-long into ABC-ification. The entire scene feels on loan from a different universe where Fresh off the Boat is on every Wednesday at 10…on HBO, a channel where I feel Mr. At that moment, he realizes just how different. He knew in this this new environment, he was different. But until that moment, racial slurs weren’t even a part of Eddie’s life. He knows the word was used in anger, obviously a slur against his race. But the strength of the scene is on young Eddie’s reaction. I can’t imagine how hard it was to get the word “chink” into an ABC script. Young Eddie gets in a fight with Walter, a black classmate. Take for example a cafeteria scene, probably the best scene in a straight “whoa” sense out of the premiere’s two half-hour episodes. Huang, a moment that he absolutely refused to omit or water down. You can almost tell every scene which was a “win” for Mr. It feels like two completely different TV shows - the one that ABC wanted to make and the one Mr. Huang’s narration over every episode has a bitter, dark tinge on it knowing his personal thoughts.īut that’s the funny thing about Fresh Off The Boat. Huang’s decision to bring his show to Disney-owned ABC if he wanted a grittier look at race relations in white suburbia, and Mr. I hated that.” Now, I’m reviewing the show not the person, albeit I find Mr. Months before the show premiered, he notoriously penned an essay for Vulture, in which he wrote, “The network tried to turn my memoir into a cornstarch sitcom and me into a mascot for America. Huang has some…reservations?…about how ABC handled the adaptation of his book. Unfortunately, the entire premise of Fresh Off The Boat isn’t based on my personal memoir. Well, to start off, at the very least I think I like this show better than Eddie Huang.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |