Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

I didn't know who Awkwafina was before I stumbled upon this in early 2020. A lot has changed since then globally and personally, Awkwafina herself is now in a billion massive films and I couldn't be happier because what hooked me into this was entirely her bottomless charm. Well, her and Lori Tan Chinn. Well... her and BD Wong and Lori Tan Chinn. And Bowen Yang. Oh and Stephanie Hsu. Just all of those. Nora is not a super consistent show but there's heart, laughs and some truly silly tangents which I value. I never expected it to keep going after she got gigantic - so three seasons feels like a good amount!

I'm not sure I've ever related to a show as much as this. It's such a great show, and Awkwafina is just constantly laugh out loud funny.

I saw an interview with Awkwafina after the Oceans 9 movie and thought she seemed like a genuine and gracious. Recently I happened to catch her show about life and living in Forest Hills and New York City. It took me a little time to understand that Nora wants to be confident street tough but is really a softie underneath all that bark, always one step behind life and trying to crawl her way out of the messes she creates for herself. Unlike many sitcoms, there is no mean spirited humor. Perhaps I like the show more because I think Nora as a person is so very likeable and worked hard and deserves her success. But she is very funny, even in all her interviews.

Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens

This series really was terrific from start to finish, the script was brilliant, constantly inventive, genuinely funny, passing the bar of 5 out loud laughs and episode with ease.

The script used several comic devices, we laughed at Nora, with Nora and squirmed at the situations she found herself in. Awkwafina gave a warm, masterful yet monstrous performance.

It was great the variety of situation, we weren't limited to Queens.

In fact the whole cast was great with Edmund being a comic gem, Granny often irritated as she hardly varied but that was her role.

I would like to make a comment about the absence of femininity in Nora and that as portrayed she was an anti-role model, but the genius of the writing and acting make her character entirely intentional, so they got what they wanted. I was reminded of Brenda Morgenstern from Rhoda, and that would be the greatest of compliments.

The BBC chose a winner here, for me this is 10 outta 10 and roll on series 3.

This is one of the shows I've binged during lockdown and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. The jokes are funny as well as Nora's antics. My favorite character is the grandma though, I enjoyed her Korean soap opera episode, that was very cute. Nora is a lot like a younger version of Natasha Lyonne's character in "Russian Doll" (raspy New York voice and all) and Lyonne even wrote one of the episodes as well as appeared in it. I can't wait for the next season. Definitely worth a watch.