Ronny Chieng: International Student

I confess a bias here – and it is a bias not to like this show. Ronny Chieng is one of the reasons I stopped watching the Daily Show – one of the many reasons, it must be said, but still one of them. His material always seemed to be focused on his father's disappointment in him, and he rarely was allowed to break out of that narrow lane. In a way his show 'International Student' doesn't throw him open too much on top of that, since it plays generally on stereotypes of nationality, race, and gender. It does this within a very broad setting of the university campus where Ronny and some others are based.

Supposedly this is based on Chieng's own experiences in Australia, but I hope this is not true since the comedy is lacking in any sort of specific insight or anchor. The broad jokes and scenarios are fun though, and I liked it as I watched it – although at the same time there was not too much else to it beyond this. It is nice to see yet another Australian mainstream show that has a different voice in terms of who makes it and who it features, but the truth is that generic comedy is generic comedy no matter what race is making it. So it is here – and again, I did like it for its broad humor and silliness, but it always feels obvious in what it does, and the laughs are not sharp or unique enough to make a difference.

On the basis of this I'd give any second season a watch for the sake of being an easy and enjoyable thing to watch – but this is hardly high praise. Quite fun if nothing else is on, but not worth seeking it out.

Really enjoyable and often funny take of life on Australian University campus. The season focuses on Semester One. Sadly there is no further semesters. But it is still watchable treat for the seven episode available.

As a half Malaysian myself, I can say that Ronnie clearly is the typical stereotype which bodes well with the comedic aspect of this show surrounding university life. He reminds me of Donald Duck, always annoyed and easily triggered by something. I don't think I ever saw him smile or laugh in all 7 episodes of the first season, I mean let's face it, in reality no one is ever going to want to hang out with someone who is quite the overly opinionated, mood dampener. The writing and comedic gags are clever. Ronnie's on screen mom is brilliant. Great acting and interesting storylines. Elvin steals the show bahaha.

Smile Ronnie...life ain't so bad [^_^]

I really wanted to like this comedy. I watched every episode except for the pilot. So I may have been missing some plot elements. The comedy is about a Malaysian student studying law at Melbourne University. He lives in a house with other international students and one American. Although termed International, it's really all Asians except for one American.

Overall, I thought the writing, directing and acting were all sub par. The titular character is just not funny, it seems like he's got a stick up his ass at all times. He complains 90% of the time and other 10% of the time he's trying too hard to be funny.

As for the dialogue, I feel like sometimes they thrown in a bunch of cuss words just to try to be funny. The comedic timing is off in many of their scenes. It feels awkward.

As for the title of the show, they should've just called him International Law Student considering that pretty much all of the student characters are in the law school.

This show has potential, but the directing, the writing, and the acting must improve. Especially for the main character. In fact I think they should use a different actor for Ronny Chieng.

First 3 episodes are fantastic ,, not sure about the rest of the shows