Asian ‘colors’ on US TV
“FRESH OFF the Boat”
MOST US sitcoms are about white and even WASP characters and families. Eventually, comedy series about black families, like Bill Cosby’s show, came along to belatedly acknowledge the fact that the American population is much more colorfully mixed than palely pink and blandly beige.
But, what about the other “colors”? It took a longer while for Latinos to be sufficiently “represented” on the tube, with their own series like the current “Telenovela.”
As for Americans of Asian parentage or derivation, they’ve been relatively overlooked for many years.
There have been Asian characters on shows like “Elementary” and “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend,” but Asian families have generally been snubbed, except for a few exceptions.
The latest such showcase for Asians is “Fresh Off the Boat,” a sitcom about a Taiwanese family that “graduates” from Chinatown to living a “mainstream” life as Americans in Orlando, Florida.
The show is based on the memoirs of Eddie Huang, who is played as a tween in the 1990s by Hudson Yang. His parents are portrayed by Constance Wu (as Jessica) and Randall Park (Louis).
Eddie’s younger brothers are played by Forrest Wheeler (Emory) and Ian Chen (Evan), and Grandma Huang is portrayed by Lucille Soong.
All of the main players do well, but it’s Constance’s portrayal of Jessica that really hits the spot, because she imbues it with a feisty sense of fun and pertinence.
Jessica has been so caught up in the American dream that she talks and acts like the generic suburban mom, with little left to her persona that’s Asian, except for her facial features.
In one of the episodes we viewed, Jessica was all caught up in the determined bid to push one of her sons to become a young tennis champion.
She and her husband got so fixated on that dream of glory and riches that they stressed their poor son to the max—a cautionary conclusion for parents viewing the show to learn from.
With insightful pertinence and instructive humor, the comedy series shows the Asian kids having a hard time initially adjusting to their American schoolmates’ tempo and temperament.
After they succeed in “assimilating,” however, they sometimes even end up as leaders and instigators, due to their superior aptitude for numbers and “gamesmanship.”
That may end up as a “plus,” but it doesn’t diminish the onus of immigrants “blending in” so well that their unique ethnicity is blended and “blanded” out.
Thus, even as it makes viewers laugh and have a good time, “Fresh Off the Boat” underscores the risks and even potential ruination involved.
Get off the boat if you must—but make sure you don’t drown!
